We were on the road a tab before 8am heading for Boulia, the Home of the Min Min Lights. Myth or real??? A new road for us, and it wasn’t too bad, we’ve been on worse roads a lot closer to the coast. Yes, it was only one lane in a lot of places and we had to get right off the road for a number of triple bogey road trains and other vehicles, but in the main, it was smooth and we saw some amazing scenery. The landscape kept changing from lush bushy creek lines to flat barren treeless plains and back again in the space of a few km. The different coloured soils are amazing. We are certainly in the outback and not far from the Red Centre.
We had mornos at a rest area, had a wander at Middleton, a one pub, no horse, town, and lunch at Min-Min Hotel Ruins and Unknown Traveller Grave stop. Apart from some emus, roos (mostly dead ones from road-kills), a lot of cattle and a few wedge tailed eagles there was just the wide open spaces. The traffic was also sparse, with a total of eight normal vehicles and six road trains.
We also stopped at Cawnpore Lookout because we had to see the landscape from higher up. The short mountain hike and the view were all worth it in the end.
When we left Winton the vehicle instruments told us we had plenty of fuel for the trip, with some to spare. However we hadn’t accounted for a hefty sidewind that pushed our consumption up. As a precaution we reduced our speed about 100 km out to conserve fuel and made it to Boulia with about 20lt to spare. Lesson for today: when in doubt fill it up!
After checking into the Boulia caravan park, a lovely green oasis on the river with a resident red roo and a couple of camels, we set up camp and enjoyed a nice cup of tea in the shade and plenty of flies. It was then onto the bikes to explore Boulia. Not a big town, but some interesting little features which we’ll examine in more detail tomorrow. 7 km later, we were back the the van doing our afternoon exercise routine, to the amusement of fellow caravaners, most of whom have never heard of the word.
We are here for three nights, Greg will be looking for some bush tracks to ride.
Winton this morning
All the different road types and scenery
Caravanners get notice of when to speed up!
Waiting for a road train full of cattle to pass; all drivers were very thankful and waved heartily
Mornos
Spinifex
The way the spinifex lights up the side of a mound
Middleton
Bustards
Pano from the bottom looking up
Panos from the top looking down
A normal picture from the top
Lunch stop
War Memorial Boulia
Corroboree Tree at Boulia
Mural at Boulia sports and aquatic centre
Old stuff at Boulia
The van park's resident red roo, he has a slight tremor
The resident camel, likes carrots apparently
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