Brissy to Birdsville and back again

[Rumpig]

Great report and pics as usual Mal . Sorry to hear about your Nanna.

cheers mate...had the funeral today, was a nice service. one of the relations is a minister who knew her fairly well, it was more personal having him do the service, and he did a great job i thought

[Kris]

Mal as always great report - surprised with the fuel price in birdsville - seems reasonable considering.

[jnr chook]

sounds like you had a great trip mal,  our condolences for nanna

[Rumpig]

DAY 8

bit of a sad day today, not for family reasons back home though, todays the day we start the return leg of our journey and that means we are closer to the end of our holiday then the beginning. we have a quick brekky and pack the camper up, drive across the road to the servo and fuel up the vehicles before departing town. today we are heading for Haddon Corner via Cordillo Downs Shearing Shed, we've been told by the lasy running the Innamincka trading Post a few days back that the Cordillo Rd is very rough, and there's no way we should consider taking our camper trailers across it....ohh well, looks like where in for an interesting day today then...lol.
driving out of town Glen comes over the uhf saying he wants to stop at the Welcome to Birdsville sign on the outskirts of town to get a photo, we didn't stop here the other day on our run into town as it was already getting late and the sun starting to set as we arrived in town, so we stopped off at the sign as we drove past and grabbed a photo. it worked out better this way anyhow, atleast the sun was in the right location for the photo to be taken...lol

PIC AT SIGN WE'RE LEAVING



NO RAIN TO BE SEEN AND ALL ROADS OPEN, WE'RE GOOD TO GO



driving past the racecourse we take a lefthand turn onto the Birdsville Developmental Rd, and head for Betoota / Windorah, it's approximately 120 klms down this road and we'll be turning right onto the Cordillo Downs Rd. the Developmental Rd is in good conditon, we make fairly decent time and soon find ourselves at the turn off we are looking for. pulling over to take another photo at the turn off sign, Glen pulls in behind me and calls over the uhf radio that my water tank in the camper has water pouring out it. i rush around the back of the camper and see that a rock must have hit the tap that is at the fill point and has turned it on, i quickly turn it off and wonder how much water i've lost along the way. i can't find out how much is lost by pushing the water level button in the camper either, as the battery that runs it went flat recently, and i haven't gotten around to changing it. i find it strange this has happened with the tap, we travelled up through the Gulf on our last big trip away towing the camper, and never once had the tap turn on during that trip. Glen has a look at his camper and his is doing the same thing, so he turns his off aswell. luckily for him though he has an extra water tank then we do on his camper, so he won't miss the water as much as we might possibly do. i'm not too concerned about the lost water though, i have a 20ltr jerry can full of water on the back of the camper, and we have a heap of bottled plastic water bottles inside the 4wd aswell.

BIRDSVILLE DEVELOPMENTAL ROAD



CORDILLO DOWNS ROAD TURN OFF



with pic taken of my vehicle i turn right onto the Cordillo Road and move out of the way so Glen can take a picture aswell, i pull the vehicle and camper off to the side of the road and look at how i can stop the tap from turning on again along the way. there's not much i can do to stop this from happening again, i grab some zip ties and attach them to the tap and a hole in the chassis, but i know the rocks will more then likely break the zip ties off as we go, but it's the best i can think of at the moment (thinking about it now, i should have used some wire i had in the vehicle). Glen pulls his vehicle inbehind mine and also tries to secure his tap with zip ties, he gives his camper a quick look over and whilst underneath notices a slight weeping of fluid coming from it's passenger side brake line at the disc. we grab the spanners out and give the bleed nut a tighten, it was a touch loose so we hope we have fixed that problem. continuing to check his camper, Glen notices a bracket that holds the hydraulic fluid resevoir for his brakes in place on the front of the camper is a touch wobbly, being it's riveted in place we can't tighten it up at all, so we grab a ratchet strap and wrap it arond the whole set up to make sure it can't depart from the trailer along the way. with these minor problems sorted we jump back in the vehicles and continue on our way. the road from the turn off of the developmental Road is also in excellent condition, i see on my GPS we have the Qld / South Australian Border coming up very soon, and i mention to Glen over the uhf, that i bet the road suddenly turns to rubbish the minute we cross the border, seeing it's supposed to be in very ordinary condition according to the lady back in Innamincka. reaching the border we stop once again to take another photo, it's only a quick stop and we are soon on our way before long.

QUEENSLAND / SOUTH AUSTRALIAN BORDER



from the border crossing it's about another 11klms to drive and we will be stopping in at the Cadelga Ruins for a look around, much to our surprise the road stays in very good conditon for the drive through to here, and by now we are wondering, just when will the bad section of road start. Cadelga Ruins was once the outstation for extensive pastoral land back in the 1800's and later abandoned in the 1950's, it's significance in history from what i can gather via a quick google on the web, is that it shows the extent of just how far settlers took up land for pastoral activities back in 1800's. we stop for a quick pic of the sign by the main road and drive in to have a look around, we spend a fair bit of time taking photos and trying to imagine what it must have been like to live here in complete isolation all those years ago.

CADELGA HOMESTEAD RUINS











our look around complete, we jump back in the vehicles and head for our next stop which is the Cordillo Downs Shearing Shed, with everyone inside the vehicle we start to shoo the flies out that have come along for the ride with us, there's a few inside the 4wd but we eventually manage to get rid of them all. from the ruins we start to go through a few creek crossings along the way, there's no water in the crossings themselves, but looking upstream and down stream at some of the crossings, there's some fantastic water holes that would have made for a lovely overnight camp spot. i doubt these waterholes are here all the time, i'm guessing it's more a sign of some good rainfalls they have had out here not to long ago. where the road was fairly open and straightish before the ruins, it's now become quite windy in some areas, you just start to get a bit of speed up, and your soon back down through the gears going through windy sections of road. it's a bit frustrating considering we are out in the middle of nowhere having to drive like this, but there's no rush so we just enjoy the scenery as we go along. up infront of us i suddenly see a dingo jump up from the lefthand side of the road, as it crosses to the righthand side of the road i notice the dingo is carrying one of it's front paws in the air like it's broken, the dingo hobbles off into the bush on the right of the road, and i stop to try and get a photo of it. the dingo doesn't go far and it lays down on the ground going nowhere, which helps with the picture taking, i just wish it was a touch closer.

INJURED DINGO LAYING DOWN IN THE SCRUB



back on the go again and we soon spot some more dingos up infront of us, there's 2 dingos on the righthand side of the road and another on the left. the dingos see us coming and the 2 on the right bolt for their lives off into the distance, they continued running the entire time i watched them, and i was never a chance to get a pic of them. the 3rd dingo on the lefthand side of the road, wasn't sure what to do though, you could see it wanted to join it's other 2 mates, but with us in the middle it just scurried about back and forth trying to decide if it should make a run for it towards it's mates, eventually it settled down and held it's ground where it was. we manage to take a few pics and then hold our spot so as not to spook the dingo, Glen arrives and also get the chance to photograph the dingo before we continue on our way.

ANOTHER DINGO ALONG THE ROADSIDE



from Cadelga Ruins it's 87klms to Cordillo Downs Shearing shed, we come across a closed gate about 7 or 8 klms before the shed and open it to pass through, and close it behind us so as to leave it how it was found. we soon see a radio tower of some descripton off in the distance and know where are almost at our lunch stop for the day. before reaching the shearing shed we come to a fork in the road, the sign tells us to keep right, so we do this and are soon turning left off of the road to the carpark area of the shearing shed. for those who don't know of Cordillo Downs, it's probably best know for it's stone shearing shed with curved tin roof, it was built this way due to a lack of timber about these parts. the property started out in 1875 as a sheep station, and at one time was Australia's largest sheep station, in 1942 it became a cattle station due to the large number of sheep being lost to dog attacks.
we have a look around the shearing shed and i must say i'm a touch disappointed at what i see, the shed itself is a nice enough building, but the property owners basically use it to store a heap of crap, and they have it strewn about the place inside, it's not exactly what i expected to see really. it would have been nice to see it different inside, but at the end of the day it belongs to the property owners, so they can do with it as they like. there is still some old shearing stuff about the place inside to look at, but it's nothing like what'd you'd see at places such as Bladensburg or Jondaryn Woolsheds. we finish our look around and then walk back to the vehicle and make lunch.

CORDILLO DOWNS SHEARING SHED







when we arrived here at the shearing shed there was another family who is also towing a camper trailer, already here having lunch. i say gidday to them and find out they have come from Innamincka this morning, i ask them how the road is in that direction, and much to my surprise am told it's in great condition. i give them the good news that the road to Birdsville is also in the same condition, so we are perplexed as to why the lady in Innamincka would say the road is in bad condition. whilst having our lunch the other family leaves and a short while later a 4wd on it own arrives, we hadn't seen any other vehicles on the Cordillo rd up until this point, so it was abit of a change for how the morning had gone so far. the people in the 4wd have a quick look around the shearing shed before jumping in the vehicle and leave, not long after we've finished our lunches and do the same ourselves.
from the shearing shed we drive 36klms South towards Innamincka before turning left to head East so we can head for Haddon Corner, that 36klms had us encountering about a half a dozen vehicles coming towards us, so whilst your not alone out in these parts, it's certainly not what you'd call a busy route either. we turn left from the cordillo rd and after driving 16klms we turn left at a junction in the road once again, we are now on the road that takes us North towards Haddon Corner. somewhere around these parts we once again cross the borderline and enter back into Qld, we stop for yet another quick photo and push on for what should be tonights camping destination.

CROSSING BACK INTO QLD



as with most of the dirt roads we've driven so far on this trip, this road is also in excellent condition and a plesure to drive on. we start to see quite a few emus along this section of road, we stop and get the odd pic and continue on again. along the way i spot a section of road i want to try and get a photo of our vehicle and camper on, i'm trying to capture that remote outback style of picture i see in the magazines, and although this is a graded road instead of a 2 wheeled track, it's about as good as i'm going to get i reckon.

THE ROAD'S IN GREAT CONDITION



ONE OF MANY EMU WE SPOT ALONG THE WAY



TRYING TO CAPTURE THE REMOTE FEEL IN A PHOTO



pushing on we soon find ourselves at the Haddon Corner turn off, we turn left and grab yet another photo, before driving the 15klms to the corner. the road in is also in pretty good condition, it's not as great as the roads we've been on today already, but for the most part you can't really complain about it at all either. just before you arrive at the corner there's a sand dune you need to go over, a fork in the road has you either going straight up and over a steep climb, or if you continue around the right fork in the road, you'll double back up a much less steep section of track over the sand dune. being i missed the fork in the road to left as i didn't know where it went to (there's no signs, just a fork in the road), we ended going around to the right up the less steep track. driving straight up and over the dune we soon find oursleve at Haddon Corner, it's a fairly desoltae sort of place and the wind is blowing through here at a decnt rate, flies are also in huge numbers out here, and not the most enjoyable place to be to tell the truth. that aside, we look about the area and take some photos of our visit to Hadon Corner.

HADDON CORNER TURN OFF



FAMILY PIC AT THE CORNER...(it's the only one i found in our collection without a fly very visible in it...lol)



ALL THE KIDS AT HADDON CORNER



pics taken and look around complete, discussion turns to where we are going to camp tonight. as i mentioned already, it's windy as and there's a heap of flies about the place, the open plane this side of the dune is out of question due to the wind, so the only option is to get back behind the dune and set up there. setting up behind the dune will get us out of the wind, but it won't help with the flies we decide, we look at our watches and some some quick calculations and work out if we jump in the vehicles and leave right now, we can make Windorah not to late tonight. we don't really like the option of night time driving out this way with all the roos and emus about, but we aren't happy with the camping option at Haddon corner, so Windorah here we come. we drive back the 15 klms to the main road once again and take a lefthand turn to head North for the Developmental Road, once we turn left i need to hold up and wait as Glen is kicking up a heap of dust and it's not clearing real quickly at all. eventually the dust clears and i can continue driving along, by now Glen is almost out of uhf range from me, and occasionally i do lose contact with him. when we regain radio contact, Glen tells me of some eagles on the side of the road he had already past, it takes a while before we reach them, but to my surprise they are still there and i see 4 of them. as we pull up down the road from them one of the eagles takes flight, i'm pretty sure the rest will do the same as i get close enough to take a pic, but to my surprise the other 3 hang around and i manage to get a few photos of them, i only wish i had a bigger zoom lense for a real close up of each though.

3 EAGLES BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD



leaving the eagles to continue their feast on the roo carcus we continue for Windorah, we reach the Developmental Rd and turn right, it's about 50 klms from here to the Diamantina Developmental Road, where we'll turn right and be back on the bitumin. the sun by now is statrng to set as we head for the bitumin, we notice how many roos we are seeing in the paddocks beside the road and aren't looking forward to the drive into Windorah in the dark. reaching the bitumin with daylight still about, we quickly reinflate all our tyres (well that takes about 20 minutes really) and then drive the 110 klms into Windorah. somewhere past the JC Hotel Ruins turnoff, we notice a mountain range up in front of us that is looking really pretty with the colours it is throwing off in the setting sun, we try and get a pic of it as we drive along, but don't really do it any justice.

PIC OF MOUNTAIN RANGE WE DIDN'T REALLY DO JUSTICE TO



the sun has set by now but twilight still gives us some faint light to spot the animals by the roadside, in the distance up ahead i spot what looks like about a dozen roos on the righthand side of the road, it's hard to see due to being almost dark now and i call back to Glen on the uhf to watch out for them. somethings not quite right as i watch the so called roos making an exit off the road into the scrub, as i get closer i notice they are infact pigs not roos, and they are dragging a roo carcus off the road to take with them. they drop the carcus a few times as they scurry away, but each time one of the pigs picks it's up again and takes it with them into the bush.

PIGS WITH ROO CARCUS....it's not as daylight as it looks in the pics, i up'd the ISO settings etc as i took the pic to try and make it work.



eventually the sun sets completely and we are left to use the lights of our vehicles to spot the wildlife that is about, many times we find ourselves slowing right up for roos that are darting about by the side of the road, but for the most part they head away from the vehicles as we approach, instead of towards us. right on about 7.00 p.m we arrive in windorah, there's a council run caravan park on the righthand side as you enter town, the sign on the front wall says you just set up anywhere you can and they will come around in the morning (at 7.00 a.m it is) to collect the fees from you. we enter the park and drive right down the back as far as we can to set up camp for the night, the rates are cheap here and powered sites not much more then unpowered, so we hook into the power and set about making dinner once the camper is set up. Glen and his family head down the pub for dinner whilst we stay back at camp and cook our own, when dinner is finished Glen and his family arrive back at camp and everyone pretty much heads off to bed. it's been a big days drive, much bigger then we planned on doing, and we're all buggered....time for some sleep

[Rumpig]

DAY 9

we woke this morning with no plan what we are doing from here on in for the rest of our trip, before leaving we had roughly planned up until this stage and purposely left from here on unplanned, as we had no idea how many days we'd have left of our holiday incase something went wrong along the way. coffee in hand, i find myself migrating to where the sun is shining to try and warm up a touch, in the shade it's abit cold, so i stand in the sun and look at my road atlas trying to work out where i'd like to go next. we've all been around these parts before on previous trips away, and the main route home via Charleville and Roma etc we've done to death, there's nothing we can think of we want to see along that route, so it's out as an option. Before heading away on this trip i'd been reading some other peoples trip reports they'd done of their recent holidays, i recalled a place called Bladensburg National Park near Winton that had an old shearing shed there to look at, so i threw this in as a suggestion. if you look at a map it's not exactly what you'd call in the right direction for heading home, but i then suggested we could head from there to Cania Gorge near Biloela afterwards and stay there a few nights, and this then became are next rough plan of the end of the trip. looking at the map it's something like 470klms from Windorah to Winton going via the Winton / Jundah rd, the morning is already getting away from us, so we decide to call it a day off from travelling today, and we'll look around Windorah today and head off early tomorrow morning instead. now before this plan gets set into motion, i need to make a phone call back home again and see what's happening with my Nan. There's no mobile phone coverage in Windorah, so i jump in my 4wd and drive down the road to find a pay phone. The pay phone is located across the road from the information centre for those who go looking for it in the future, i make my call and find there's no change in her condition, Nans still fighting on and there's no need to rush home yet. Phone call made i walk across the road and pay the information centre a quick visit, i grab a book of Winton area that shows Bladensburg National Park so the others can get an idea of what's out there, and as i'm leaving i note the museum that is here for visitors to walk through, so make a plan to come back later in the day and have a wander around. i leave the info centre and head back to the campground to have some breakfast. our trip route decision now made, it's time to cook a hot brekky once again, the kids want  pancakes so that's what we end up having.
brekky done and dusted, we decide to go for a drive just out of town to have a look at the Cooper Creek free camp on the outskirts of town. we'd love to go fishing in the creek here today but we don't have any fishing gear with us, Glen looked in the local store this morning when he stopped in there and they had some, but the price was more then we were willing to pay for a simple handline and tackle set up. not to matter, we head off anyway as we want to see exactly what the free camp is like, incase we end up stopping there sometime in the future. our original rough plan had this free site as a planned stop over, but seeing we arrived in Windorah in the dark lastnight, we decided it'd just be easier to camp at the van park instead, so now we'll go see what we missed out on. heading out of town towards Quilpie direction, the last thing you see as you leave Windorah is the solar farm on the lefthand side of the road. going by the blurb on the information board across the road from th solar farm, this was commisioned back in 2009 and was Ergons first use of solar technology. Ergon apparently chose to trial a set up like this in Windorah due to the fact it has a population of only about 100 people. i'm not sure exactly whether the solar farm supplies the entire towns power supply as a general rule, one thing i do know though is, with none of the solar panels currently pointing towards the sun, they aren't supplying it today that's for sure...lol

WINDORAH SOLAR FARM





THIS SIGN IS HERE ALSO...LAST PUB FOR HOW FAR!!!!!



photos taken we continue on down the road to Cooper Creek, i mention to Glen over the uhf there's a 12klm "scenic drive" we can take on the way back that i saw on a sheet of paper at the information centre, so we lock that in as our return route. strangely enough, with the scenic route being a 12klm trip leaving from the campsite we are heading to, the Cooper Creek free camp is located about 12klms out of town. we'd seen this free camp area as we cruised past back in 2010 on our desert trip, we knew there was a toilet block located here, but weren't sure what the actual campsites were like and how far off the main highway you could locate yourself. crossing the bridge over the Cooper we turn left off the highway where the toilet block is, we quickly see this is a very small area suitable for about 4 caravans at most, and you are right beside the highway aswell, so bound to be very noisey with the roadtrains passing over the bridge during the night. across the other side of the highway is another tiny spot right beside the road also, neither spot is somewhere we'd ever look to camp at in the future, but there's several caravans set up here already, they must love the 30mtr walk to the toilet is all we can think off. we cross back over the bridge to the Windorah side of the Cooper, we turn right onto a dirt track and follow along beside the creek. the track we are on heads 200 - 300 hundred metres away from the highway, there's some nice campsites located along this track, and it's a much better option then where the earlier mentioned caravans are set up in IMHO, the only downside for some is you'd have a fair distance to go to use the toilets (there was a few people camped down around this area of the creek, though plenty of vacant places to camp also). we reach a dead end in the track and turn around and head back to the highway, halfway back we stop and jump out of the vehicles and walk down to the water for a look around and opportunity to take some more photos. it's a beautiful day, the suns belting down, there's pelicans swimming around on the water out in front of us, and looking up and down the creek we can see plenty of people spread out so as not to be near each other, sitting on the banks relaxing with fishing rods in hand. we take a few photos and then head off for the scenic drive back to town.

COOPER CREEK





back at the highway we cross straight across the road from the track we were just on, the scenic drive starts here and begins by following along side the creek like the track we were just on. as we proceed along we see there's more campsite areas along this section of track that are set back well and truely from the highway also, there's a few caravans already camped here, but like the other track there's vacant spots to set up in also. about 200mtrs in the track starts to head away from the creek, and along the route you'll notice signboards at many different trees along the way telling you what the species of that tree is, many of the names i've never heard of before. the track is easy going, you don't need 4wd unless it's wet and muddy, and if it was you wouldn't bother taking this track as a route to drive anyway, as  you'd just end up destroying it. from memory i think there's 2 gates you pass through along the way, one was closed and the other open at our time of visit, we left them as we found them and soon found ourselves coming back out onto the highway just on the town side of the solar farm.

SCENIC ROUTE BACK TO TOWN







we drive back into town and stop off at the local store to grab a few supplies, the store has a nice variety of things available but not a massive amount of each item. the store is quite small in size, smaller then your local corner store would likely be in most cities, between Glens visit here this morning and ours just now, we grabbed the last bottles of milk from the fridge that we could see, so don't just expect to find whatever you need from here, because you might not find it. we grab a few items and head back to camp for lunch, cook up some toasted sangas and chill out a touch just relaxing. you might remember the large 5th wheeler i showed a picture of back on Day 1 when we were camped at Nindigully, well he's set up beside us. we get to chatting and eventually we manage to wrangle a guided tour through his mansion, a bit big for my likings but very nice indeed i will say. after lunch we take the kids down to the playground that is beside the information centre, it's a nice little set up they have here and the kids run wild for about an hour. walking next door it's time to check out the museum that's located at the information centre, you just walk into the info centre and there's a door inside the building that gets you access to the museum outside. it's only a small area to walk around but you'll find some pretty interesting items on display, if you look on the wall to the right of the door before you exit ouside the information building, you'll notice some pieces of paper giving details of some of the items that are to be found outside. we have a look around and eventually head back to camp once again

MUSEUM AT INFORMATION CENTRE









1960'S LEYLAND BUFFALO ON DISPLAY HERE ALSO



back at camp we have an early shower to beat the grey nomads who have started to pack this place out. it's a pretty popular little van park, not overly attractive to look at, but it's clean (well as clean as a dirt road place can get), safe and cheap...which the nomads all seem to love, and who can blame them for that. showers had and around 5.00 p.m we walk down to the pub for dinner, tonights menu is an all you can eat bbq, and i think it was $18 a head from memory and kids were $10 i think. a few drinks had before the owners fire the bbq up, and we then have much nicer steaks here then we had back in Birdsville, i only go back for seconds but i think Glen went back for fourths....lol. with dinner had we head back to camp, it's getting cold outside by now so the women and kids head off inside the campers to go to sleep or read books, Glen and i stay up to have a few more drinks and listen to the footy on the radio for a while, before calling it a night ourselves and  heading off to bed aswell.

[jay]

wow looks like it was a great fun trip.. so jealous

[Rumpig]

DAY 10

fairly early start to the morning for us today, with just under 500 klms drive infront of us, and much of it on dirt roads we don't know the condition of, we want to leave Windorah as early as we can. breakfast had and camper packed up in the semi dark, we depart the caravan park to meet up with Glen who has already gone and is down at the service station fuelling up his vehicle. don't quote me on this, but from memory the servo in town is open from 6.00 a.m until 6.00 p.m daily. yesterday i got to talking to another guy we'd seen in Birdsville days earlier, he showed me the new air filter he'd just gotten from the Windorah servo for his 3ltr Patrol for a pretty cheap price, i'd mentioned it to Glen yesterday arvo as his was a touch dirty when he inspected his the morning previous, so now Glen was taking the opportunity to get one for his Patrol and swap it over before we leave this morning. i myself didn't bother fueling up here in Windorah, i'd done it in Birdsville yesterday morning, and if my sums are correct i'd be fine to get to Winton on the fuel i have left in my vehicle. vehicles good to go, we leave town towards Quilpie direction past the solar farm once again, and about 6 klms down the highway we turn left and head towards Jundah.
we've already spotted a couple of roos along the first 6 klm stretch of road, and turning left off the highway there's 3 or 4 more bouncing about the place also. this pretty much sets the tone for the entire day today, the next 90klms we drive along the bitumin towards Jundah has us seeing kangaroos everywhere, seriously we'd see hundreds of them. many times we have to brake to avoid hitting the animals as they bounce across the road infront of us, i'd expected to be seeing them as it was still fairly early in the morning as we drove along, but not expected to see them in the numbers we were seeing. along the way we find ourselves slowing for the usually cattle on the road also, the going is a touch slower then we'd expected it to be for a bitumin road due to constantly having to slow down for animals about the place everywhere.

KANGAROOS ABOUT THE PLACE EVERYWHERE AS WE DRIVE ALONG



THEY HAVE ZERO ROAD SENSE



ARE YOU GETTING AN IDEA OF WHAT WE SAW EVERYWHERE THIS MORNING YET?...lol...YOU AIN'T SEEN ANYTHING YET



THESE GUYS DO AS THEY PLEASE ALSO



HAVE I MENTIONED THE ROOS ABOUT THE PLACE YET? THERE'S ATLEAST 8 IN THIS PIC, A FAIRLY GOOD IDEA OF WHAT THE DRIVE WAS LIKE THE ENTIRE WAY



about 10klms shy of Jundah we turn left off the bitumin onto a dirt road that is the Winton - Jundah Rd, from here it's about 350klms of dirt road driving (with another 20 odd klms of bitumin at the end) before you reach Winton. the dirt road like all the rest we've travelled so far is in excellent condition, so much so we don't bother to deflate our tyres for it. along the way the road starts off as a nicely graded gravel road, it becomes more stoney as you go along requiring us to eventually deflate our tyres, then it'll eventually turns into just a couple of wheel tracks going across the plainlands much further up the road, and as you get closer to Winton the road goes back to a graded gravel road again before rejoining the bitumin for the final run into town.
from where we turned left off of the bitumin it's about another 100 klms up the road and we need to turn left again at a T intersetion, we haven't seen another vehicle all morning yet since we left Windorah, but the 100's of roos we've seen have kept our reflexes busy as we try and avoid them. HAVE I MENTIONED THE ROOS YET?? seriously.... by the end of todays drive we will have seen well over a thousand kangaroos as we drive along, they were in plague propertions out here and i can't recall when the last time was i've seen this many of them in the one area. as well as the roos and the cows we've seen this morning, we see a few more eagles, we stop to try and get a pic of one, but as usual i need a bigger zoom lense to get the close up pic i want, and the eagle flies off when we eventually start getting to close to it.

EAGLE OUT IN THE PADDOCK ALONG THE WAY



THEY ALWAYS FLY OFF AS WE GET CLOSE ENOUGH TO PHOTOGRAPH THEM SADLY



as we continue along our drive Glen calls me over the uhf radio, he's noticed a dark line running down the dirt road behind me and thinks my water tap has been knocked on again, i pull up and sure enough he's correct. i turn it off and think to myself i'll have to make a guard up of some description for that when we get back home. whilst pulled up here i take the opportunity to take another pic or 2, the misses grabs some dinner out of the freezer so it can start to defrost and we grab some drinks and nibbles out to enjoy as we continue on our drive.

PIC IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE



pushing on and it's a continuation of the roo dodging game, we then reach the T intersetion and turn left where we pull up on the side of the road so someone can go to the loo. whilst stopped here we decide to check the water taps once again, Glen notices his passenger side wheel on his camper is covered in brake fluid, so we get the tools out and see what we can do about it. on closer inspection Glen notices the brake line has been damaged, we can't do anything to fix this problem out here, so we turn the tap on the drawbar to closed to stop the fluid being pumped through the brakeline, and Glen will have to drive from here on with no trailer brakes.

MORE ROOS ALONG THE WAY



HOSING THE BRAKE FLUID OFF FROM UNDER THE CAMPER



with about 250 klms still to drive today we pretty much are in the middle of nowhere at the moment, you don't see any houses out here along the way, and we still haven't seen another vehicle all morning yet. this Winton - Jundah Rd is a fairly scenic drive, the countryside is always changing, and i'd definately recommend it as a route to take if you get the chance to do it, but just remember, if anything goes wrong you'll not see much traffic on this road going by our drive along here. about 100 klms shy of Winton we come across an area where they have started doing some roadworks, the road here was fairly crappy to drive along with the way the graders have left it at the moment, but when they have finished it'll be just as good as the rest of the road we have driven over thus far. we don't see any workers about the area, but we do get a laugh at the road signs we see on the roadside, keeping in mind we've just traversed a couple of hundred klms of dirt road already this morning to get here...lol

SIGNS BY THE ROADSIDE





it's lunchtime by now and we are about 20 klms short of the turnoff to Lark Quarry, we finally see our first vehicle of the day heading towards us, i slow down thinking it's an oncoming truck but see it's a motorhome instead, moving off the road so as not to cop stone damage,  i let them go past and we continue on our way. looking for somewhere nice to stop for lunch along the way, we don't see anything that takes our fancy, we eventually reach the Lark Quarry turnoff and pull up for a quick discussion of what to do next. we toy with the idea of going into Lark Quarry and having lunch there, but it's something like 15klms down that road (from mmeory) so we decide against that option and push on to tonights campsite where we'll have a late lunch and then set up camp instead.
before long we are at the turn off to Bladensburg National Park, we turn off the highway and take a photo at the sign that is located here. earlier on (about 30klms back) the GPS was telling us to turn down a road that i think may have been a short cut to the camp ground, looking at a map it showed a road going into the park but there's no signs back at the highway saying Bladensburg is in that direction, so to play it safe we continued driving to this turn off that is closer to Winton. the track into the park is easy going, we soon arrive at a Y junction in the road and we take the righthand track following the signs to the camping ground. if you turn left at the y junction it's take you to both the shearing shed and old homestead, it's probably a good option to head straight to the homestead first up, as the main house is an information centre on the park and you can grab a map of the area from here (as we found out later on...lol). not knowing exactly where we were going, we settled for following the signs to the campground, we pass quite a few turn offs to other places i guess would be nice to explore, and soon find ourselves at the self registration stand at the turn off to the campground. we grab some permits to fill out but decide it might be a good idea to drive in and have a look at what the campground is like first up, before parting with our $20.45 it will cost each family to stay here the night. the campground is located a few hundered metres down the track from the registration stand, we drive in and the first thing we notice is the place is busier then the Queen Street mall back home in Brisbane, seriously...we are struggling to find a spot to set our 2 camper trailers up in. we drive around the campground and eventually pull up in the shade of a few trees to discuss our options, we decide to make some lunch as we're all starving by now, and we'll likely not bother camping here the night and head into Winton instead.

SIGN AT THE HIGHWAY TURNOFF



as we have our lunch the thought of staying here the night becomes less appealing, i know i haven't mentioned it already, but the wind has been blowing pretty strongly all day today. the campground is an absolute dust bowl due to an obvious lack of rain about these parts of late,  and whilst trying to eat our sandwiches we have to turn our backs to the wind to stop from getting face fulls of dust that is blowing about the place. on top of that... even if the wind dies down enough tonight, we wouldn't be allowed to have a campfire here, as that's against park rules. if  we really had to we could have squeezed in beside a couple of caravans in one area of the campground, but couple the lack of space with the dust that is blowing about the place, and it really wasn't a nice place to camp IMHO, we couldn't actually work out why so many people were camped here. now don't get me wrong..... with water flowing or atleast sitting in the dry creek bed beside the campground, i could see this being a nice place you might want to camp at, but with the large number of people currently camped here and the dustbowl like conditions, it wasn't somewhere we wanted to be, so we had lunch and decided to go look at the shearing shed and homestead before we'd head into Winton and bunk down at a caravan park for the night instead.
gritty dust covered sandwiches eaten, we pack the camper kitchens up and leave the campground. i stop to grab a photo of a gravesite marker of some description as we leave here, and we head back along the track we'd just driven in on, back to the first Y junction we encountered on the way in. i've since tried goggling the gravesite i photographed at the campground, i can only find information about another gravesite belonging to a fencers daughter that is located in the park area, so if anyone knows any info on this gravesite, i'd be interested to hear about it thanks. (unless i'm mistaken and this is the gravesite they are talking about?)

GRAVESITE AT CAMPGROUND AREA



back at the first Y junction we saw on the way in, we turn hard right and head towards the homestead. before arriving at the homestead there's a track running off to the left where the shearing shed is located (the tracks are signed), we turn left here and drive the short distance down this track to look at the old shed. it's not that far down this track and soon arrive at the shed and hop out of the vehicles to look around, there's a large door that you need to slide open to gain entry inside, so we open it and walk inside. we look around for a while and take photos, one can only imagine how hot and sweaty it must have been in this tin shed as the shearers went about there work. our look around the shed complete we jump back in the vehicles and head back up to the homestead.

BLADENSBURG SHEARING SHED







back at the junction where we turned off to head to the shearing shed, we turn left and cross down through a dry creek bed, there's a few roos here that slowly move away from the roadside as we drive past, and about 100mtrs up the track further we pull up at the old homestead itself. it's a pretty big set up they used to run out here, aswell as the main homestead house  there's a few large outhouse buildings and some sheds aswell. the main house is an information centre on the park as i mentioned earlier, inside you'll find National Parks pamphlets on the park aswell as a heap of other displays and information also. it would have been very handy if we'd driven in here first off, whilst there's signage about the park showing the names of places at the intersections you go past, if you don't know what's at the named locations already the signs aren't of much help to you at all. looking at the information pamphlet i see a few places that would be nice to look around here at another time, but seeing we've decided we won't be staying the night here we finish our look about the homestead and jump back in the vehicles and head into Winton.

BLADENSBURG HOMESTEAD ... some of the outhouse buildings to the left and main house / information centre on the far right



as we are leaving Bladensburg we pass a few 2wd sedans driving in, as i mentioned already the track in is fairly easy going, though it is a touch stoney in places also. returning to the bitumin highway we turn right and drive the 5 or so klms into Winton, there's 3 caravan parks in town and we head for the only one that is off the main highway and try our luck. luck is on our side here, it's $34 for the night for a powered site, not much more then camping at Bladensburg really and we have flushing toilets and hot showers here. we are shown to our sites by the owner of the park, the sites we are given are fairly small in lenght, but we manage to squeeze on and set up camp for the night. to be honest the park is pretty busy, there's a pile of people here at the moment, but once it gets dark the majority adjourn to their caravans and we don't see hardly another sole for most of the night. we enjoy a few drinks tonight whilst listening to the great music being played over one of the radio stations we have found on the campers radio (don't worry it wasn't being played loudly...lol), we're not sure what the neighbours must have thought of us all as we danced about whilst cooking our dinners, but who cares what they think anyway...we were having fun and that's all that counts. dinner had and a few more drinks consumed, we head off to bed for the night to get some sleep.

[Rumpig]

DAY 11

woke up around 7.00 a.m and it's slightly chilly once again, i think we stayed in the camper with the heater going until about 7.30 a.m and then got up to have brekky and start the pack up procedure once again. our plan for today is to drive straight down the highway to Emerald, we've toyed with the idea of stopping at a few other places as an overnight camp along the way instead of Emerald, but seeing it's 1000klms from here to Cania Gorge we've decided to drive 600klms today and leave 400klms left the following day, where we'll then spend a few nights in the one spot. whilst having brekky i make a call to the Emerald Cabin & Caravan Village to see if they have any vacancies for tonight, luck is on our side and they do, so i book 2 sites and then finish eating breakfast. booking ahead in the morning turned out to be a good plan, when we arrived here in the afternoon we found out the park was fully booked out, so it was lucky we booked ahead. some people will ask why we didn't stay at the van park at the dam outside of town? well 2 years ago we stopped in there on our return run back from Darwin planning on staying there the night, and the attitude of the people working in reception had us walking out of the place and voying to never stay there ever. we didn't stay there that night 2 years back, and we didn't plan on going there on this trip.
we pack the campers up and head off from the van park a touch before 9.00 a.m, first thing we do is drive into the main street of town and go to the bakery to grab some fresh bread, that job done we drive back to the service station and refuel the vehicles and reinflate our tyres back to road pressures, as they were still deflated from yesterdays dirt road driving. leaving Winton about 9.30 a.m it's an uneventful run to Longreach, we make comment over the uhf to each other that the dirt roads we've been driving on before now are much easier to drive then the bitumin road, the bitumin highway has us bopping and weaving all over the place, it really is crap to drive on after such great dirt roads previous to this. we've all been about these parts a few times previous on other trips away, so there'll be no sight seeing today and the plan is to just get to Emerald as soon as we can and set up camp for the night. arriving in Longreach Glen needs to top up his fuel to make sure he can get to Emerald, we make a quick pitstop at a servo to do so and then continue on our way once again. leaving Longreach and we immediately encounter roadworks, this will be an ongoing thing through to Barcaldine from here and slows are progress time wise a touch, but nothing too drastic. along with the crap condition of the highway, another thing we've noticed today is the number of travellers that are on the road, out where we've been up to this point it hasn't been real busy as far as fellow travellers goes, yes they been about but nothing like the numbers we are seeing today. other then the roadworks we encounter it's a straight forward run into Barcaldine, we stopped at the Tree of Knowledge 2 years back so drive straight past it this time and turn left down the road a touch, into the showgrounds where we plan to stop and have lunch. the showgrounds is a nice enough spot set back a little more from the highway then the other parks that are in the main street, there's toilet blocks here (one has a shower also, though out of service on this visit) and they allow camping here also, which we did a couple of years back. we pull up under the shade of the trees beside the main oval and proceed to have a bite to eat. looking on the main oval whilst having lunch we spot a heap of birds that look like hawks of some description, a look into the sky above sees about another 50 of these same birds circling above us, i'm not sure what's their fascination with this place, but they are in large numbers here for some reason.

LUNCH STOP BARCALDINE SHOWGROUND



PLENTY OF BIRDS LIKE THESE ABOUT THE OVAL AND CIRCLING ABOVE



a quick lunch had and we are soon back on the road again, it's still 300klms to Emerald from here so plenty more blacktop yet to drive today.  about 90klms down the highway from Barcaldine is the small town of Jericho, supossably there's a nice free camp in this town on the banks of the river somewhere, and we originally considered staying here the night and then pushing onto Cania Gorge the next day. going this option left us with over 600klms to drive tomorrow, which is why we ran with Emerald as tonights destination, which leaves 200 and a bit less klms that we need to drive tomorrow instead. driving straight through Jerico we soon pass through the town of Alpha about another 50klms down the highway, there's nothing much special to look at as we drive along and about the only thing i can recall of interest on the run to Emerald is the Drummond Range. 2 years back when we passed through here this area was on fire and smoke about the place everywhere, we stopped off at the lookout at the top of the range on that trip to look at the view, but didn't see much due to the smoke about the area. there was no plan to stop at the lookout today though, but as we crested the range and started to decend the other side you get a pretty decent view out infront of you as you drive along anyhow.

VIEW EAST (?) AS YOU DECEND THE DRUMMOND RANGE HEADING TOWARDS EMERALD



the rest of the drive into Emerald isn't worth mentioning, it's a good run and we arrive at the caravan park around 4.30 p.m. we check in at reception and the lady manning the desk is glad to hear we have a booking, the park is fully booked apparently and she wasn't looking forward to turning us away if we didn't have a booking she said...lol. check in completed we drive to our site and set up camp for the night, we unhook the campers and then go do some grocery shopping to restock the now depleted pantries. grocery shopping done we start to walk out to the carpark and then my phone rings, it's one of the boys (Faz) from work back home and he's seen my 4wd in the carpark out front. Faz is in Emerald doing some work on the motel around the corner, we catch up and say gidday to each other before going our seperate ways, as we say goodbye to each other Faz tells me to head over to the free camp across the road and have a look at how many people are staying there. for those who don't know of this free camp in Emerald, it's situated right beside the main highway into town and underneath / beside the trainline also, i can't work out why people would want to stay here myself, but going on the conversation i've just had with Faz there's a few people over there a the moment. we load the groceries into the fourby and drive the short distance to the freecamp across the road, when faz said it's busy here he wasn't kidding, the place is like a refugee camp and i'm astounded to see just how many people are staying here the night. we turn back around and head down to Red Rooster to grab some dinner before going back to camp for the night. a fairly quiet night tonight for all, we have dinner, unpack the groceries and restock the camper trailers, before then having a couple of drinks and heading off to bed.

DAY 12

up fairly early to the sound of cars whizzing by on the road out front of the van park, i'm going to take a punt this road runs out to a mine somewhere going by the amount of vehicles i hear using the road as i lay in bed. eventually we get up and do the usual breakfast and pack up routine, we only have about 400klms to drive to Cania Gorge so hopefully we'll be there not to much after lunch time today. we refuel the vehicles before leaving town and continue our drive East along the Capricorn hwy towards Rockhampton direction, we'll stay on this highway for about 215klms before we turn right and head down the Leichhartd Hwy then Burnett Hwy to Biloela, where we'll stop for a quick lunch before then pushing on to tonights destination. as with yesterdays bitumin drive todays run is fairly uneventful, before turning right off the Capricorn Hwy we stop in at Duaringa rest area for a quick toilet stop, and i checkout the freecamp facilities that to be found here. this freecamp looks an ok stopover for a night IMHO, much nicer then the freecamp everyone was using in Emerald, and it's nicely maintained. back in the vehicles we continue on to Biloela, the drive along the Leichhardt Hwy has us commenting once again about how bad a condition it is to drive on for a bitumin road, it's like being on a rollercoaster with the humps and bumps that are on it. arriving in Biloela we grab some hot chips from a takeaway store and drive back to the information centre on the outskirts of town at Queensland Heritage Park, to make ham and chip sandwiches for lunch. after lunch we drive across the road to the bottle shop and grab some more essential supplies, before leaving town and continuing on to Cania Gorge.
arriving at Cania Gorge around 4.00 p.m we check in at the Big 4 caravan park and set up camp for the next 2 or 3 nights, we haven't decided how long exactly we'll stay for yet, but pay for 2 nights to start with. there's 2 caravan parks you can stay at when at Cania Gorge, we choose the Big 4 as we ourselves have stayed here before about 6 years back (here's my old trip report from then http://www.4wdaction.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=37596 ), it's a fantastic place for the kids to enjoy which is why we choose it. each afternoon (around 5.00 p.m i think it was) the park does a free bird feeding, the women take the kids down to this and i jump in the 4wd and head off down the road outside of the National Park area to collect some firewood. whilst collecting the firewood i look up from where i am and see the sun shining on the surrounding rock outcrops as it starts to set, i grab the camera and take some photos and then head back to camp.

SUNSETTING AT CANIA GORGE



back at camp we get the fire going and enjoy a few drinks sitting around it, we have some dinner and enjoy a few more drinks whilst we watch the Rufus Bettongs dart about the park during the night. eventually we head off to bed, though no idea what time it was that happened.

RUFUS BETTONGS AT THE PARK




DAY 13

no packing up camp today, so it's bacon and eggs for brekky. we've nothing planned for today so it's basically let the kids run wild in the play areas whilst we sit back and relax as much as possible. one thing we noticed when we arrived yesterday is the addition of a water park in the pool area, it doesn't matter that it's not that warm, kids being kids they want to go for a swim and enjoy the slides etc. the women take the kids to the pool area around 10.30 a.m and Glen and myself go for a drive to grab some more firewood, we disappear a fair way up the road before we can find anything suitable to cut up with the chainsaw, but eventually we get the job done and head back to camp. arriving back at camp i find what i think is a couple of smurfs in the pool area, well they aren't actually smurfs but more our kids who have turned blue from the cold water they are playing in. we call time on their water fun and bundle them off to some warm showers to defrost them before having some lunch.

NEW WATER PARK IN THE POOL AREA



after lunch we pretty much sit around and do bugger all, i join the kids on the jumping pillow for some fun for a while before then heading back to camp and getting the fire started once again. at some stage during the day i walked over to the park office and enquired about the drive to the Liberty Bomber crash site which is located in nearby Kroombit National park, we did this drive last time we stayed here and i wanted to show Glen and his family this great sight whilst we were here. the drive is an all day trip, you leave the caravan park around 8.00 a.m in the morning and don't get back until about 5.00 p.m that afternoon, it's a scenic drive and well worth doing if you get the chance to do so. our plan is to maybe do this drive tomorrow, but upon my enquiring about it, the lady behind the desk informs me the road is still closed on this side of the mountain from the damage it recieved during Australia Day flooding. i inform Glen of this information and we decide that seeing we can't do the drive we want to do, rather then stay here another day doing nothing (there's walks to do about the area if your into that sort of thing by the way) we'll pack up tomorrow and head home instead.
around 5.00 p.m i take the kids back up to the bird feeding once again, we hand feed the birds and then head back to camp for another night of sitting around the fire and relaxing.

SHOWING THE KIDS HOW IT'S DONE



PLENTY OF THESE GUYS ABOUT THE PARK





NOT A BAD WAY TO SPEND THE NIGHT



DAY 14

the plan today is to pack up and leave around 10.00 a.m and head home from here. it's an overcast morning, and i wake to the sound of very light rain falling on the canvas. it stays fairly overcast all morning though the camper does get the chance to mostly dry out before we pack it up. we leave Cania Gorge pretty much right on 10.00 a.m and drive through to Gayndah where we stop to make lunch at a park in town. from Gayndah it's a straight through drive back home to Brisbane where our holidays is now completed, we get home around 5.00 p.m and i call my old man up and check to see how nanna is going, she's had all drips etc removed a few days ago and they don't think she'll last another night, though they thought the same thing a week ago also. i get the details of where my nan is and we jump in the wifes car and head straight up to the Greenslopes hospital to say are goodbyes to my nan, it's nice getting the chance to say goodbye to her and she eventually passes away 4 days later on.
so thats the trip report now completed, the trip didn't work out exactly how we planned it to do, but in the end we still had a good time despite the problems we encountered along the way.

[jnr chook]

well done mal,

[Hangman]

Great report mate.

How many km's total?

[Rumpig]

well done mal,

cheers Jeanette

Great report mate.

How many km's total?

cheers mate...about 4700klms i think from memory, wasn't quite 5000klms i know because i had a few hundred klms up my sleeve before i needed to change the oil again....lol