Author Archives: Are We There Yet?

The Plenty Highway

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Are We There Yet?

Well, the fact that you are reading this is proof that “We survived the Plenty Highway!”

As proud as we are, we didn’t splash out $8 for the bumper sticker available at the Tobermorey Station.

For those unsure what I’m on about, the ‘Plenty’ is pretty notorious patch of road that runs between Boulia and the Stuart Highway, This is the shortcut that avoids having to go all the way up to Mt Isa, then across into the territory and then back down to Alice.

During the planing stages of this trip I made it pretty clear I wanted to take the ‘road less travelled’ and avoid bitumen as often as possible, this was our first real test.

Well actually, the road into Carisbrooke Station was our first test, and we failed. Both the shockies in the camper overheated and leaked, 4 bottles of cider popped their tops in the fridge and there was waaaaaay too much dust getting in the camper. So after rectifying some of these problems, we braved the Plenty.

2 broken spot lights, one lost shovel, one puncture and one ‘no darling we are not bogged, I’m just making sure the low range still works’ moment and we arrived safe and well in Alice Springs.

The road from Boulia to the Northern Territory border, ie the QLD side, is called the Donohue, and it was terrible! As the chicks in the back started chirping their inevitable “I’m hungry” chorus, we said “We’ll stop at the next tree with some shade….. 100klms on still no tree, so we pull up in the middle of nowhere and had lunch. Lexi was less then impressed with number of flys, and anyone who knows Lexi and has seen her frustrated before will know that this was not a happy lunch stop (She had no idea what was was in store for her at Arthur creek the next day!) I’d say we averaged about 40kph on this stretch (240klms) until we arrived at Tobermorey Station where I think Jack’s comment sums it up when we drove up over the levy bank and he exclaimed… “Wow! Green grass!!!” It was a great stop, and we all poured out of the car and literally rolled in the grass and took our shoes off and let the grass caress the dirty dusty soles of our feet, bliss! Facilities were clean, showers were hot, diesel was a bargain at $2.30p/l (yes, FILL UP IN BOULIA!!) if it wasn’t for the generator that ran all night this would have been awesome. Either way, more then enough for a one night stop ($22 for the site for the night).

Next day we were off to hopefully make it to Harts Range and the Zircon fossicking areas that Stewie and Myra spent a couple of weeks last year. After a quick road side chat to a bloke coming the other way, he told us Arthur Creek was a nice stop, so this became our lunch stop. As with all the rivers and creeks out here they are dry, and being these are the only bodies of water for a few months of the year, the only trees or shade are literally in the creek beds. There was a nice looking spot about 15meters up the creek bed that I decided would do nicely, Jess didn’t like the idea of driving up the creek bed….. I knew what Peter Prado had to do to get Karen Camper into a friends place at Boonah not long before we left so I knew he would be up to the task…….well…….Lets just say it was fun to finally engage low range. Poor Jess freaks out as soon as we get “bogged”, as I have explained to her, we are yet to get “bogged”, bogged means you can’t get out, everything up until that point is the fun. Anyway, we have never experienced so many flies in our lives, probably collectively! Poor Toby gave in and jumped back in the car, and Lexi? Well we can add flys to her list of things she cannot stand along with Ants and Long drop toilets. (All of which are pretty much going to be our life for then next few months) Well….. We found Harts Range, and it was spectacular, but this was not quite the place we were looking for. That night we worked out at happy hour with the other campers, the place we were after was about another 60ks down the road.

I got up at sunrise that morning and tried to get a couple of nice shots of the Range…. Not really happy with what I’m getting yet, going to price a nice wide angle lens in Alice I think. (Yet to be approved) So after a whopping 60klms travel this day, we got to Mud Tank Zircon Fields. I think Jess wants to elaborate on Harts Range and Mud Tank so I won’t go into that now.

So a couple of days at Mud Tank and back on the road for the mostly bitumen drive to the Stuart Highway and on to Alice.

Things we learned on the Plenty:

– QLD Main Roads division needs to re-do their apprenticeship in NT (Are you reading this Kerry and Anthony?)
– Don’t whinge about paying $1.71p/l for diesel in Boulia because that’s 1960’s prices compared to on the Plenty
– A long handled shovel wedged into one of your camper chassis rails and ocky strapped up TIGHT doesn’t stand a chance (If anyone finds my shovel please forward it to the Alice springs post office, I’ll grab it next time we are in the neighbourhood)
– Duncan, thank you for the spotties, it looks like they are going to be a little more like a Lego kit when I get them back to you (quite possibly missing a few pieces)

All in all we are VERY glad we did the plenty, and we had a ball. Tested the rig, found some weak points to work on before we really head bush shortly.

Jess blogging at Boulia while I hitched the camper up

Hitting the Donohoue Highway on the QLD side – a little nervous!

Lunch stop on day 1

Middle of Nowhere lunch stop Day 1

We hit the Northern Territory! A first for all of us!

Overnight camp at Tobermory Station – oasis!

Beautiful green grass!

View out the camper door Tobermory Station

Day 2

Us on the Plenty – NT side

Wildflowers

Scenery NT side

Lunch stop Arthur Creek Day 2 – sooooo many flies

Checked out the camp area at Jervois Station – not bad

Harts Range comes into view

Very corrugated road in to Tiger Gum camp at Harts Range

Beautiful campsite (free) at Harts Range

Yet another campfire

Categories: Camping, NT Camping | Tags: Plenty Highway | 5 Comments

Boulia

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Are We There Yet?

Spotted our first camel in Boulia

Well we are about to lose reception/internet access for about a week so I thought I would quickly try to get a post out about our time in Boulia before we left. I had planned to do it last night but we ended up having drinks with the Grey Nomads camped beside us instead. They were two very lovely couples who spoilt the kids with lollies and gave us heaps of good tips on places to visit in NT and WA. Matt spent the night with a pen and a map on his lap circling good spots as the nomads yelled them out – good fun!

We have had a really good stay in Boulia free camped down on the Bourke River behind the racecourse. There were toilets and cold showers here but we had to drive to them – if not for that I think we could have stayed here for a week! We went to the visitor information centre and paid $36 to do the fantastic Min Min encounter experience they have there! It was fantastic! A little scary for the kids but they still enjoyed it! The kids have been looking for the Min Min light (unexplained light that follows/chases people out here in this area – people have various theories – mineral gases being released, emu’s who have rolled in phosphorous gas, ghosts from the ‘seedy’ Min Min hotel that burned down etc, etc). It was a 45minute show that had you walking from little room to little room while people (talking dummies) told stories about the Min Min light – really great!

We also have now seen camels! Boulia is famous for its camel racing weekend which occurs at the end of July and as we are camped behind the racetrack we got to see the camels in training yesterday afternoon – sooooo awesome – just our little family watching the camels get pushed around the racetrack by a man on a four-wheeler – we all loved it!

We had another pretty relaxing afternoon yesterday after checking out Boulia in the morning (nothing much here except the Min Min encounter, a shop (lovely lady behind the counter gave the kids a lolly pop each for free!), pub and library and huge aquatic centre!), Jack was lucky enough to borrow some Robert Irwin dinosaur stories written about the Winton Dinosaurs which we had seen for sale at the Dinosaur Museum in Winton – so he read both of them in one afternoon and was sooooo excited to be reading about all the places and things we had seen in Winton! Once again the library is so good while travelling – the librarian is even letting us return the books to the Visitor Centre before we leave as the library is closed today.

I had a go at baking brownies in the camper gas oven but they turned out a disaster – burnt on top and not cooked on the bottom – more practice definitely required! I did redeem myself with crumbed steak and veges for dinner – yum! And I got a lesson on camp oven cooking from the Grey Nomads so I am keen to give ours a go soon!

Favourite Parts of the Day

Lexi – Having a walk with mum

Toby – going for a 4wd with Dad to collect wood

Jack – lighting the fire with dad, the Min Min show, dinner

Jess – seeing the camels go round the racetrack while having an afternoon family walk

Matt – collecting firewood with Tobes with Zac Brown cranking

Think we will be out of range for the next week or so – a glut of posts to come next week – hope you are all well – we are having a ball so far – 2 weeks of our trip gone already!!!

Boulia – we liked it but really not a lot here

Relaxing

Lex finally getting a chance to play with some of her birthday presses

Dirt bombs! Keeping these kids clean is impossible!

Lex and I off for a walk – me sporting my new headband which my mum crotcheted for me – love it mum!

Afternoon walk across the dry river bed

More Dirt

Camels in training

Our private show on our afternoon walk

Burke River where we camped – not much water up our end of the camping area

Love having campfires

Jack loved reading about the dinosaurs in Winton after we had just seen them!!!

Categories: Camping, Qld Camping | Tags: Boulia, Camel Racing, Min Min Encounter | 3 Comments

Winton to Boulia

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Are We There Yet?

Beautiful sunset as we were driving in to Boulia

Yesterday we drove the 360km’s from Winton to Boulia. We left Winton at 12pm after sleeping in and being a bit slow in the morning and doing a big stock up on groceries and meat at the butcher. We arrived in Boulia at 7pm which was far too late and really silly/dangerous to be trying to find a campsite in a place we have never been to in the dark – we have vowed never to do that again!

It was a nice drive – quite scenic and probably the most remotest countryside we have driven through so far. We stopped at the Middleton Pub for lunch (and Matt had to buy a beer from the bar). This pub is known to be one of the most isolated pubs in Australia – there is literally nothing at Middleton but the pub! While we were making our lunch – a very friendly pig called ‘Pig’ wandered across the road from the pub to us and tried to steal our food – the kids thought it was hilarious!

From Middleton we stopped at the old Hamilton Hotel site (each of these sites were Cobb & Co carriages change-over points on their route between Winton and Boulia – there were 9 changeover points – qute interesting!) and filled up with water – thanks for the good tip Aunty Nerida and Uncle Garth! It saved us having to do most of the drive with a heavy camper full of water and we got some of the best tasting water straight up from the Artesian Basin!

We ended up travelling in to Boulia in the dark (silly as lots of Kangaroos on the road!) but we wanted to make Boulia so we could only have one set up and stay put for a few days! It took as a little while to locate the free camping area behind the racecourse, but when we did we were lucky enough to be directed in to a lovely spot by some Grey Nomads – saved us driving around dangerously in the dark and no arguments!

North Gregory Hotel where we free camped (gold coin donation) in Winton

Campsite in Winton – quite crowded but a great spot!

Tobes checking out ‘Banjo Patterson’ in front of the Waltzing Matilda Centre in Winton

Swagmen Statue Winton

Lunch stop Middleton Pub

Very friendly pig who joined us

Pig

Matt having a beer and a chat to a local at the pub

Cobb and Co carriage at the Middleton changeover point

Feeling up with the best water at the Hamilton Hotel changeover point rest area

Filling up with the best water at the Hamilton Hotel changeover point rest area

Kids playing while we got the water at Hamilton Hotel – windmill pumps water straight up from artesian basin

Categories: Camping, Qld Camping | Tags: Middleton Pub, North Gregory Hotel, Winton | 1 Comment

Winton

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Are We There Yet?

Out the front of the Age of Dinosaur museum

Out the front of the Age of Dinosaurs Museum

Well – we finally left Winton today – we definitely got a case of the Winton go slows while we were there – it was really lovely to stop and slow down a little!

We drove into Winton with the family on their way home from Carisbrooke and did a little more sightseeing with all the kids. We checked out Arno’s Wall – basically a wall of junk but quite interesting really and our kids loved it! The kids are at the age where they are collecting junk wherever we go – driving us nuts – but we have given them a plastic ‘treasure’ box each and they are enjoying filling them with bottle tops, screws, rocks, glass and whatever shiny things they find! I will have to get a photo of them. The deal is once the treasure boxes are filled – they must throw something out – hopefully then we won’t come home with a van filled with trash!! Anyway – a little off track there! While we still had all the cousies together we also checked out the ‘Musical Fence’. The kids loved this and made sooooooo much noise there! I’m sure we ruined the experience for the poor Grey Nomads who ended up there at the same time as us!

Arno’s Wall

Kids checking out Arno’s wall – Tobes thinks he’s making one when we get our ‘new home’ hmmmmm

Playing ‘laser noises’ on the musical fence

Not much music but lots of good racket happening!

Unfortunately then we had to say goodbye to the family and our much loved little dog Jerry who has gone to live with the Grandparents while we do our trip! We are missing him lots already but I am pretty sure he thinks he has gotten an upgrade!!

Goodbye Jerry!

After that we decided to free camp behind the North Gregory Hotel (the pub where ‘Waltzing Matilda’ was first played publicly). It was very crowded, but it was central and we had toilets and a hot shower! We decided to spend our ‘treat’ money this week on the most delicious lunch ever at the pub! My mouth is just watering thinking about our yummy BLT’s, Steak Sandwich and chips – definitely get a meal there if you are ever in Winton – real pub food! We then spent the next few days doing some washing, replacing the camper trailer plug that fell out and got trashed on the road back in from Carisbrooke, hanging out at the library – Jack was kindly allowed to borrow a book (‘Diary of A Wimpy Kid’) for the night which he really enjoyed and finished, and doing some more sightseeing. Oh and we got to have a free singalong ‘Waltzing Matilda’ show at the pub, put on by ‘Helen’. It was good for the kids as she told them all about the history of how Waltzing Matilda the song evolved and the different versions of it! They did well joining in on the singing – Tobes likes to belt out a a very loud chorus of Waltzing Matilda!

Lark Quarry exhibit in the Corfield & Fitzmaurice building

The dinosaur wheelie bins everywhere in Winton – awesome!

On the deck chairs outside the North Gregory Hotel

Waltzing Matilda Centre Theatre Room – a pretty good story of how the Waltzing Matilda song evolved

Statues in the main street depicting the Waltzing Matilda story

Open Air Theatre

World’s Biggest Deck Chair – Huge!

We loved the ‘Australian Age of Dinosaurs’ museum just outside Winton – it was great for the kids and soooo interesting to see people working on cleaning up real Dinosaur bones and learning how a dinosaur dig actually happens! Jack said he can’t wait to be twelve which is the age required to join a dig – Jack was really interested in it all – excited and asking lots of questions – a good age for it! Lex feel asleep on the floor during the talk about the collection of bones that have been found – hehehe – might have to make sure she has a sleep before the next tour – the Grey Nomads thought it was quite funny!! Very inspiring too, to hear how David Elliot (the founder of the non-profit museum) discovered the first dinosaur bone on his station in Winton, and to hear about his passion for the Australian Dinosaur history to be uncovered while at the same time, putting his local community on the map as a tourist destination and helping to keep a rural town alive – definitely a great story of an aussie farmer who cares deeply about our country and the community he lives in.

Age of Dinosaurs Museum

Awesome experience to see how Dinosaur bones are uncovered and made ready for the museums

Dinosaur bones in their ‘jackets’ waiting to be processed

Volunteers working on cutting the dinosaur bones from the rocks in the laboratory

Australia’s most famous dinosaur bones from ‘Matilda’ a huge dinosaur who they think died as a result of getting stuck in the mud in a billabong

View from Age of Dinosaurs museum was great!

Great views

The Waltzing Matilda centre was pretty good, but probably a bit expensive and we had seen a lot of the stuff that was there (old trucks etc) for free at Ilfracombe, so apart from the little Waltzing Matilda theatre show and the holographic show about aussie legends, the kids weren’t terribly interested. We had purchased the ‘Gold Winton Pass’ for $140 which gave us entry to all of the attractions around Winton so we feel we got pretty good value for money from it – especially as I got $5 off at the butcher today too for having that pass! And that was Winton! Oh – forgot to mention the amazing shop called ‘Searles General Store’ – it had everything you could possibly imagine jammed in to it!! And the shop just kept going back, and back! The kids and I loved having a dig through all the toys, clothes and ‘stuff’ in there! Thanks for the tip Mrs Holman to check it out!!!

Categories: Camping, Qld Camping | Tags: Age of Dinosaurs Museum, Arno's Wall, Musical Fence, North Gregory Hotel, Open Air Theatre, Waltzing Matilda Centre, Winton | 4 Comments

Carisbrooke Station

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Are We There Yet?

On our second day at Carisbrooke Station we decided to join in with some of the Grey Nomads on their station tour. Station owner Charles guided us to Python Canyon where we had a short but fairly steep walk down to see some Aboriginal paintings. It was nice to visit something so interesting in a fairly non-commercial setting.

Off for a hike to Python Gorge to see some Aboriginal Paintings

Looking out over Python Gorge

Python Gorge

All the kids walked down & back up by themselves and so did the Grandparents!

Aboriginal Paintings – Carisbrooke Station

Cooper & Tobes

From there we went on to the station’s private opal mine. Of course with Grammy & Grunda with us we were keen to do some fossicking and Charles was happy just to leave us there to spend the day looking for that magic opal that was going to see us all retired by the end of the weekend! We didn’t find anything really amazing but at least we all found a few bits and pieces with some colour in them so it was quite exciting! It was however very hot! I can’t imagine what it would be like out here in summer!!!

Grunda & Riley hunting for opals

The Campbell Boys claim – don’t mess with them!

Grunda & Jack didn’t even stop for lunch!

Grammy & Tobes with their treasures

Lunch time at the Opal mine

We had a good stay at Carisbrooke Station and owners Penny and Charles were very friendly and accommodating – however it is a long way out of Winton (also quite corrugated) and being in drought there was no water in the dam so nowhere for the kids to swim and cool off at the end of the day. Not quite Easter at Emu Park but still a great family weekend together with some lovely memories!

Grunda telling the two youngest grandies a story

The Fealy/Campbell kids in the shearing shed

True Blue Aussie Boys – the 6 grandsons

Rod cooking dinner – Dad there for moral support (ie. to drink beer!)

Camp kitchen – Carisbrooke Station

Communal Campfire Area – Carisbrooke Station

Matt and I and the kids feel so grateful that my mum and dad and Beth & Rod drove all the way from Townsville (7 hours) just to spend the weekend with us and wish us Bon-Voyage for our trip – it was a really lovely way to kick off our adventure and nice to see everybody before we are away from them for the next 7 or so months! We feel so lucky to have the best family in the world – thank you Mum, Dad, Beth, Rod, Riley, Dylan, Cooper and Corey xoxoxoxox

Camp Carisbrooke 2013

PS. Sorry about the photo sizes in this post – we are playing around trying a few different things trying to figure out the best way to use as little internet as possible to try and get the blog posts uploaded quickly as we are flying through our internet quota’s! If we can get some decent free WiFi (the internet at the library yesterday was just too slow!) then I will try to re-upload the photos – bummed because these photos are some of the nicest from the trip so far but I just don’t have time to re-upload them now!

Categories: Camping, Qld Camping | Tags: Aboriginal Painting, Carisbrooke Station, Opal Fossicking | 8 Comments

Carisbrooke Station – Lark Quarry

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Are We There Yet?

Matt playing with camera – sunset at Carisbrooke Station Day 2

We had no mobile phone reception out at Carisbrooke Station – so a few retrospective blog posts coming about our time out there – am using the free Wi-fi in the Winton library this morning as the kids read, colour in and play with the toys – libraries are awesome! It is air-conditioned and there are toilets – wahooo!

On our first day at Carisbrooke we headed out to Lark Quarry Conservation Park– the world’s only known dinosaur stampede site. Lark Quarry is 110km’s out of Winton and it took us about an hour to drive there from Carisbrooke Station – again along dirt roads but these ones weren’t quite as rough. We couldn’t get over the endless flat landscape with nothing but dirt & spinifex grass – the photos don’t really capture the vastness of it all!

We all enjoyed checking out real T-Rex and some smaller dinosaur footprints. A little surreal to see so many of them and realise that dinosaurs were actually right where we were standing millions of years ago!

We had a nice picnic lunch – no coffee shop all the way out there even though Beth did bribe Rod with that hehehehe!

Then it was back to camp to liven things up for the Grey Nomads (we did feel bad for the poor caranvaners that had to share the station campground with us that weekend – our 7 kids were quite noisy!!). We had yummy nachos for dinner followed by marshmallows around the campfire – and poor Grunda was dobbed in to bring the guitar out to the fire and play for us all! The Grey Nomads were of course subjected to a family rendition of ‘Free’!

Sunrise – Carisbrooke Station

More camera playing – sunrise Carisbrook station

Riley & Jack looking for fossils in the rocks early one morning at Carisbrooke Station

Grunda handing out cake before breakfast to the grandkids!!!

Tessie Tarago carted the kids all over the dirt roads no problems!

Trying to get a photo of us all in the wide open space – very difficult to capture!

The view from the Nareen Rd Jumpup on the way to Lark Quarry

Walking in to Lark Quarry

The kids liked the mechanical dinosaur

Inside the quarry site – dinosaur footprints everywhere!

The lookout – Lark Quarry

The very easy ‘Spinifex Walk’ around Lark Quarry – Mum, Lex and I

Picnic lunch at Lark Quarry

Kids hunting for dinosaur bones

Lex at Carisbrook Station

Campfire time!

All the family singing ‘Free’!

Categories: Camping, Qld Camping | Tags: Carisbrooke Station, Lark Quarry, Lark Quarry Conservation Park, Winton Dinosaurs | 7 Comments

Longreach to Carisbrooke Station

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Are We There Yet?

On the ‘Old Cork Mail’ Road to Carisbrooke Station – quite corrugated in parts!

We left our free camp outside Longreach at 8.30am last Saturday morning (the earliest packup and getaway we have had so far on the trip – getting more organised now!) and headed for Winton. We were all very excited as we were meeting all the family (my sister Beth and her husband Rod and their 4 boys, plus my mum and dad – just missing Kate!) at Carisbrooke Station today! It was a short and easy trip to Winton – only a bit over an hour in the car and the scenery was very flat and dry!

After having a quick look around Winton we set out for Carisbrooke Station which was where we were to spend the long weekend. It was a very rough 80km trip from Winton to Carisbrooke – we opted for the shortest route to the station via mostly dirt road as advised by the owners but it was quite corrugated in parts and took us an hour and a half to get there! We didn’t let our tyre pressure down on the car or camper as we thought it would only be a pretty short trip but that turned out to be a bit of a mistake! The road was quite bumpy and we found oursleves looking for the station homestead after only a few kilometres in! Winton and surrounds are in drought at the moment and everything is very dry and dusty!!! We were a little shocked at the harshness of the station camp site when we finally arrived and felt a little disappointed as it didn’t look much like the website photos, but once we got over the bumpy ride and settled in a little, we could appreciate the beauty of our surroundings!

We arrived about an hour before the rest of the family and the kids were sooooo excited when they drove in! So was I because I was a little worried that they may have hit the dirt road and decided it was too rough and turned around and gone back to Winton!! But ‘Tessie Tarago’ and the trusty ute (who is not 100%) came through once again and tackled the dirt road no problems delivering the kids their cousins, aunt & uncle and grandparents! Our kids after a week on their own were really hanging out for the company of other kids!!

We set up camp and the ground was surprisingly not too hard to bang the tent pegs into and we really did have a good weekend – I’ll fill you in with my next post!

Sunrise at rest stop free camp about 20kms from Longreach

On the road to Winton – very flat, dry and dusty

Our rig on the way to Carisbrooke Station

The corrugations rattled the stove top loose!

And also rattled the tops off a couple of bottles of cider we had in the fridge (fortunately they didn’t smash!) we also had a lot of dust in the camper – so a mess to clean up when we arrived!

The Campbells and Grammy & Grunda made it!!!

Lex and Cory – playmates getting to know each other again!

Kids playing while we set up

Setting up camp

Sunset on day 1 at Carisbrooke Station

All the cousins together

Categories: Camping, Qld Camping | Tags: Carisbrooke Station, Winton | 5 Comments

Isisford to Longreach

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Are We There Yet?

Longreach – Gateway to the Outback

Well we dragged ourselves away from Isisford today after checking out the neat little bakery and general store ‘museums’ which we were free to wander through in the main street. Really interesting but sad to see a town that used to be such a busy little mecca, now struggling to survive!

Old Bakery Store in Isisford left open for visitors to wander through

General Store in Isisford

Really interesting to wander through the general store which would have up to 6 people working behind the counter on ‘movie’ nights and would stay open until 3am!!

Clancy’s Overflow Hotel – Isisford

From Isisford we headed to Ilfracombe and spent a couple of hours wandering through the main street which is basically a museum of old cars/machinery, a dedication to Wellshot Station (the largest sheep station in the world, which we drove past today) and an interesting bottle and rifle collection. Once again all of the exhibits were free (we really appreciate this as a travelling family!) and the best bit was that the kids could climb all over the machinery and cars so they were really interested in it all!

$Bottle Collection - Ilfracombe$

Bottle Collection – Ilfracombe

Ha – Mareeba tobacco tin – been a long time since we have seen one of those!

Tobes loved climbing up on to all of the old tractors!

Lex said she was driving ‘bobes’ to a party!

From there we went on to Longreach where we spent the afternoon getting some jobs done; getting the spare tyre valve fixed, going to the bank, letting the kids spend their pocket money (they saved their pocket money in money tins for the last 18months and we have decided to hand out $2 each Friday – Tobes chose some army men from the cheap shop and Lex a fairy wand, Jacko opted for a chocolate bar!) and we also did a big grocery shop in preparation for the long weekend with all the family. The best bit was that we got to catch up with a very old school friend who was Matt’s best mate, Kelvin, and his wife Libby and their new bub! It has been 16years since we have seen Kelvin so it was great to catch up and we might even go to visit him on his family station next week!

Beautiful sunset as we were pulling in to our campsite tonight

Sunset – just out of longreach

Beautiful sunset

Tonight we are camped at another free camp, a rest area about 24km’s out of Longreach on the way to Winton. It is a little noisy as it seems to be a truck stop for all the cattle trains but there is plenty of room in the bush behind the rest area and there is only two other caravans here tonight. We are loving the free camp spots! We had planned to camp at a spot just 2km’s out of Longreach but it was jammed in like sardines with all the Grey Nomads – we haven’t yet got this travelling down pat – we are still arriving at our camp site far too late in the day, so it is always very full by the time we arrive! We will have to work on that!! Ok – off to bed as we are hoping to get an early start in the morning – looking forward to seeing all the family tomorrow – wahoooo!

Favourite Parts of the Day

Lexi – having a cupcake from the bakery

Toby – playing with my new army men in the dirt

Jack – having a treat lunch at the bakery (sausage roll & chocolate milk)

Jess – walking up to the shower by myself (ie no kids!) and having a long hot shower to wash my hair etc – heaven!

Matt – seeing a good mate Kelvin again!

Categories: Camping, Qld Camping | Tags: Ilfracombe, Isisford, Longreach | 4 Comments

Isisford – Housekeeping Day

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Are We There Yet?

Housekeeping Day

We decided to spend another night in Isisford mainly because we really needed to do some washing and it is just such a nice peaceful spot (and at only $2 a night – a bargain place to camp!). So – I walked up to the local shop which has the laundromat attached in a little lean to shed and put 3 loads of washing on (yes – lots of washing because we had one wet the bed, one wet their pants and one have a no 2 accident – aaaaargh!). The kids were given a free lollipop each from the lady at the shop so they were happy – I bought myself a coke – so I was happy – and we went off to the park to play while we waited for the washing to be done – a pretty good way to spend a Thursday morning!

The rest of the day was spent pulling everything out of the camper and trying to get some organisation happening – we got things a little better but basically just put everything back in a little neater!! Matt has a new obsession silicon spray and has literally sprayed every zip, door and roller we own!!! He reckons that he could now be a salesperson for the stuff, he loves it so much!! Everything is moving/opening/unzipping much better now, so I’ll give him that!

And that was our day really – was lovely to stop and relax for a bit! The kids played and coloured in and we spent lots of time at the park! We have pretty much run out of food now though (soup and noodles for tea tonight!) so might move on tomorrow and finally do a proper grocery shop as up until now I had only been buying food a day at a time – a little expensive and doesn’t work so well when you stay on somewhere a little longer than planned! Dinners for the last week have been – Spag Bol, Pizza, BBQ, leftover Spag Bol, Chicken Stirfry, Fish & Pasta and salad, Bacon & Eggs & Tinned Spaghetti and Soup & Noodles. Not great but has been easy so far! Anybody else got any easy dinner ideas for us?? We don’t have a camp oven yet, but have a gas oven and cooktop so can cook most things!

Hope you are all well!

Me hanging out the washing with my sexy washing belt – it works a treat Mum!

Kids enjoying some down time to play

Matt & his magic silicon spray!

Rainbow wall in Isisford which Lex loves!

Great kids playground in Isisford – the park is also where the awesome hot showers are located!

Relaxing at the park

On the banks of the Barcoo River

We are loving having a campfire each night!

Categories: Camping, Qld Camping | Tags: Barcoo River, Isisford | 7 Comments

Charleville to Isisford

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Are We There Yet?

Me publishing a blog entry while the kids played in the playground at Augathella

Finally getting a chance to post this entry from last night!

It is warm – I only have 2 layers on tonight – wahooooo! We couldn’t believe it when we hopped out of the car at Isisford at 6pm tonight and didn’t have to instantly reach for the beanie’s and extra jumpers!

We have had a looooong day today! We set out from our free, beside the road camp, just out of Charleville at just before 9am this morning and only pulled in to Isisford at 6pm. We survived the ‘night in the middle of nowhere’ free camp without any incidents except something had a chew on my thongs and our rubber floor mats during the night!

Our first stop was at Augathella for a toilet stop (as a side note all the public toilets we have used have been really clean out here – and it is a nice feeling knowing I won’t be cleaning a toilet for the next 7 or 8 months!) and to have a look around town and publish last night’s blog while we had reception. Augathella was such a pretty, tidy little place but very quiet – the kids wanted to know where all the people had gone as lots of shops seemed to have closed down – perhaps as the highway no longer goes through there.

The next stop was Tambo for lunch where the kids were spoilt at the Visitor Information Centre with new colouring in books and a packet of smarties each! We had a little wander through the historical post office and telegraph office in Tambo which was free and quite interesting for the kids who learnt how to send their names using morse code on an old telegraph system. We checked out the ‘Tambo Teddies’ store – beautiful teddies but very expensive!

Another hour further down the road we stopped at Blackall which is where my uncle was a bank manager and lived with my cousins for a few years – we even tracked down their old house! There was another great information centre in Blackall which the kids enjoyed and we loved seeing the Jack Howe statue – unbelievable that he was able to shear 321 sheep in 7.5hrs – a world record that has never been broken!!!!

Things went downhill a little after Blackall as about 20minutes out of town we ran into another muster happening in the middle of the road. (Uncle Murray I’m blaming you for this because you said it makes for interesting reading!!!) We were being very touristy taking photos and I was worried that I was in trouble when one of the men rode over the car, but he had come to tell us that while we were stopped to let the cattle pass by he had heard air hissing out of our left hand camper tyre. Aaaargh – sure enough the valve on the camper tyre was split and leaking all the air out of the tyre! So we pulled over – of course right in the middle of all the cow poo which Matt proceeded to stand in and put his hand in – and spent the next half an hour changing the tyre – but we are at least pleased to say we had all the right equipment this time and managed the change without drama!! However, this now meant that it was getting late and it was kangaroo time on the road – not ideal for us still to be out driving! Luckily though we ended up behind some grey nomads with their caravan and they hit all the kangaroos first (well – they only hit one, but that was one more than us!).

So when we arrived in Isisford it was quite dark. We drove down to look for a spot on the river but it was quite crowded so we just kept driving along the river track, and driving, and driving because we could not find anywhere to turn around with the camper! Needless to say we were all tired and grumpy by this stage, and hungry! Eventually Matt had to reverse the camper in the dark with me walking and guiding him until we found a tight spot to turn around! During all this Lexi wet her pants because she was busting to go to the toilet and couldn’t hold on any longer. When we finally just went back to the entrance to the campground and pulled up beside another caravan (they will probably be grumpy that we are camped so close but we will sort that out in the morning!) we were not happy campers!!!

However, we are now all fed and have had our first hot shower in 3 days and we do not need to go to bed all rugged up so we are all feeling much better!!! I think we have done some big driving days and would just like to stay put for a few days now, but we will have to try to work out our plans in the morning. Once again we are very tired – this sightseeing and driving stuff is hard work it seems hehehe!

So, off to bed for me! Here’s hoping QLD has a win in the State of Origin – we had thought we might find a pub to watch the game in tonight but it just didn’t happen!! Go the Maroons!

Favourite Parts of the Day

Lexi – hopping out of the car and it was warm

Toby – playing in the Augathella meat ant park

Jack – having dinner (we were hungry), seeing the wild pig run across the road

Jess – not feeling cold for the first time and having a hot shower!

Matt – having a look at Tambo – a town trying really hard to attract the tourists and is a nice, friendly place