Hi All,
Well April came and went very fast for us. We left South West Rocks and arrived at Grafton on 1st, nice park with a good grassy site. Left Grafton heading for with Glen Innes or Inverell depending on the time of day. We went straight pass Jackadgery and up we went, stopped at the look out near the top the Gibraltar Range, nothing to see as cloudy, rain and only 950 meters up. The truck worked very hard as it is windy and all you do is climb into the clouds. We arrived in Glen Innes in time for lunch on the 2nd, found a spot to park and low and behold we noticed that the van had a lean. I mentioned to Ian that we might have a problem as one of the wheels had decided that it didn't want to travel with us anymore so it jumped ship somewhere in that 70 km's from the look out. Called the nice people at RACV, tow guys turned up, put a rope round the axle and off we went to the work shop. Had to replace all 5 studs (he could only get 6 studs of 21mm in Glen Innes to replace our 19mm studs), used the spare wheel as we lost the other one. By this time it was about 4.30pm to late to keep going so stayed in Glen Innes for 2 nights.
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| 950 mtr up at lookout in the Gibraltar Range NSW |
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| Parked in Glen Innes, think something might be wrong |
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| "opps" something is very wrong!! |
We spent Good Friday going for a drive to find the wheel, no luck. Had a nice lunch at the cafe at the Standing Stones. Saturday we are hitching up and again I notice something wrong, just the tow ball is loose. Lucky the guy at the park had a BIG spanner so that we were able to do it up. So we proceed to Moree for a soak in the pools. The whole town was shut on Sunday, not even a coffee shop open for the weary traveller.
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| Standing Stones in Glen Innes |
From Moree we went through Mungindi, Nindigully on the Moonie River. It has been raining on and off since we left Melbourne so by now we are getting a bit sick of it, but the rain was needed up that way so we must not complain about it. The following day the road through Nindigully was closed as water over the road from the Moonie River. We made St George and stay 2 nights, managed to get a spare wheel and tyre here, Ian was now happier to have a spare.
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| Old Nindigully Pub |
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| Moonie River QLD |
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| New Nindigully Pub |
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| Free Camp area at Nindigully Pub, Moonie River |
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| Stock Route sign at Nindigully QLD |
From St George we headed to Mitchell, Glenn and Lynette came for lunch and we had a great chat together. From there we continued up the road with lunch at Augathella (workmen painting the curbing PINK) still early so off to Tambo, just getting set up there and in comes another Cell Caravan, the only 2 caravan's in the park and it's 2 Cell's. We meet Jan and Don Hill, nice drinks together. In the morning we both proceed to Blackall for lunch, Ian purchased a new battery for the fridge to work on, the fitted it late on Saturday morning. Very good service. Don and Jan where staying in Blackall and we headed of to spend the night in Barcaldine.
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| Camped at Tambo Caravan Park |
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| Cell Muster at Tambo |
Arrived in Longreach going to spend a couple of nights here as we like the town. Just set up and who drives by non other than Don and Jan. So we spent 2 lovely night eating and drinking with each other while there van got fixed. We then headed to Winton and onto Boulia via the Kennedy Developmental Road (Min Min Way). We decided in Boulia to go to Birdsville without the van so left it in the park.
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| Scenery on the Min Min Way |
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| Min Min Way, between Winton and Boulia QLD |
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| I loved these signs in QLD |
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| Overtaking Opportunity, road is a little wider |
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| 3 trailer roadtrain, we got of the road |
We left Boulia on Thursday morning for our much anticipated trip to Birdsville, the road was mostly black top with a couple of gravel bits. We had lunch in Bedourie at the Simpson Dessert Oasis Road House. I drove to Bedourie and Ian drove the rest of the way to Birdsville with me saying stop I have to take a photo all the way.
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| Lookout view 1/2 way to Bedourie |
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| More from the lookout |
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| Don't you love this sign, you can't see wants coming over the sandhills |
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| Eyre River at Glengyle Station on the Eyre Development Road |
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| Glenglye Station a very historic station |
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| Original Station Homestead on Glenglye Station |
We arrived in Birdsville late afternoon after booking into the caravan park, which is on the edge of the Billabong so lots of birds around, then we went for a drive around the town (5mins). We had dinner at the Birdsville Pub then back to the room. Not a lot to do in Birdsville. Friday morning I was up early (proof in photo) after breaky we drove out to Big Red as we really wanted to see it. We had booked into the sunset tour but with the weather not looking to good decided to go early.
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| Sunsrise at Birdsville |
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| 4x4 lineup at the Birdsville Bakery "opps there's a VW" |
First view of Big Red Sand dune on the edge of the Simpson Dessert, the dune is 40 metre highs and one of 1,140 parallel dunes that cross the desert. We didn't take our truck up it we walked, the views are to die for across the the desert and the dunes. We watched 3 4x4's let down the tyres and race up and over the dune, after taking lots of photo's we drove along the track at the bottom to the next crossing point. That was our morning so it was back to the bakery for a lunch of Rabbit Pie for Ian and Roo Pie for me washed down with a beer and wine. We then went for another drive across the Diamantina River at the newer bridge, looked at the Race Course, drove on the Birdsville track as far as Pandie Pandie Station, on way back we crossed back into QLD after going to SA, we stopped at the Burke & Wills Slashed Tree and back over the river at the Old River Crossing, we had a look at the Artesian bore head & outlet (super hot water). We had a sunset tour booked but the weather had turned very bad, (a Captain Cook tour could not get out of Flinders Rangers) the wind was blowing the trees over and the water was going out of the clouds, tour cancelled (glad we went in the morning). So off we went to the pub again for drinks, chat and dinner.
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| Big Red, looking north along the ridge |
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| Lots of cloud building up at Big Red |
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| Old crossing on the Diamantina River Birdsville |
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| Lunch at the Birdsville Bakery |
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| Birdsville Hotel |
Saturday morning saw the weather still quite threatening as it rain over night but not enough to stop us, we had breakfast at the bakery again then headed north, along the way we stopped at the Waddi Trees, Oasis Bore, Cuttaburra Crossing, animals/birds on the road, there were strange artworks of junk also that had to be stopped at (poor Ian).
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| Waddi trees |
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| Bore along the Eyre Highway |
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| Hot water coming from the bore |
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| Yellow-billed Spoonbill's in trees on Cuttaburra Crossing Waterhole |
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| Kori (Australian) Bustard on the road " |
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| Puddle across road from rain |
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| Ian at another Tropic of Capricorn crossing Eyre Developmental Road |
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| Mitchell Grass plains on Eyre Developmental Road |
We arrived back in Boulia after a lunch stop in Bedourie late afternoon to find our home still there and safe. After sorting ourselves out we saw another Cell pull in, guess who? Don and Jan arrived. In the morning we set of for Mt Isa in convoy, stopping for various animals and birds that were on the road. we stopped for lunch at Dajarra, nice toasties to eat, it rain lightly on and off.
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| Emu's on run |
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| This little fellow nows how to cross the grid |
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| Wedgetail Egales taking off |
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| This one just sat still |
We stayed in Mt Isa for a couple of days with Don and Jan, they left before us so we didn't see them again till Darwin. We were being watched in Camooweal while we had lunch.
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| Galah at Camooweal QLD |
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| Into the NT |
Got to Barkley Roadhouse and decided to stop for the night, nice grass (of the plastic kind) at each site. We had been going to free camp but just kept driving till about 4.30 pm NT time. From here we continued to Katherine with an over night at Highway Inn at Daly Waters, nice tea and drinks, real green grass too.
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| Camped at Barkley Homestead Roadhouse |
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| This road train has 4 trailers, thank goodness he pulled in as we pulled out from Daly Water Highway Inn |
We spent 2 nights in Katherine to fuel up and food. The Anzac Day ceremony was good with a fly past, lots RAAF personal marching. The highway had to be closed for the march but the minute the marchers crossed over to the side road the road trains came through.
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| All set for Anzac Day march in Katherine |
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| Leading the march in Katherine |
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| Road train behind the marchers in Katherine |
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| The new lens at work Bluewinged Kookaburra in Katherine |
We arrived in Darwin in nice time on Sunday, Maree came in to visit while we were setting up. O So good to see her. On Monday we had new tyres fitted to the truck. Tuesday was lunch in the city with Don and Jan. Thursday Maree had the day of work so I picked her up in at the Holden service place and we went to have and early lunch as she was worried about Russ as he was sick. That night we went into the Mindle Markets with Don and Jan, we had nice food and wine to munch on on the grass then it was off home again but we caught the fire works for the opening night from the car park, really had a great evening with friends.
So that is all for April, hope you like the photos, I did try not to put in too many.
Love to all Marilyn and Ian
