Ilfracombe (Longreach)

Considering the great attractions Longreach has, all their caravan and camping options are terrible, so we stopped 27 kms out in Ilfracombe for 2 nights.  The small caravan park is next door to the Wellshot Hotel, a great old pub where we stayed as part of the "Great Australian Outback Trek" we did with the South African relatives in 1997.

Some great memories made on this balcony back in 1997

New seats in the Wellshot

Bower Bird nest in the middle of town - what a great selection of glass to entice a female into his nest

Part of "Machinery Mile" in Ilfracombe

Driving from Ilfracombe to Yaraka we passed an old Chinese settlement where years ago they had a vegetable garden out here where it doesn't get much rain.

To catch and retain their water they had made a dam constructed by "Stone Pitching" or dry-stone walling - use of stones without mortar, to create buildings and water works. Evidence of this construction is still out here over 100 years later.

Incredible workmanship on the dam

Passing through Yellow Belly country

Yaraka

Besides the pub, local police station and a smattering of houses, there's not much more to Yaraka, but we keep coming back, and all roads lead here of you want to come! Like all country pubs, the pub is the focus of town, a very important place for the locals.

Yaraka was at the end of the railway line which is now dismantled. Pity as it would be a great tourist attraction now

They provide camping with concrete slabs, power and water for $5/night. Some people stay here for a few weeks, but two nights is enough for us.

Yaraka has become infamous for Kevin and Carol - brother and sister emus who hang around Yaraka and are now banned from going inside the pub.  Emu shit is quite disgusting! Before Carol left Yaraka recently to go and find herself a man, they have made news all around the world.  A German quiz show asked the question "What is banned from this pub?" showing a picture of the Yaraka Hotel. The pub had calls at crazy times asking them the answer!

The place is extremely friendly, and one of the guys camping here was offered a day out with the mailman on his mail truck, a 400 km round trip. One of the local Station owners offered to show us around his property, but we didn't have the luxury of time to take him up on that offer.

Friday night is pizza night at the pub and people come from far and wide for their pizzas. We got involved with a local baby shower as the mother-to-be was going to Rockhampton for the birth in a days time. All the women are great cooks, and we enjoyed their home baked cup cakes for dessert. Just amazing.

Kevin hangs around the campers hoping for food, and is not shy about wanting to get into the van.

Jayne stopping Kevin's entrance into our van

Jayne was sitting outside our van with her morning cappuccino when Kevin grabbed one of her world famous Rock Cakes from her hand, then while she shooed him away from her cake, he stabbed his beak into her cappuccino and ended up with cappuccino lips (or beak in his case!).

Kevin still causes havoc at the pub.  Here he's trying to grab some pizza, and despite being slapped away with guy's cap, he just kept coming back for more.

The sunset view from the pub's veranda

Chris from the Yaraka Hotel does free sunset tours up to the top of Mt Slowcombe every day. But we've done this twice already so we decided to ride there instead.

We thought the 5km ride to the base of Mt Slowcombe would be easy, and we'd ride as far as we could and walk the rest of the way up. Actually it was a steady climb to the base and by the time we got there with a head wind the whole way, we'de run out of steam and couldn't come at a 1km walk to the top, so we turned around and rode back.  Riding into a head wind, with an assortment of stinking dead kangaroos on the road was enough to make us gag, so we were glad to get back to the pub.

When we got to the camping area behind Yaraka pub, we pulled up next to a couple sitting outside in the shade of their van.  She was in a wheelchair, and not knowing anything about them, we tried to figure out their relationship, their life and their story. There was no communication between them when Michael introduced himself. During our time there, we found out that Michael was 35 and had left his business in Yass (country NSW) to travel around with Cathy.  After several attempts with different caravan manufacturers, 7 years ago he found one that would let him design his own van, so the wheelchair could be brought inside with room to manoeuvre around.  They've been married for 24 years, and over the last 14, Cathy's health had declined.  She now has a tumour wrapped around her spine, and 29 small brain tumours.  She's completely deaf, and almost blind now, with only slight movement from the chest up.

We asked Michael about her health care and need for a hospital if necessary, but he was absolutely confident that not only did he have enough equipment and medication for Cathy, but that he could open up his own travelling hospital with the gear inside the caravan.

What an incredibly courageous couple, and we well understood why they had planned to spend 2 weeks in this tiny town, where they felt so comfortable.  Jayne sat with them for drinks before dinner, and the conversation turned to Jayne when the subject of Germany came up.  We laughed when Michael tried to explain through sign language that Jayne had worked in Germany, and she told him off for not knowing what the sign for Germany was.  Her speech was crystal clear, but what a struggle to communicate together.

They were out "making memories" and we hope they get to make many more.

Blackall

Blackall has their own "Tree of Knowledge". Not quite as impressive as the one in Barcaldine, but at least it's truer!

Blackall is also home of the original "Black Stump", although this has been burnt down and replaced with a petrified stump, at least that won't burn down!

Again, we were in Blackall with the South African relatives back in 1997, and they recalled visiting this stump! Why we don't know.

Alan's photography skills were tested with the morning sun here. Trying to take a selfie with the sun in your eyes can turn out some funny pictures.

Here's Jayne with her Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle mask on.

We both had a good laugh at this shot

Luckily we noticed the previous pic before we moved on and took a proper one

We always camp in places where it's allowed to camp! Never in a "No camping" area.

We are actually on the right side of the fence where you are allowed to camp! So perfectly legal.

Tambo

The "Big Three" in Tambo, are the cafe, Tambo Teddies and Ben's Chicken Races.

They also have one of the best free camps around by the Barcoo River at Stubby Bend.

It's just near the horse Racing Track. A nice morning bike ride from our camp.

Jayne trying her hand at one of their race horses. He was a bit rusty, very spiky and didn't run very fast!

The coffee at Fanny Mae's wasn't that great, but the cafe itself is very nice.

Rocking Horse

Tambo Teddies was an interesting shop. They started this business from a government grant to make new businesses in the country towns, and this has turned out to be quite a success. They're so busy now they also have 4 women in Toowoomba making teddies as well. The teddies are very famous, and have been given to both Prince William and Kate, and Prince Harry and Meghan.

Jayne bought this cutie

Ben's Chicken Races was described in Wikicamps as "being that ridiculous it's funny". Well, that was a really accurate description.

Ben has a free shuttle bus that picks up every day at the free camp to take campers to the pub. Now that just shows how dedicated the Tamborians are about their tourism business and keeping this town alive.

The "Yolkswagen" picked us up at 4pm. One of the grey nomads at Stubby Bend complained to us that it was a bit early! The races start at 5pm, before sunset as the chickens go to sleep at sunset and therefore won't race. Some grey nomads are very hard to please!

The day we went to the races they had to do two trips!

The chickens are washed in food dye to give their bright colours

Ben auctions off the chickens and half the winnings go to the Royal Flying Doctor Service. The chickens run around the track chasing a remote controlled car filled with chook food, that isn't that well controlled! Jayne put a $50 bid limit on herself for each chicken, but  was outbid each time, so there was big money going around that night.  Apparently bids can go well over $100 on a big night.

Chickens chasing the remote control car

Young Toby has to tow the car when it breaks down. He did a fantastic job, but had a really dry sense of humour. At least he smiled once!

Charleville

We were going to stay longer in Charleville, but ended up only staying one night. There wasn't much going on there and the town was fairly deserted.

However the Hotel Corones brought back further memoires of the South Africa tour.

A small selection of hats to try on, but unfortunately the crazy swimming cap was gone (sorry Tanya)

It's certainly a grand old hotel, and like many places out here, is currently for sale for anyone who wants a total bush change!

Surat

We ended up in Surat, a very nice little town of 407 people. We were happy chilling out here and stayed 3 days.

It has a fantastic free camp by the river, but we opted for the caravan park as it was lush with green grass. Did we tell you that we're over dirt and dust this trip?

They have a great river-walk, which also made for a good bike ride, especially on the dirt track next to the walk that was closer to the river. It became quite tricky to ride as we were always fearful of falling into the river.

We also went for a really good ride out on one of their dirt roads. We peddled for kilometres and never got to the end of the road, but we found out from a local that it only went to a farm gate.  Wasn't very picturesque, but a really good ride and no dead kangaroos.

Surat started as a Cobb & Co stopover and has a great museum

As the Covid situation in Sydney is still getting worse, we're really not sure what we'll be doing after getting the van fixed at Bushtracker and visiting Noosa. At least the restrictions in Gold Coast, Brisbane & Sunshine Coast have been lifted already, but going into a populated area still has us concerned. We've been so safe out west that we're a bit nervous going into large towns, although we might enjoy having the option of more than 1 shop to buy our groceries!

We're concerned about Casper and lack of child care, so maybe duty calls?

Watch this space to see where we end up next week!