Tuesday 22nd August 2006

Another moving day today... We were up at about 7:am and ready to move out by about 8:30am and heading up the highway toward Hughenden five minutes later.

The countryside was only slightly undulating but quite barren of any substantial foliage. We find it quite surprising how many grazing properties there are along the way as we expected very large holdings, however in this part of Queensland the properties seem to only be a few kilometres apart. We obviously thought of our Daughter-in-Law Lana when we passed one property called Lana Downs.

About 90 kilometres from Winton we passed through Corfield which required us to cross the railway line, drive past a hotel and maybe two other buildings, then cross back over the railway line before continuing on our way north. The next place we came to was called Stamford and it was a roadhouse only, there was no other buildings in the vicinity at all.

After 114 kilometres we arrived in Hughenden where we drove into the town centre and stopped near the Information Centre to check out what there was to see around this area. After our visit, we decided to stop in the caravan park for a couple of nights as we thought a trip out to Porcupine Gorge could be worth the 66 kilometre drive to it and there are other attractions that appear to be worth a visit. 'On the way into town 'One of Us' spotted a bakery so that was a compulsory stop before heading for the caravan park.

On arrival at the caravan park we were very pleasantly surprised with it as although there are not a lot of trees, there was this green stuff near all the caravan sites... They tell us it is called grass and it was quite lush for this area of Queensland and no artesian bore water, we sure won't miss that smell. After setting the caravan up (including putting the awning our for the first time on this trip) we decided that we may need more time here but will make up our minds about that after tomorrow. At $17.50 per night it is about the best value caravan park we have stopped in since we started out on this trip.

After a lunch of polony and salad rolls and a little relaxation, we drove back into the town centre so 'One of Us' could experience a little more therapy (shopping). This only entailed a visit to the newsagent where a magazine or two and a couple of local QLD newspapers were purchased. We drove a little further around the town and found the Flinders River but didn't find any water in it, then we visited a hardware store to pick up some plastic PVC pipe to make replacement rope tensioners out of, as the awning tie down wooden tensioners had been wet at some stage and rotted through since they were used last.

We returned to the caravan park at about 4:pm and 'One of Us' read the papers whilst the 'Other One' slaved his fingers to the bone making up the tie down tensioners There was little time to rest after that as we had paid our $10 to attend the campfire dinner at the caravan park and have been informed that the singer here is pretty good. We have heard a lot of them lately so we should be able to judge his performance pretty well. They told us we have to take our own drinks so I guess we can't have an alcohol free day if that is the case can we!

Tomorrow we believe our days activities may be a drive out to Porcupine Gorge National Park.

Wednesday 23rd August 2006

Ron Sellars - Balladeer Extrodinare

Pammy and the Ballardere

On the way to Porcupine Gorge

Well the campfire cookout and entertainment was well worth attendance last night as although the meal may not have been five star by any means, (what can one expect for $5) but the balladeer was very good and he entertained all who attended for at least three hours. Not bad at all for the other $5 per head. He has only been singing for the last five years but has a good number of awards to be proud of. Not bad for the local postie as that is his current day job. For more information about him, visit www.ronsellars.com

That clear blue sky hasn't deserted us yet and the morning was fairly warm by the time we were up and about just before 7:am. By 8:am we were in the Patrol and heading out on the road to Porcupine Gorge, some 65 kilometres to the North East of Hughenden. Along the way there were a few 'Points of Interest' such as Flinders River (that's the one without any water in it) and Matchbox Creek, (so named because a wagonette of matches exploded nearby).

About 38 kilometres out of Hughenden we stopped at the Eagle Hawk Gorge Lookout and took some photographs of the gorge, the basalt rock around the edges and also a grave site of an unknown person. Then it was back into the Patrol and onward past another unmarked grave, a mailman's grave site, and a lookout over the surrounding area.

We passed the Porcupine Gorge lookout without stopping as we wanted to walk to the bottom of the gorge before it became to hot and we pulled into the Pyramid Lookout and camping ground at about 9:15am. From here we took our back pack with water and other bits and pieces and set off down the walk track to the bottom of the gorge. This was a 1200 metres walk and climb down to the bottom, often going down steps formed up with stone along the way. Once on the floor of the gorge we rested under a sandstone overhang for a while before taking a few more photographs. Then 'One of Us' realised time was getting on and she wanted to be back at the caravan by 12:30 to view niece Nikki and Gary's wedding ceremony that was taking place in Las Vegas at that time. Don't think we could make it to Las Vegas, but it was to be available to view on line through the computer. We set off up the hill at a pace (snails pace that is) and were quite surprised that it wasn't quite as hard getting to the top as we thought it might be. It would have been easier if they had a chair lift but didn't think we could wait long enough for them to build one.

Once at the top again we were back in the Patrol and heading back toward Hughenden, however we did stop at the Porcupine Gorge Lookout long enough to take a few photographs of that quite impressive canyon that can be observed from a viewing platform that is approximately 120 metres above the canyon floor.

From here 'One of Us' had the whip out so the 'Other One' put the Patrol into overdrive and foot down to the floor on the dirt road to get back to the caravan before Nikki and Gary's wedding in Las Vegas was to be seen on the internet. Fortunately the peace was maintained as when we made it back and logged on to the website, we were able to view the wedding take place. I thought weddings were supposed to be happy occasions, but Pammy obviously didn't think so because she cried through a lot of it. She did say that she was crying because she was so happy for Nikki and Gary and she was really happy after the ceremony.

The rest of the afternoon was spent recovering from the climb down into Porcupine Gorge and the evening is planned to recover from the climb out of Porcupine Gorge.... No entertainment tonight so we are cooking our own BBQ and entertaining ourselves, possibly in front of the TV. We have decided to stay in Hughenden for another couple of days before moving on as there appears to be enough to see to keep us occupied and we have other things we can catch up on as well. The stress of it all is hard to take, but as they say, someone has to do it...

Thursday 24th August 2006

We woke to another beautiful clear morning with the temperature sitting on 24 degrees at 8:30am and us sitting on our chairs enjoying a cup of tea and the sun.

We decided to stay in this caravan park for another two days so there was no rush to get out and see things this morning, so 'One of Us' decided she would do the washing whilst there were not many people in the park, and there were plenty of jobs lined up for the 'Other One' to do. At about 11:am we drove into town and visited the local Five Star Store where we made a few purchases to add to our larder then returned to the caravan to stack the food away and to pick up our cameras as we had not thought to take them with us earlier.

Once we had the cameras on board we headed off down the street again and called in on the Flinders Discovery Centre, which is the information centre but also houses the reconstructed full skeleton of a Muttaburrasaurus Dinosaur, a fossil collection and a sound show on the formation of Porcupine Gorge. There was also a DVD showing the highlights of the Flinders Shire area, of which Hughenden is the major centre.

This visit lasted just over an hour, then we left the centre and then stopped in the main street where we took a few more photographs of the Federation Rotunda which is made out of two 20 foot windmill fans and heads brought in from a local property. One of these windmill heads dates from 1912 and the other from 1916.

Also in the sights of the camera was Darby the Dinosaur which is a Muttaburrasaurus and is made of junk metal scavenged from local property dumps. The Leanneosaur was also shot with the camera as it poised in flight at the top of a pole in the street, in fact most things in the street suffered a shot or two from the Olympus digital and was finished off with a quick zoom with the Sony digital video.

As it was a 'Lay Day' for us, we then returned to the caravan where 'One of Us' did the 'Lay' bit whilst the 'Other One' put the word Work before the 'Day' part as there was a lot of preparation of tax return papers and scanning, printing and burning going on. Fortunately the burning was only files onto a computer CD, although at one stage there were suggestions (very polite ones of course) that some other things should be burnt because they weren't working as they should. However all worked out fine in the end and it is now ready to send off to the accountant to see if he can make head or tails of it.