We have now been on the road for 8 days. We spent four of those days in Rockhampton. We had planned to overnight in Rocky to catch up with family but our stay was extended and extended again due to a comedy of errors that isn't worth mentioning except over several beers and a bloody good bbq. We ended up leaving Rocky on Wednesday and drove to Barcaldine. We spent the night at a rest area just out of town. It was great to sit there with a nice cold beer in the late afternoon watching the sun set over the bush and listen to the sounds of the outback. We spent the night on our own, a blanket of stars our only company. It was wonderful. Jen cooked a wicked bbq of chicken stuffed with ricotta and wrapped in prosciutto. Who said camp life was boring.
Thursday we headed to Longreach and stopped for a couple of hours to visit the Stockmans Hall of Fame. It made us realise how easy we really have it in our 18 foot air-conditioned van with our LCD TV, microwave, fridge and onboard shower and toilet. The early explorers, stockmen and settlers struggled so hard against the unrelenting outback and the aboriginals have lived happily in it for 60000 years. It makes me appreciate my ice cold beer all the more.
We stopped in Winton last night, where Banjo Patterson wrote "Waltzing Matilda". I didn't see anyone stuff a jumbuck in a tucker bag, but I did see two unfortunate and very dead sheep, the apparent victims of road rage. We had Chinese takeaway from Banjos Bistro which I thought was highly appropriate given the multicultural bastion that is modern day Australia. Winton is also apparently Australia's dinosaur capital. They have found an enormous amount of fossils around the Winton area and you can go on dinosaur tours to see the sites. We were short of time but have vowed to come back and do the whole thing.
The scenery changes as we move further north west but one thing remains the same.. There is a whole lot of nothing out there. Today we were confronted with fields of anthills, 50 metre long road trains, flocks of emus and more flies than the U.S. credit debt.
We had planned on stopping in Mt Isa but one look at the enormous smoke stacks and mining operation made us realise that what they say is true "the best view of Mt Isa can be seen from your rear view mirror as your drive out". We have stopped in Camooweal - Qld's western most town. Tomorrow we will cross the Northern Territory border and be less than two days away from Darwin!
