Narayan's blog

We started today by taking a butcher’s at another of Winton’s quirky attractions. This is the so called musical fence- you hold the wires down with one hand and strike the wire with a stick at another point to produce a musical note. If you are so inclined there are some percussion instruments- made from pots and pans and oil drums and barrels and so on that you can strike with a suitable implement to contribute to your musical opus. I don’t know why I was suddenly reminded of Cacofonix in the Asterix comic books.

Eventually tiring of this - fortunately for the denizens of Winton, we decided we were up for a bit of local history.

It’s rather well known that Banjo Paterson wrote Waltzing Matilda here in Winston, and there is a museum dedicated to that ballad; and we decided on the spur of the moment to visit this before heading back to Longreach.

It’s a gorgeous building - relatively new, the old museum burnt down in a fire in 2015, and a reasonably interesting place to spend an hour or two.

But the highlight of today was our visit to the Australian Stockman Hall of Fame in Longreach. It’s quite famous but I was nevertheless ambivalent about going; but so glad we did. This is an outstanding museum. Self guided- you get headphones and an iPod and commentary is triggered by sensors in the ceiling that know where you are in the

Museum and provide appropriate commentary.

But it’s not the technology but the curation, presentation and content that was very impressive. We stayed till we we were blocked out- the museum closes at 4 pm and could easily have been there an hour longer. Cannot but highly recommend it to any traveller coming this way.

Well that’s the Outback done as far as this trip is concerned. Rather sad about that- really loved Winton if not Longreach quite as much.

Today I decided to let someone else drive- so we took Red Dirt Tours to the Dinosaur Stampede National Monument.

The monument consists of the fossil traces of something that lasted a minute or so -about 95 million years ago - when a huge meat eating Theropod charged a group of at least 150 smaller dinosaurs- consisting of the meat eating coelurosaurs ( known colloquially in Winton as angry chickens- they were chicken sized) and the larger- emu sized ornithopods at the side of a lake.

Thanks to a fortuitous set of circumstances those footprints in the mud from 95 million years ago have been preserved as trace fossils- and now protected for posterity in a specially constructed airplane hanger type structure in the middle of the outback, surrounded by incredible scenery.

It was a great day out; before the Dinosaur Stampede the tour takes you to some scenic lookouts at the Carrisbrooke Station ( only 52000 acres, which is small for this neck of the woods), in a comfortable air conditioned 4WD van.

A most enjoyable and informative day- learnt a lot about Winton and flora and fauna of the region thanks to a terrific tour guide.

We finished the day by taking a photo of a Coolibah tree.. and there was a jumbuck ( sheep) next to it!

How appropriate- Banjo Paterson wrote Waltzing z Matilda here in Winton- there is a whole museum dedicated to one ballad!

We are in Winton tonight just a couple of hours from Longreach. For some reason this feels like the real thing, the real outback, more so than Longreach. And I must say we like it a lot.

Maybe it’s the Outback Festival that has been held here for thirty odd years.. we caught bits of the last day. Maybe it’s the spectacular sunsets. Maybe it’s the quirky things you stumble across- like Arno’s Wall. ( Arno was an Opal Miner who among many other things served in the French Foreign Legion before migrating to Australia. He built this 70 metre long stone wall 2 metres - and built into it every conceivable you are likely to find in a junk yard- lawnmower parts, typewriters, boat propellers, pots, sewing machines and a complete early model Holden. Oh yes and a kitchen sink. Or two.)

The Outback Festival has a very high quirkiness coefficient too. Apart from nightly concerts, bush poetry and an iron man and iron woman competition, it features tons of other competitions the like of which I dare saw would be found nowhere else- children and adults wool bale rolling; the Quilton Dunny racing Darby ( for non Australians a dunny is an outdoor structure housing the potty) where the jockey sits on the toilet seat of a sunny mounted on wheels and a team pulls the contraption across the finish line; and men and women’s competitions to see which team can pull a truck across to a finish line( down Main Street of course) in the fastest time.

On the way to Winton we pulled into the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum which takes nearly four hours to experience; and a fine museum it is and deservedly Winton’s top draw card with 500 people a day going through during school holidays. ( That’s a big number given how remote Winton really is).

The odometer shows we have driven close to 2500 kms to get here. Worth it !

Woke up at 4:30 am by - not the noise of the truck traffic on the main road but by the crowing of a cock, who seemed to have his internal alarm clock set to the wrong time zone as daybreak was still a long time away.

I couldn’t get back to sleep so popped outside to look up into a glorious night sky: the moon had set, Orion was brilliant high overhead and Venus was a stunning orb dominating the Eastern sky. For the umpteenth time I wished I had brought a telescope or even binoculars along on this trip

Daylight did eventually arrive. and we were soon on our way west.

Our first brief stop was at the so called “ Tree of Knowledge” at Barcaldine. Here was born, in 1881, an organisation that later became the Australian Labour Party.

Irrespective of one’s political leanings, the very fine memorial constructed by the Queensland Government, we thought, is well worth a visit.

Our primary destination today was the Qantas Founders Museum in Longreach. Again, irrespective of what you think of Qantas, -especially these days-this is an excellent museum and we certainly enjoyed the very informative tour we took and the couple of hours all up we spent in the museum.

It was way too hot to do anything after that - the temperature had hit 39 degree C - so after a cold one at a pub we checked into our caravan park in Longreach - where to my chagrin I learnt there is no wifi- and today is the big GWS-Collingwood game.

Tomorrow we head further west again.

The Sapphire Gemfields, one of the largest sapphire bearing areas of the world covers the townships of Rubyvale, Sapphire, Anakie and Willows,

The Sapphire deposit was discovered in 1875 by Archibald John Richardson the assistant Government Surveyor. Mining commenced in 1881, and by 1893 Sapphires valued at 9000 Pounds sterling were reported to have been produced.

The fortunes of the industry however fluctuated over the next half a century and at its nadir only 12 miners were left by 1950.

Interest and activity picked up in the 1960s; the first mechanised mining operations commenced, made possible by a rise in the price of sapphires; but the 1970s boom was followed by a bust, and only a few big miners survive today.

However the Queensland Government set aside large tracts of the most productive Sapphire bearing areas for small ( hand ) miners and prospectors .. there are also a number of areas specifically for fossicking. Anyone can buy a licence and go look for sapphires.

All of which is a long winded way to explain why this is one of the best areas in Australia, maybe the world, to fossick for sapphires.

Which is what drew us here …and we did indeed spend all afternoon fossicking.

For the first hour or more we had no luck at all. We had little idea what to look for. Then a kind lady in our caravan park put out her cigarette and came along and showed us how to recognise sapphires in the rough; another friendly fellow camper showed us how to spot zircons ; and we emerged an hour or two later hot,sweaty and dirty but with a handful of small sapphires (most too small to cut

so the effect on our net assets is minuscule)

We are camped tonight in Sapphire a tiny little township where camels appear to roam free; the sky is clear though the moon is waxing; and we found some sapphires which is always good to bring a smile to the dial.

Tomorrow we head further west.

Today we drove from Roma to Carnarvon Gorge, a three hour something drive. We had planned to leave early but we were delayed at least half an hour chatting to the lady camped next to us, swapping stories about our travels. But of course it’s these random encounters between ships that -as it were -pass at night that make travel enjoyable.

Fortunately we had fueled up the night before so we were able to hit the road without further delay; still it was half past twelve before we started our walk along the main gorge walking track at Carnarvon Gorge.

I cannot but say how much we enjoyed this walk. True, we are a wee bit knackered after driving for 3 hours and then walking for four and a half hours in 30 degrees plus temperatures; but fortunately it did cloud over, plus the foliage provides quite a bit of shade, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

Still we were the only people heading out; everyone we met was going the other way having completed their walk in the relatively cool morning; and after a while we saw no one - which meant we could enjoy the gorge without tons of people around.

This is a truly magnificent place, highly recommended for anyone travelling in the area. We only booked for one night - with hindsight we should have allowed at least two. We are going to leave tomorrow with many things left undone- oh well, maybe we need to come this way again some day.

But should have could haves aside we did a roughly 15 km hike ( return) visiting the Art Gallery, the Amphitheatre and Wards Canyon.

I hope the pictures below provide some sense of the beauty and wonder of this very very special place.

Oh and we have been to Ubir and Nourlangie in the Northern Territory. That was a long time ago so my memory may have faded a bit.. but this gallery of indigenous art -The Art Gallery/ - IMHO of course- rivals those famous sites. Happy to be corrected of course.

The short answer: no, not by a long chalk. Despite over 1250 kms on the odometer we are still far from our destination.

We spent most of today driving from Gundy ( as the locals call Goondiwindi) to Roma in central Queensland ( after first checking out the local Street art and public sculptures). But once again we didn’t take the most direct route.

The silo art at Yelarbon (pop 347)

spread across eight Graincorp silos, this artwork by Jordon Bruce (aka The Brightsiders) titled “When the Rains Come” tells the story of a young boy playing in the lagoon. It’s top of the list of must see sights in Goondiwindi. A 100 km out of our way - adding over an hour and a bit after taking into account gawking time- so was it going to be worth it?

The lady at the information centre in Mudgee absolutely raved about it. “You must go”, she insisted, “I never cared much about art till I saw this work and it’s changed me forever”.

With such a strong recommendation could we miss it? It’s not as if we come this way often. And so we did. Honest appraisal? It’s a decent example of silo art but I wouldn’t say it’s the best we have encountered in our travels- and we have rather made a point of tracking down painted silos in Victoria, NSW and South Australia.

We stopped for lunch at Surat. I am not sure how Queenslanders pronounce it, but the town was indeed named after Surat, Gujarat the hometown of James Burrowes who surveyed the town in 1850. ( Possibly taking the lead from Governor Macquarie, who seems to have named everything in sight after himself or his wife, James Burrowes also named the Main Street after himself and the streets in the town after all the members of his family)

Our final stop today was Roma. Roma is famous for being home to the largest cattle saleyards in the Southern Hemisphere. Saledays are Tuesday (for the big sales) and Thursday (for the fat cattle); we took a small diversion to take a look at the sale yards but the sale action might have all been over for today, though a couple of young people appeared to be frantically riding their horses up and down the stalls, for no clearly discernible purpose; there appeared to be no customers. And so we departed, more mystified than enlightened.

Roma’s other big attractions are a large bottle tree- it’s the largest in Roma but whether it’s the largest in Australia or the world I have no idea.

The other draw card in Roma is the “ Big Rig” which offers punters the opportunity “to be intrigued by the story of Australia’s oil and gas pioneers through exhibits, machinery displays, and audio-visual features. I’m usually the first to visit a museum - they are to me like catnip to a cat - but this one left me cold and I encouraged Lalitha to give it the old miss in baulk.

So after checking out some interesting sculptures we decided to call it a day after stocking up on groceries for the next day or so.

A big day coming up tomorrow and we need my beauty sleep, so channeling Ronnie Corbett, “ it’s good night from me and goodnight from her”

Bathing at the Moree Hot Mineral Baths started in 1895. A bore sunk into the Great Artesian Basin looking for water for irrigation accidentally found hot mineral waters, heated naturally to 41 degrees Celsius.

It’s been popular ever since and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over.

Bathing in mineral waters is a very European thing. When we last visited we found many people of European origin mainly Eastern European. One lady shocked us by sticking her open mouth right on top of the gushing waters-allowing the waters to flow through her mouth and back into the pool. As the young ‘uns say eeeeeeewwwwww. (My kids - who were young and with us on that trip - immediately left the pool and refused to ever go back again.)

Anyway we had heard there had been a 7 million dollar refurbishment to the baths recently and it was only a small detour so we thought we’d make a quick stop to check it out and if it looked promising spend a bit of time relaxing in the hot springs before continuing on our way again

But first we made a point of checking out the Silo Art at Barraba painted by Fintan Magee in April 2019 and the 28th set of silos to join the Australian Silo Art Trail. It’s called the Water Diviner and it’s a fine example of silo art.

We did stop then at the Moree Artesian Baths and spent a pleasant hour and a bit there. It’s changed a lot since we were last here and for the better. It’s still very popular with overseas visitors- instructions were in Chinese Japanese and Serbian in addition to English reflecting its clientele; but today there were very few people around so we virtually had the place to ourselves if you discount the life savers on duty.

The water today was 39.5 degrees and a bell periodically goes off to remind you to get out and have a bit of a rest. There’s a cold water pool -29.5 degrees today -and a picnic area with tables where you can sit and have a picnic lunch and a cold beverage after soaking in the hot water.

All in all well worth the 5 bucks each we paid as seniors😀 and a bit of a break from just driving.

We are camped tonight at Goondiwindi in Queensland savouring the first of what I hope will be many outback sunsets. Our caravan park comes with an attached billabong and it was a lovely way to end an otherwise not particularly eventful day, watching a crescent moon rise over the billabong.

Tolkien wrote “not all who wander are lost”. He was, of course, not Tolkien through his hat but was absolutely right. Some - like us - are on road trips.

We set off at a reasonable time this morning not rushing but not dawdling either, up the M1 as far as the Hunter Expressway, then past Singleton and those enormous open cut mines; through Scone of which it can be said with absolute certainty- it’s NOT a one horse town; then through Muswellbrook and the charming little town Murrurundi ( Wikipedia assures me it had a population of 847 in the 2016 census)which we added to the list of places we’d like to return to - someday ; and eventually to our destination for tonight Tamworth.

We have driven through Tamworth before- oh, some time late last century- but never stopped over and it is- and I don’t know why it should be surprising but it was at least for me - a most pleasant town. It looks prosperous; people are smiling and say hello with a smile as you walk by; the town has a lovely park, a fine walking and cycle path along the Peel River; and tons of public artworks all around town.

It’s, of course, the country music capital of Australia, but not being big fans of country music we skipped the Hall of Fame museum and the guitar museum and the waxworks of famous country music artists- all designed I felt (most uncharitably no doubt) to seperate me from my hard earned ; we did however make the mandatory stop at the Golden Guitar- as everyone knows you haven’t been to Tamworth if you haven’t gotten a photo at the Golden Guitar.

But we really enjoyed a walk along the Peel River late in the afternoon and back through the centre of town, which reinforced my first impression- this is a lovely little country town.

Tomorrow we will cross over into Queensland.

Tolkien wrote “not all who wander are lost”. He was, of course, not Tolkien through his hat but was absolutely right. Some - like us - are on road trips.

We set off at a reasonable time this morning not rushing but not dawdling either, up the M1 as far as the Hunter Expressway, then past Singleton and those enormous open cut mines; through Scone of which it can be said with absolute certainty- it’s NOT a one horse town; then through Muswellbrook and the charming little town Murrurundi ( Wikipedia assures me it had a population of 847 in the 2016 census)which we added to the list of places we’d like to return to - someday ; and eventually to our destination for tonight Tamworth.

We have driven through Tamworth before- oh, some time late last century- but never stopped over and it is- and I don’t know why it should be surprising but it was at least for me - a most pleasant town. It looks prosperous; people are smiling and say hello with a smile as you walk by; the town has a lovely park, a fine walking and cycle path along the Peel River; and tons of public artworks all around town.

It’s, of course, the country music capital of Australia, but not being big fans of country music we skipped the Hall of Fame museum and the guitar museum and the waxworks of famous country music artists- all designed I felt (most uncharitably no doubt) to seperate me from my hard earned ; we did however make the mandatory stop at the Golden Guitar- as everyone knows you haven’t been to Tamworth if you haven’t gotten a photo at the Golden Guitar.

But we really enjoyed a walk along the Peel River late in the afternoon and back through the centre of town, which reinforced my first impression- this is a lovely little country town.

Tomorrow we will cross over into Queensland.

Home- after 5556.4 kms

Ou way home took us to Gundagai via Narrandera and Wagga Wagga on a hot day, but no where as oppressive as the day before.

I can’t recall if we have been to Narrandra - or even driven through it -ever before. We found it a very pleasant town indeed. The visitor centre is excellent; it houses the worlds second largest playable guitar, which the lady at the centre strummed to prove ; there is quite a nice example of water tower art on top of a hill; and the best bit? The Koala reserve near Lake Talbot. Koalas in the area had become extinct in the 1900s; they were reintroduced in 1972 and thrived. It is believed there are hundreds in the reserve now. We searched for a while but failed to spot any; disheartened we were preparing to leave and continue our journey, when Lalitha spotted the cutest Koala in the fork of a gun tree. We have seen Koalas in the wild often; still it is always a delight.

Wagga Wagga- Wagga to friends and relatives- is the largest town we have encountered in the last two weeks and it was a bit of a shock! How quickly we forget! Just last week I couldn’t buy a sd card for my drone anywhere within 200 kms!

It was only meant to be a a quick grab a sandwich and fuel and head on; but we found out that last year’s Archibalds were on show at the art gallery; and I never pass up a chance to see the Archibald finalists for free, which is only possible in rural centres.

As it turned the winner was addressing a small crowd, talking about his work; but we didn’t feel like intruding or staying on for the champers afterwards; and so after ducking into the National Gallery of Glass for a quick look, we headed off, thinking to ourselves, Wagga is a most liveable town.

It’s meant to be clear tonight and the comet everybody is talking about is going to be very close to Mars. So going to give a go at imaging it, if everything works!

Another hot - horrendously hot day , meant that that there was little of note as we made our way from Renmark to Hay where we are stopping tonight. From South Australia through Victoria and into New South Wales- and one change of time zone.

We did, however summon the energy to make one stop. We always had wondered about the eponymous Red Cliffs responsible for the name of this grape and citrus growing town 13 km south of Mildura; today we made a conscious effort to seek out these very Red Cliffs.

By the time we had had a look around, it was already ferociously hot; and we had little appetite for anything beside the air conditioning in the van.

And that is pretty much it - we drove through the heat of the day- it hit 43 degrees C at 3 pm as we drove across the treeless Hay Plains, and stayed at around that temperature till past 4pm.

Finished the day like it had begun- with an animal encounter- this time in the caravan park pool. ( see photos). Less benign though.

We left the Eyre peninsula headed to Renmark on the Murray river,and as we drove from Port Augusta the blue of the Gulf Spencer and the grey and reddish brown of the Flinders Ranges sang their beguiling siren song entreating us not to leave.

But leave we did, driving without pause till a few kms out of Burra when we pulled over to take a photo of the Midnight Oil house; and then again very briefly at the lookout at Morgan, where we were offered fine views of the Murray, still very full and flowing fast though perhaps not as fast as it was when we passed this way 10 days ago.

Our first real stop was at Lake Bonney in Barmera where we drove a bit around the lake and discovered that Donald Campbell, back in 1964 had attempted to break the world water speed record on Lake Bonney, (he was unsuccessful). He reached 347.5 km/h but the lake was too small and the waves created by the speeding vehicle - the Bluebird-were too dangerous.

There is a Bluebird cafe on the lake front honouring this attempt.

We were tempted to head on to the Banrock Station- not far away but it was just too hot and uncomfortable, so we drove on to Berri, duly impressed by the enormous facilities of the Berri Estates and the many other vineyards along the way.

We stopped at the river, near the bridge, but the heat had completely sapped our energy.

With no enthusiasm for any more exploring we headed to our Caravan park in Renmark to settle down for the night, all worn out.

The minimum tonight is supposed to be 37 deg C . And we have no air conditioning….

Tomorrow is another scorcher.

Today we completed our loop around South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, returning to Port Augusta, the town from where we embarked upon this peregrination.

We had stayed overnight at Tumby Bay a small sleepy coastal town about 50 kms north of Port Lincoln. To our delight we discovered- purely by chance that the rising full moon created reflections on the sand flats at low tide, something akin to the “ stairway to the moon” effect that Broome is famous for.

It was certainly a spectacular sight!

Tumby Bay has, like every single town we visited in the Eyre Peninsula-a jetty. This one unfortunately is the only one we came across in our travels that was closed due to being in a state of severe disrepair.

The jetty is renowned for being a site for the Leafy Seadragons; so much so that the sea dragon is almost an informal mascot for the town. I am no diver- I once did the PADI introductory course but have gone no further and never will ; so had to pass up on the opportunity to mingle with, inter alia, sea dragons, pyjama squid, blue ringed octopus, and cuttlefish.

Just a few kilometres up the coast heading to Port Augusta lie the towns of Port Neil, Arno Bay and Cowell. Each is a pretty seaside town; each has a jetty; a Viterra grain silo dominating the landscape as far as the eye can see; and a caravan park. Cowell though appears to be prosperous and thriving; Port Neil and Arno seem to be just about getting by; to do our best to support the small towns we bought a takeaway lunch at Arno jetty cafe.

We spent the rest of the day at Whyalla, the big steel making town just south of Port Augusta. David Attenborough did a piece on the annual giant cuttlefish spawning event at Whyalla, bringing it to world attention; but that event is half a year away - well May/ June each year. Something worth returning to Whyalla for I suppose.

So we made do by visiting Heritage Hill, the unusual circular jetty and then driving 30 odd kms out of town to the very pretty Fitzgerald Bay and the Point Lowly lighthouse - now no longer functional. A pretty spot indeed with the Flinders Ranges across the Spenser Gulf clearly visible; and the beautiful turquoise/ blue waters.

And with that it was time for us to head to Port Augusta for the night and to call an end to this journey of discovery around the Eyre Peninsula.

And that also concludes this series of diary notes/ blog posts - whatever you may call it.

From tomorrow we head home on roads we know well and along places we have been before, so there is little we anticipate in the nature of unexpected discoveries.

We were restricted to sealed roads only - and much of these parks needs 4WD- proper 4WD- to navigate.

Still the bitumen took us to enough fine sights in both parks to make it worthwhile.

Coffin Bay National Park has simply amazing scenery - so much so that after a while I gave up talking photos because my iPhone was simply not doing justice- and just enjoyed the views.

Port Lincoln National Park on the other hand has great scenery but where, to our minds at least, it really excelled was its beaches- and beachside campsites- which we unfortunately haven’t availed of on this trip.

Port Lincoln National Park’s most celebrated beach is Memory Cove- accessible only by 4WD and even then access is limited. Yet some of the coves we went to - notably the cove near Stamford Hill - are just as wonderful.

The day was hot, the water was warm and wonderful, and we came away wanting to have stayed longer. Still all good things have to end, so said someone or the other.

To get to Port Lincoln National park you need to pass through Port Lincoln itself which is a rather nice town. Clearly prosperous, every prospect pleases if you exclude the surly supercilious shit passing herself off as a customer service officer in the Visitor Information Centre. Oh well, you do run into unpleasant people from time to time, you just have to move on.

All in all, another lovely day in the Eyre Peninsula

We decided to do a bit of the South Head walking trail at Venus Bay; the cliffs were quite stunning but sadly we didn’t- or couldn’t- spot a single seal, sea lion or dolphin.

Venus Bay’s major attraction- in fact one of the major attractions on this part of the peninsula- is the Talia cave system, including the so called Woolshed and the Tub.

It’s a relatively short drive from Venus Bay on unsealed roads- thank goodness! and quite popular.

We didn’t venture inside the Woolshed or climb down into the Tub, leaving these adventures to younger, more intrepid - and possibly stupider-YouTubers, but contented ourselves with taking some photographs and concluding that these sights were justly popular with visitors.

We rounded the day off with the cliff drive at Elliston, further South from Venus Bay. We were very impressed and can highly recommend this drive, even though it is again on a dirt road; the views are sensational, and IMHO rival any scenic drive anywhere; and there are interesting sculptures dotted along the way on the cliff tops.

Senses having reached full well capacity it was time to call it a day.