We finished off our two weeks away last weekend with a few nights camping with family at O’Briens Creek and doing some gem fossicking. My Aunty Leanne wrote a post about it on her blog ‘Travelling is An Adventure”. I thought I would share the post on our blog too as it will probably be a week or so until I get a chance to do our post about our time at O’briens Creek. It was a great weekend and a really lovely spot!! Leanne has some great photos of our time there in her post so check it out!
Qld Camping
O’Briens Creek, Mt Surprise.
Categories: Camping, Qld Camping
Tags: Camping, Camping Mt Surprise, Gem Fossicking, O'briens Creek, Topaz
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Carisbrooke Station
Hi Everyone! I’m just reblogging this Carisbrooke Station post from our trip last June as the photos I uploaded originally while we were on the road were way too small. We had such a great time there with all the family! I wonder if it is still this dry now? Anybody been out to Carisbrooke Station recently?? Continue reading
Categories: Camping, Qld Camping
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The Final Leg
Sigh. Deep Breath …………………………………………………………………..
There is no more delaying. It is time to bite the bullet and write the final post covering the last day and night of life on the road for the Fealy Family Adventure of 2013. Aaaargh, so hard. That means our trip really is over, complete, finished, done. It was so long in the thinking and planning and all over in three very short, but amazingly good months. It feels like a dream now.
Ok, on with it. Continue reading
Normanton/Karumba
It is physically hurting my heart to write these last few posts about our trip, oh how I miss the days of adventure! But, I realise there are probably several people out there following our blog who are just wanting to read the last few posts about the trip and wishing we would hurry the heck up and get on with it, so they can then ‘unsubscribe’ and no longer have to listen to our ramblings and be subjected to posts about Chocolate Slice! Fair enough I guess, so here goes, today and tomorrow will see the last couple of posts about the trip published.
After surviving the Savannah Way, we popped back out into civilisation at Doomadgee and after a quick fuel top up we decided to head for Normanton and spend a precious few nights there. It was a tough decision to bypass Lawn Hill National Park, but we didn’t think we had enough time left in our trip to ‘do Lawn Hill properly’ and we have decided that will be one of the first destinations that we head to when things finally start to slow down here at Blue Sky Produce. Continue reading
Categories: Camping, Qld Camping
Tags: Karumba, Krys the Crocodile, Normanton, Sunset Tavern
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Boulia
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!!!
Winton to Boulia
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
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
Winton
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!!!
Carisbrooke Station
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!
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
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Carisbrooke Station – Lark Quarry
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
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Longreach to Carisbrooke Station
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
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