Nearly home

Nardoo Camp

Dirambandi Pub

Nardoo Sunset


Nardoo Station
Hi,
Well we are heading further south, toward home, We are leaving Charleville in the morning to go to St George via Cunnamulla before crossing the border & heading into Lightning Ridge another big opal mining area.
Our trip from Roma got of to a bad start,we awoke to a flat tyre on the van, found it was leaking from rim so tyre man put in a tube. We set out but after 120 kms Browny said we were smoking (from the van) discovered that tyre was shredded AGAIN!!!!!!!!! The RACQ came out & changed wheel. (GAZZ I can't get jack under???)made it into Charleville & got new tyre & wheel, again we felt nothing on the steering this must be the most stable van built.

Charleville, a historic town on the banks of the Warego River. Today we went to the Cosmos Centre where we saw a film & 2 talks on the planets & astronomy VERY FASCINATING.

The Camp here is quite good & we would stay here again, shady sites& mostly drive through. The ammenities block is very clean & well maintained. The owners are very obliging, nothing is a trouble.
Well we moved on & have stopped at Nardoo station a working cattle station that that also has tourist facilities, we are going to soak in the hot spa. They have rounded up penned a herd of cattle, these are cattle that have been in the scrub for a while so are a bit wild. They will have to get used to humans before going to saleyard.


We are now in Lightning Ridge after a night in St George where we met friends from Batemans Bay,great to catch up &discus our travels. But prior to this we called into Cunamulla to get 2 new tyres on van, although they had plenty of tread I think they had passed their use by date.
Leaving St George we stopped at Diranbandito take a pic of local pub.PS I will talk to my Messenger Friends ASAP

So

More Pics

Just a few more Pics of Porcupine Gorge

OOps Missed One

Hughenden, 22/07/2009 in Dinosaur country, this is one of the areas where a lot of Dinosaur fossils have been found, the town has statues & sculptures of Dinosaurs to highlight the many different species including Muttaburrasaurus. I won’t bore you with the names of other species (only because I can’t spell most).
For 5 years we have been trying to get to Porcupine Gorge, each time there has been a problem, but, this time success & well worth the wait. 2 lookouts allow views of sheer walls as well as walls leading away north & east that allow access to pedestrian traffic. Although this old fossil baulked thinking of the climb back. The road out from Hughenden has been upgraded so normal cars can get to the lookouts & camping area. One highlight was for the first time in all our travels we saw a snake in the wild, a beautiful 2 metre black who was sunning on the road, we swerved round but didn’t stop as he would have been long gone by the time got back for a pic.
Tomorrow, we travel the 215 kms to Winton where a lot of new fossils have been found & a new displays set up. We were out to Larks Quarry last time we were here where a big dig was taking place. This was the scene of a stampede where a lot of small raptor types were chased by a big fellow. The tracks were preserved in the mud as it set.
We were told before we left Hughenden that the road was OK & had a couple of dodgy sections, but, no one would say how dodgy. So with misgivings we set out, we have travelled over worse dodgy roads. We did find some cupboards came open & stuff on the floor.
At Winton we went out to the Australian dinosaur discovery centre where we were given a great tour, the guide was the same one who took us on the tour of Larks Quarry a couple of years ago. She was very knowledgeable & entertaining.
Winton was also good as for the first time Browny was so close to the loo, Normally she has a short walk, this time 4steps and she was there, any closer & the van was in the door.
As you can see being in fossil country we feel at home
At the caravan park we found it to be the most ‘people friendly’ camp, entertainment every night. While we were there they had Graham Rodger,a very good country singer & Mellanee Hall a bush poet/comedian who was brilliant. If you have a chance to see either we would recommend you do.
From Winton it was on to Alpha, the town of murals, this was just an overnight stop before a long day down to Cania Gorge, one of our favourite camps & some of our favourite people. Jill & Peter make us so very welcome.
While setting up camp we had to put the van up on a block, when Shorty unhitched it rolled off with a bang, Browny, who was in the van , flew out, she hadn’t moved so fast since her mother chased her with a frying pan!!!!!!! +:}}}}}}}}}}}}}
The army was on the move on the run down from Winton to Cania, We didn’t know we had that big an army, truck after truck ranging from 4WDs to low loaders with tanks etc.

Heading Home

well the fossils are heading south into the cold, we leave here (Crows Nest),Heading to Dalby, Charliville, Lightning Ridge, Moree & head home
We saw a few vintage cars having a rally in Monto, beautiful old cars,

We left Cania Gorge after a relaxing couple of days, We had a small problem with Sami, we had high beam on our lights but no low beam, Nigel our friendly RACQ man again went the extra mile tgo fix it, he worked late trying to find a dead short in the wiring.


We had a good run down apart from missing the turn at Eidsvold & going 50 Kms out of our way, we both kept saying " I don't regognise this as landmarks passed by.After finding somewhere to turn we went the 50kms back to get on the right road.

we went down to Caloundra to see a friend and on the way back Flo (the GPS) told us to turn left which we did& after 50 Kms of gravel & narrow Bitumen We wound up where we wanted to be We have been told GPS sends everyone that way. Thank god we didn't have the van on as trucks & vans weren't allowed. It was through some nice scenery but unfortunately weren't able to stop for pics.
We left Crows nest & headed to Rpma, for a major road this is a disgrace, very bumpy, we thought that the van would be a mess when we opened it but it wasnt too bad.This is where one of our first oilfields was & still has memorials to that.The big rig an oil rig set in the grounds of the museum.Another thing is the bottle trees in the streets. Although they look like boab trees of western Australia they are no relation



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