• Departed Lake Dunn Saturday

• Travelled through Aramac to Muttaburra

• Travelled out to the Landsborough River

• Camped overnight Saturday at Muttaburra

THANK YOU FOR BEING PATIENT WHILE THE PICTURES LOAD

Day 11

Saturday 20th August 2005

Click on the pictures for larger versions

Our next stopover was to be somewhere in Muttaburra. As usual the day was fine with a cloudless blue sky. We took our time travelling back to Aramac which we had to pass through before heading north west.

Judy loves poking about in rocks so we pulled over and she wandered around looking in case she found anything unusual. The pictures below illustrate the area we stopped. The trees took on a strangled look. I assumed they had adapted to the very wet, then very dry weather that seemed to occur in that region. It also looked - to my limited knowledge - as though there was a lot of salt (Sodium Chloride) in the soil.
 

The type of vegetation changed to soil rather than rocky and I spotted a couple of Brolgas. They decided they weren't interested in my presence and continued to walk, jump, and half fly away from me, resulting in the shot taken at 12.20pm after which I gave up.

Further along I ended up getting more exercise for the day than I expected.
Mum has Macular Degeneration and the brightness of the day affects her ability to see. Everything looks overbright to her, so she needs to wear heavy sunglasses and/or one of those tennis caps to limit the glare.
As she was sitting minding her own business we experienced a strong crosswind and it took her cap clean off her head and straight out of the window.
I was travelling at around 80kph. By the time I pulled up we had travelled a fair distance. The road is very narrow. I wasn't about to try to turn around, so I elected to walk back along the road until I found it. Great idea, but as it turned out it was around 300 steps back along the road - I counted them on the way back. It amazed me how long it took to react to the situation and pull up.
I enjoyed the walk though. Not a sound other than the breeze blowing over my ears as I walked and flat as far as I could see in all directions. No life in sight other than a bird flying high in the sky in the distance. It felt as though I was the only living being in existence.
Even though the cap flew away from the bitumen, I had little trouble finding the cap, as the ground surrounding the road was very sparsely covered as can be seen in the picture below I took at 12.56pm.
Mum was really happy to have it back as the rest of the trip would have been miserable for her without it.
 

Further along we came across another group of Brolgas very close to the road. I slowed very gently to a stop, slid out of the vehicle and calmly walked along the road to try to get a shot of them. They were very co-operative and kept searching for their food once they realized I wasn't going towards them. I slowly walked parallel to them and the shots below are the results.
 

We arrived in Muttaburra around 2pm. It was a Saturday and I expected very little activity. I was correct.
Our guide, Camp's Australia 3, told us that we could stay overnight at a Rest Area where the first 2 nights are free. We saw a place on the way through the town but it looked as though it was a very small commercial caravan park.
Signs gave information about the facility usage but there was no caretaker around and no customers, so we decided to ask the local General Store if it was the Rest Area. It was!
We were taken aback at the facilities provided free of charge. It wasn't large or luxurious but it was very clean and well looked after. It is a credit to the people of Muttaburra.
While asking about the Rest Area we also found out why it was very quiet - the races were on and most of the locals were out at the racecourse.

Dinosaur footprints were painted on the road as a tourist gimmick to make people aware of the fact that a species of dinosaur named the Muttaburrasaurus had been discovered in the area.

We settled the caravan into place and I walked back to the general store to get some bread and milk.

After some lunch, Judy and I decided to look around Muttaburra. It's a very tired looking town and as you see from the lack of pictures, I wasn't stimulated enough to take any. We had drawings of fishing spots along a stretch of water outside of the town, so decided to follow them.
Below is a map showing where we went. Spurs ran off the main track pointing to various spots where history was created during the Shearers Strike in the early years of Queensland.
Some of the spots to visit are :

• The Pumphole - a fishing spot 4km up the Thomson River - Picnic area.

• The Broadwater - a long stretch of water suitable for fishing and water skiing, 6km south of town on the Thomson river.

• Union Hole - a large water hole and site of the Union Main Camp during the Shearer's Strike.

As we meandered slowly in and out of the various spurs, looking to see if we might camp the next night on the bank, we saw many 4WD vehicles and their campsites. Amazingly we came across the German couple again! They were all setup and loving it. We chatted on till the sun was near the horizon, then decided we'd better return to town as mum was alone and looking after the dogs

Below are a few examples of the river. From my memory, we were told it was the Landsborough River not the Thomson River as we thought it may have been. It's a very muddy river and Judy had trouble imagining eating fish caught in it, so decided we'd give camping and fishing there a miss.
 

All was quiet for the early part of the night until around midnight when two noisy Utes roared into the Rest Area. They contained four revellers from the race day, two of each sex. They drank, laughed out loud, played with their cattle dog making it bark and generally had no thought at all for the other campers. Eventually around 2.00am all went quiet!