After a noisy night we packed early and left Emerald. I'm sure if we found a better camping spot we would have had better memories but we were very glad to be leaving that particular spot.
Driving was really easy out past Anakie. We stopped near the turn to The Willows to give the dogs a run in the bush while Judy and mum looked around on the ground in case they found some great gem. I had spent two weeks at The Willows in 1973 getting dirty, dusty and sore from digging and only finding what they called "colour", so I was happy to sit in the warm sun and listen to the radio.

10.00am

Judy decided to listen to her favourite music as we travelled away from Emerald.

The "cool" glasses were handy to protect her eyes from the glare.

With the dogs happy, we set off again, passing Bogantungan. One day I'll drive into Bogantungan to see what it looks like. The name alone inspires mystery in my mind. It always looks old but interesting.
The visit to the area in September 1973 was to accompany my father in law of the time, Pat Koehler. He loved fossicking and decided to have a look around, away from our camp at The Willows.
He drove us to Rubyvale, Sapphire and out to Bogantungan. My memory of Bogantungan was of a very hot, very dry area with a deserted railway station.
Either I lost the memory of the town or it has grown because as we drove past the town/village it seemed a lot more populated than my memory of it.

After Bogantungan we started the climb up the Drummond Range. At the top is a lookout we had been to before on a previous trip but mum hadn't seen it so we pulled in and had another look. The view back along the highway leading to Emerald is worth seeing.

▲
11.15am

◄Shots taken at the lookout on top of the Drummond Range.

Around an hour later we drove into Alpha. I love railways and all that goes with them. While Judy and mum were doing their thing I wandered around the railway area and took pictures. Maybe boring to some but fascinating to me.
Looking down a long stretch of railway line, in a sparsely populated area with no machinery in sight, always makes me think of how lonely it is, with nothing happening most of the day. Yet all along it, all sorts of animal and bird life life exists and goes about it's business of surviving without any need of human company.
The day we were in Alpha was just like that. It was Sunday lunchtime and we saw very few humans. The area was so quiet and all I could hear while standing on the railway lines was birds.
As we sat in our camping chairs outside of the caravan eating lunch, fellow travellers arrived and doubled the perceived human population for a few minutes. Across from our parking spot was one of the many excellent murals in Alpha.

Nicely refreshed, we headed for Barcaldine as our book suggested the Barcaldine Showgrounds as a good spot to stay. Jericho was very similar to Alpha as we passed through.

Stopped in Alpha for lunch.

A friendly caretaker met us as we drove into the Barcaldine Showgrounds and showed us various spots we could setup. We chose our spot close to the facilities and near a shady tree. The open space was amazing. Plenty of area for the dogs to be walked in. We liked it so much we decided to stay for a few days.
After everything was setup, we drove over to the main street and picked up some supplies.

 
We needed to check our banking and any email (pretty boring the constant need to keep in touch but that's the era we live in) so we enquired about an Internet Cafe and found one at the local video shop, Barcaldine Video Hire.
Over the time we stayed, we enjoyed chatting with the owner, Jenny. She was extremely helpful.

(I have to say thank you to http://www.barcaldine.qld.gov.au/index.shtml for the pictures of the Barcaldine businesses. )

That night we visited the video shop and did our business. As we use Instant Messenger programs like MSN and ICQ, various friends saw us online and chatted with us about our trip.