Leichardt Falls

Overnight Camp on the way to Normanton. Fresh veggies for the first time bought at the Post Office in Bourketown. Delicious! Anne

Adels Grove Campsite

Used to be a botanical garden here which sent out seeds worldwide.

Adels Grove Campsite

Near Lawn Hill National Park. Both deserve Bucket list status.

Overnighter in bush

30+ pigs came by at dusk!

Hello from Gulf Country

We love it up here! It's so different to the whole tourist scene. Space, Friendly people, sunny. Don't expect a good coffee or meal out though. Just had the only available lunch at Bourketown. A 'barraburger' at a kiosk outside the caravan park. He looked in horror when we said grilled not deep-fried. That's shit he said. Why we asked. Because I hate fish that's not deep fried! It was adequate.
We have been camping at Adels Grove and then Kingfisher Camp. Both really good. Highlight was a hired motorboat on the Nicholson River where we saw freshies, lizards, lots of birds and magnificent rocky gorges and sandy beaches. Still enjoying it. A night in the bush was interesting with about 30 wild pigs coming down to drink at the waterhole. no supermarket here only a few groceries at the post office we're running out of food! Love to everyone. Anne x

Me (note earrings Julianne!)

Steve's new hairdo

Gregory River campsite

Us!

Annes blog 3

Outback Qld Gregory River

To all our friends and family. Hoping this finds you well and happy. Tomorrow we leave this beautiful campsite which has been the crowning glory of our trip so far. It took quite a bit of driving down rough old road to get here but was worth it. The river is constant and spring fed crystal clear and green from the moss and reeds. There are plenty of birds. Red wing parrots restless flycatchers and rainbow bee-eaters swooping down over the water. I watched one through the binoculars demolish a huge black and white butterfly, bashing it in the branch over and over then struggling to get the whole thing in it's mouth.

We are surrounded with pandanus and paperbark trees, river pebbles underfoot and we have the whole place to ourselves apart from some little grey marsupials who come down to the river to drink and paddle at dawn and dusk. There are big greys too and pigs but they are shyer and stay hidden, though I did watch a big black sow over the river yesterday so still with her eyes shut for ages-I swear she was asleep on her feet!

Walking fishing drawing cooking, bathing in the river - it's good!

Anne

Anne's blog 3

Vast grasslands

Outback camping

2. Outback Queensland

Anne's blog 2. Outback Queensland. Well we haven't travelled very far north since I last wrote, in fact I think we are probably south of Winton here in Boulia, who's claim to fame is being Min Min country, a land of strange and some say supernatural lights seen at night. they may not be seen very often but Boulia is milking them for all they are worth. We went to the Min Min 'Experience' and for once it was worth every cent, with lights,eerie noises, talking outback characters, graveyards and all the rest, done really well. Only a little less frightening than the grocery bill across the road. We are staying in the caravan park here washing shopping and planning our next move. It couldn't be nicer with a tree lined river right behind our van. We needed to stock up as we have been in the bush for seven nights, first at a cattle station called Carysbrooke Station where we were camped by a dam in the middle of nowhere sitting by our camp fire, watching the brolgas and driving to the top of the nearby Mesa to watch the sun go down, then on to Diamantina National Park where we alternately shood the flies away and enjoyed the seventy odd pelicans parading in front of us on the river, gliding along, fishing, fighting, flying in low and jumbo-like, and fighting with the other birds, spoonbills, cormorants, and herons. There were good people to talk to and the pleasure of watching flocks of budgerigars wheeling and soaring in their hundreds, the sun catching their bright green wings as they turned. We are still heading for Adels grove but this part of Queensland is very nice to dawdle in - plenty of water and vast grasslands.

The Knowledge Tree at night

a Memorial to the Shearers who stood up for better pay and conditions in the eighteen hundreds, being the beginning of the Labour Party and the union movement.

2012 Cooktown Trip

Hi All, we are in Winton Central Qld. we've been through some incredible rain but are now drying everything out and basking in the first really hot sun of our trip. We came up through Cobar and Barcaldine, to avoid the coastal rain and seem to have been immersed in history wherever we've been, on the Kidman Way and also the Mitchell Hwy. They are very proud of their history and we've spent many hours browsing through the first pastoralists, the Unions and Labour Party and the Shearers strike in Barcaldine and the Drovers at the Stockmans Hall of Fame. Then we headed into pre-history with the fossil remains of the granddaddy of all known crocodiles in a little place called Isisford, and here in Winton we are about to see the footprints of a dinosaur stampede so many millions of years ago! All delicately scented with sulphur as this whole area is the Artesian Basin and there are spas everywhere. We've had some cracking pub teas and some average ones, and last night the caravan park we're in put on a roast diner followed by a 'Bush Poet' who was a good laugh. We've seen plenty of wildlife, emus and Roos galore and thousands of wild goats, wild boars, echidnas and hundreds of camels, but they weren't wild. favourite bird sightings have been Brolgas and double-barred finches. we've met some nice people, one a lady who looks after baby joeys whose mothers have been killed on the road. she bottle feeds them and keeps them as pets who like a good cuddle, then when they feel ready they hop off on their own and return every now and then to say hello. we are taking a round about route to Cooktown through the Gulf Country and are hoping the road to Adels Grove is open as we would like to spend some more time there. hope you are all keeping well, Anne and Steve.