Blackall to Camooweal
Yay – we won the State of Origin!
It was quite scary being dressed in blue amongst a bunch of
maroon clad Queenslanders at the Union Hotel in Blackall.
Alan played it safe by wearing brown,
although he’ll tell you it’s because his jacket had a hood and it was freezing
outside. I had a flashing Blues flag
which I waved around while we sat in the beer garden around a raging log fire.
It was a fun night, and thankfully we got out of there in 1 piece and
walked back to our camp. All the
Queenslanders blamed the ref for every decision that went against Queensland,
but that’s normal.
We had intended to go from Blackall to Isisford, just south
of Longreach to camp along the Barcoo River, but were told in Charleville that
the place was chock-a-block, so changed plans and drove to Blackall, camping in
a huge area along a creek in town for $8 a night.
Just as we’d got ourselves set up in a spot along the
creek, a caravan pulled up behind us. The driver got out, opened up the boot of
his 4WD and assembled a ramp. Then
the biggest generator in the country was wheeled out using the help of an
electric pulley. This beast would be
enough to light up the Sydney Cricket Ground!
People peeked from behind their vans and we were all terrified at the
noise this monster was going to make, but when he fired it up we were all
stunned. The thing was almost
silent. The whole campground
breathed a sigh of relief and went about their business – i.e. afternoon drinks
and snacks as the sun went down.
After our experience with my new recipe of crunchy dirt
crusted vegetables, Alan thought he’d outdo me with some delicious grass fed
scotch fillet which was rather crunchy even after it had been washed.
Next stop Longreach – home of the Stockman's Hall of Fame,
opened up in 1988 by Queen Elizabeth, and the Qantas Museum where they have a
fully operational Jumbo jet as part of the display, and you can do a wing walk
for a ridiculous price.
But the best thing about Longreach was the local butcher
Mitchell Grass Meats. We were going
to stock up on the best tasting lamb in the country, but alas – it’s GONE!!
The shop has shut its doors and now you can only pre-order your meat in
advance.
With the butcher closed we weren’t sure what to do with
ourselves. We’d stumbled across
McKinnon & Co a tourism mob, who has a crazy experience where you can hurtle
around the bush in an original Cobb & Co coach complete with 4 horses, then
watch a live performance of “The Harry Redford Old Time Tent Show”.
Harry Redford was Captain Starlight - the infamous cattle rustler and an
important part of Australian folklore.
Unfortunately all the wagon rides were booked out, so we
went to the tent show out the back of their shop.
The McKinnon family are all involved somehow, whether it’s baking scones
to serve to guests, working in the shop, or as one of the 3 actors in the show.
The 2 teenage brothers were absolutely hilarious - one a stuttering
country fool and the other playing a worker of Captain Starlight, interviewing
the other for a job to “borrow” some cattle for a few months and move them
south. Their uncle played Captain
Starlight’s right hand man.
We all laughed until we cried as they entertained us and at
times they couldn’t talk for laughing as well.
We split our sides when their white, pink eyed horse rolled its lips back
and laughed while it read the paper, and the miniature donkey came out with a
pair of shoes on, and got tackled to the ground by one of the boys.
The lady in the shop felt sorry for us ‘cause we couldn’t do the Cobb &
Co ride, so she gave us Devonshire Tea for the reduced rate of $5.
We spent a couple of hours in the Stockman's Hall of Fame,
but were chased out of their by 2 bus loads of school kids tearing around the
place. We had at least hoped to visit the café and indulge in a slice of
hummingbird cake and coffee. The
queue was 20 girls deep all wanting milkshakes, with 1 person serving, so we
rode back to the van and had an Arnott's Arrowroot biscuit and cup of tea
instead.
If you ever wondered where all the grey nomads head to in
winter time, you only need to look at the Longreach Tourist Park, which has 300
van sites and a smattering of cabins.
The van sites were full every night.
Yesterday at the crack of 8.30 am we left Longreach for Mt
Isa 647 kms up the road, intending to stop halfway, but we made such good time
we pulled off into a great bush camp at Corella Dam, 50 kms shy of Mt Isa.
We had a lovely fire and homemade cauliflower, potato and bacon soup.
Russ Shipley I can see your lips smacking at the thought.
We’ve decided not to stay in Mt Isa as we’ve been here one
too many times, but will stop to buy groceries and carry on to Camooweal
instead. camooweal is still in Queensland,
only 20kms east of the Northern Terrority border. Then it’s the Brunette
Downs Races – the whole reason we’ve come this way to start with.
It’s time to pack up the winter woollies and post them back
home, but we’ll hang on to the electric blanket and winter quilt for a while
longer – just in case.
The
