Day 29: Sat 9 Jan: Hughenden to Townsville 398km

Had another great meal at the Royal then decided to sleep outside under the stars, alongside the dogs, with a cool breeze blowing... Ah delightful... til 1am when Laura got stung by a caterpillar and came up in horrendously itchy blisters on her feet!!

So we packed up and went inside, leaving the door open and the dogs on long ropes, so they could get out if needed. Well that didn't work either because it got much windier about 3am and the door blew shut...with Spike outside, whining to come in!

And then a family a bit further down put their music on really loud at 6am as they were packing up!!  So we gave up and the dogs ended up in bed with Steve...which is probably what they wanted all along!

Ah camping, sooo relaxing!!

Never mind, today was our last day as we headed east up the Flinders Hwy towards Townsville. 

It was 34 degrees by the time we'd packed up and left at 10am. 

It was still quite green from the recent rain, but they need a lot more to really break the drought proper. Compared to the absolutely dry conditions along this road at the very start of our trip, it was a huge change though. 

We passed the Prairie Hotel which has dozens of saddles outside along the veranda rail. We planned to stop there next time we were out this way. 

But this time we continued onto Charters Towers for a driver swap and a little excursion out to Anabranch campground on the Burdekin River. We got lost a couple of times (ok Laura's navigating is better than it used to be, but still has plenty of room for improvement!). 

We finally found it and it was very pretty, with plenty of shade around a big swimming hole. Definitely a camping spot to revisit. 

We then headed back for the final leg of our epic journey. 

As we approached Townsville, we could see the rain clouds gathering and before long, big raindrops were washing at least some of the red dirt off the Triton and the van. 

We arrived into town just after 3pm. It was 32 degrees and green!  When we left 29 days ago, it was as dry as a bone, so it was wonderful to see what the rain can do. 

We pulled up and gave Swifty a quick wash before popping him up for the night. Proper unpacking would have to wait till tomorrow as we had takeaway for dinner and reminisced about our latest amazing trip. 

On TV that night was news that 86% of Queensland is now struggling with the worst drought in history. We felt we had really gained an understanding of how many outback towns are suffering and we were glad we had in some small way put some dollars into their local communities. 

It really makes you value what you have, when you see how tough life is for others. We never take our trips for granted; we consider it a huge privilege to be able to travel around our beautiful country, and we can't wait for the next one!

But for now, it's bye bye from me, Mingo. Safe travels everyone!

Squawk!!

Day 28: Fri 8 Jan: Hughenden

Not a great night's sleep; poor old Spike had the upset tummy this time and had to be let out every 10 minutes from 3am! We were just about to take the mattress out to sleep outside when he fell fast asleep poor old man 😔

So we had a sleep in til about 9.30am when it was already 34 degrees, before taking off down to the FJ Holden cafe for brekky. It is an amazing place, all decked out like a 50s/60s Diner, models of cars and Rock n Roll memorabilia. Awesome!  

We had a massive breakfast then headed up to Porcupine Gorge, waving to more of our bovine friends on the way...most of the cattle around this area are Drought Master, a breed developed especially for the incredibly harsh Australian conditions, by crossing a UK and a USA breed. They have a distinctive jump on their back. 

Soon after, we turned off the road and headed a couple of km's down a dirt track to Porcupine Gorge. It was formed millions of years ago by erosion and is now a spectacular canyon with water all year round. It must've been a wonderful place to live for the Aborigines, with a permanent water source and plenty of shade from the searing heat. 

We weren't game to walk down to the water this time since we were both suffering from sleep deprivation and was 38 degrees, but we decided to check out the campsite anyway, so we book ahead and get the best site for next time!

Number 8 seemed perfect. 

We also found some bones and very large footprints... Probably from a very large cow!

Or then again, maybe the dinosaurs are sti walking the earth around here...!

After our walk, we headed back to camp for a nice swim in the town pool whilst admiring our stripey tanned feet!! 😎

It's at this part of a trip that I always start to feel emotional and maybe just a little down. 

Perhaps it's just because I am tired after travelling thousands of kilometres. Or maybe it's the red dust and dirt which inevitably works its way under fingernails and never quite gets clean. Could it be the exhausting weather which has soared into the 40s and dipped below zero?

I think it's partly due to the above. But mostly it is because we have seen so much beauty in such a short space of time, that my brain is still processing it all. 

I am so in love with our unique country, it is hard to explain. It just starts to get under your skin, becomes part of you, embraces you. In all its harshness there is an incredible feeling of strength and harmony. 

Or then again, maybe it's just the beer talking...

Day 27: Thurs 7 Jan: Longreach to Hughenden 388km

Uh oh we both got upset stomachs in the night - Steve even had to do a midnight nudie run to the little boys' room!  Laura had a terrible headache and neither of us slept much. We put it down to the BBQ chook we'd bought from the corner shop the day before, since everything else we'd eaten was out of tins or bottles!

By mid morning we were feeling much better, packed up in the 35 degree heat and left at 10am. The area between Longreach and Winton was absolutely bone dry, with no signs that they'd had any of the rain we'd experienced earlier in  the week. 

We started planning our next trip which we decided would be a shorter one, when we go just to one or two destinations, but stay for longer. Cooktown came up in the conversation a lot; Steve has always wanted to live there and Laura absolutely loved it when we stopped briefly in our way to Cape York last year. 

So we pretty much decided that we would go up for a week in a month's time and have a really good look around the town and the surrounding area. 

We had been having numerous annoying issues with the Swift that would be good to get fixed up during its first service  too, before we headed off again. 

We were  particularly experiencing issues with the pull out bed system which had never been a problem with the previous van, plus multiple less serious but annoying problems with the quality of the workmanship in the interior. We were confident however that everything would be sorted out for us by our friends at Jayco in time for our next journey.

There were a lot of dead Roos on this stretch of road too. We'd asked around and the general consensus was that the whole area is basically just the centre of Roo country, and the population is just immense, which translates to more road deaths.  A lot of fellow campers in the last couple of years on various blogs had commented on how dangerous the driving was around Longreach, due to the Kangaroos, so we figured it was not a new problem. We never drive at dawn or dusk specifically for this reason. 

About 80km before Winton there was a dramatic change and you could literally see a line where they'd had rain and plenty of it! The landscape was suddenly green and lush in total contrast to Longreach. It was almost like the rain had come all around it but totally missed it. What a shame. 

We had to pull right over at one point for a super 4.1m wide load coming the other way. Always fun to hear the guys on the UHF talking in their special language that Laura still needs a translator for!!

Just before Winton, the Jump Up or Mesa came into view; an elevated rock formation with a flat top. The whole area is world renowned for Dinosaur remains and fossils and one of the richest areas is on top of this Jump Off. There are lots of other areas around and we are coming back to do the Dinosaur Trail properly another time. Sadly their Waltzing Matilda Centre was destroyed by fire in mid 2015 or we would've popped in. 

Winton is a great little outback town and although it was mostly closed down for the blistering heat of the summer, it has a Film Festival and a Show in the cooler months (it was 38 degrees by now!). It has an open air theatre, sculpture wall, Banjo Paterson wrote Waltzing Matilda there ... Oh and the Bogong Moths love it too...!

Can't wait to go back for a proper look and visit all the Dino stuff!

We continued along the road, saying hello to some friendly cows on the way. 

We arrived into Hughenden at 3pm and 37 degrees and got an awesome shady spot in the Terry Allen park next door to the local pool. We set up then walked down the road to the famous Royal hotel with the only round pool table in Australia!!  They could not have been more accommodating; opening up their beautiful elevated deck area for us so we could keep the dogs with us and have a meal. Laura was lucky enough to have dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets - gotta love the kids menu!! 

We got a visit from two gangly ridgeback cross puppies who jumped all over us, licking us to death. Spike and Sunshine stayed in relative safety under the table, away from the puppy antics, but Laura loved it!!

We were only 400km from home now and we resolved to come back again for a few days to really soak up the outback atmosphere. 

Day 26: Weds 6 Jan: Longreach

Ah! A sleep-in!! Well til 7am anyway when the pooches started demanding to go out!

It was already hot, around 28 degrees and by 8am it was 31 degrees!

We fed and watered the pooches, and took off for the Qantas Founders Museum. It was started by two young Aussie blokes - Fysh and McGinness who both fought as foot soldiers at Gallipoli and then joined the Australian Flying Corps. 

They then fought together in Palestine and were decorated for their bravery in air to air combat. Between them the shot down 13 enemy planes. When the war ended they returned to Australia and set up Qantas, basically to do trick and stunt flying and do mail runs in Western QLD. Shortly thereafter, they picked up a Contract in 1931 to fly passengers and, well, the rest is history. 

It was a fascinating display and very interactive as you can see from the pictures!  We loved it. 

Then we went across the road to the Stockmans Hall of Fame which again was really interesting, learning about Australian settlers and how our outback legends came to be. Unfortunately, our visit was cut short, because the owner of the caravan park rang to ask us to come back because Spike was disturbing all our neighbors!

We were only 5 minutes away so it was no big drama and he stopped throwing a tantrum as soon as we got back. 

We were invited to 4pm Smoko aka Afyernoon Tea at the caravan park and had an awesome chin wag with them for over an hour! How nice. 

The chin wag then continued back at our campsite where Shane was regaling us with stories of his misspent youth until his lovely wife Kerry came and shooed him home for tea!  

We also identified another local bird, the Blue Faced Honeyeaters and the Lousy Jacks (so-called because they are covered in lice eww). Spike fancied one for tea and took after them dragging poor Sunshine behind him, together with their crate! Too funny!!

That evening, whilst we were sitting outside before bed, a mob of about 4 kangaroos quietly hopped into the park, acknowledged us, nibbled around us for about 5 minutes, then took off lazily to the next grassy patch! You could tell they were used to it and probably came every night for a feed! We even saw one hopping down the street later on, and there were tracks everywhere around town, even down the centre of the main shopping strip!

A very very good day. Longreach is a great little bustling town, full of interesting characters. A great example of the Aussie outback doing it tough but still having immense pride in our history. We liked it a lot.