The Kidman Way.

Heading south from Cunnamulla, we crossed into NSW north of Bourke. This road is known as the Kidman Way and extends from Cunnamulla in the north to Jerrilderie in the south passing through Bourke, Cobar, Griffith and the most delightful small town called Darlington Point.
We had been told about some terrific camp spots on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River, so that's where we decided to spend a few days. The weather is lovely during the day but quite chilly once the sun goes down. Because we are only a few kilometers from the town we have full mobile phone coverage - first time for ages. Firewood is readily available so we have been doing our cooking etc on a campfire which we keep going most of the time. The river water is not suitable for drinking but meets our needs for showers etc.

The river is very low but still flowing, with huge fallen redgums being exposed in many places adjacent to our sunny campsite.

Kevin and Gail.
View a small sample of our trip photos at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/kevinh055

A sample of recent photos.

Yowah Opal Fields and Eulo.

We departed Quilpie on Saturday morning, bound for the Yowah opal fields. What a desolate, dry and uninteresting place. Camping on the town common complete with free hot showers (artesian) and very clean toilets was one of the highlights, the other being Gail's opal find.
After settling ourselves in we walked about 1km to the public fossicking area where we scratched around for about 1/2 hour before Gail literally tripped over her opal bearing rock. Another 2 hours was about all we could handle in the hot afternoon sun. We had intended to stay there on Sunday also so that we could attend their weekly open air opal trading market on Sunday morning. However at 11am Sunday we learned that the market did not start until after 2pm so we decided to hit the road.

The lovely little town of Eulo was the next place we came to as we headed toward Cunnamulla and civilization. We saw a very extensive boulder opal collection in Eulo at the general store. The stones had all been polished and contained magnificent traces of opals in a variety of spectacular colours. Prices were fairly high for any that really appealed to us. The opal miner there also owned the general store and spent considerable time polishing and setting his opals.

Kevin and Gail.
View a small sample of our trip photos at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/kevinh055

Day trip to Eromanga.

Having resolved our electrical problems we now felt confident to venture off the beaten track once again. Consequently it was decided to drive the 106km from Quilpie to the remote settlement of Eromanga and have a look at the oil fields in that area. Eromanga is also best known for two other things. The first being its geographical location, the second as being the place where Steve Fossett, the round the world solo balloonist made his unplanned decent back to earth, having flown across the Indian Ocean but miscalculated his planned landing spot in Western Australia.
They have retained a number of artifacts from his equipment which are on display along with photos in the cafe.

Geographically, Eromanga is the town furtherest from any coastline in Australia. Hard as this may seem to believe, I actually took dividers on a map of Australia and found it to be true. Whilst we may think that Alice Springs or other similar isolated towns would be furthest, consider such coastlines as the Gulf Of Carpentaria for example.

Extensive oil fields have been found in the area and we observed many "donkeys" pumping oil from the ground. They have established a mini oil refinery at Eromanga which strangely enough has a retail outlet at prices similar to everywhere else. Work that one out!

The town is very small, having a Hotel, Caravan Park/Motel, a primary School, Cafe and Police Station. We saw the school kids, six in total playing in the school yard with their teacher and five emus also in the yard. Not a sight you see everyday!.
Most of the housing is of a portable nature with a few exceptions. Oh and yes, they had a combined CWA and RFDS rooms and clinic. The road is sealed all the way from Quilpie, so it was refreshing to be able to zoom along without the caravan for a change.

Kevin and Gail.
View a small sample of our trip photos at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/kevinh055

Fuse Blowing Problem resolved.

After a mostly sleepless night trying to understand what may be the answer to the intermittant fuse blowing, I suddenly remembered that the LP gas gauge had also failed when the fuse was blown. This led me to think about the recent gas leakage and gas shut-off problems. So first thing next morning I once again climbed under the Landcruiser to check the wiring associated with the LP gas installation. Straight away I observed a polished ring around the tail shaft adjacent to the LP gas cylinder solenoid wiring.
On closer examination I found the live wire to the solenoid had partially worn through the insulation and a bare section of wire was visible. Apparently when the mechanic in Mt Isa had tightened the solenoid at my request, the cable ties securing the wire out of harms way had not been replaced. This had allowed the slack in the live wire to come into contact with the rotating tail shaft. Tape up the wire and secure with new cable ties and problem resolved.

The disturbing part of this whole saga is that had I not persisted and tracked down the problems myself, we may have still been stranded in the middle of nowhere as the RACQ were simply not available and nothing was in place to provide alternate road service. Nor was mechanical or automotive electrical assistance available once we were in Quilpie. The NRMA were happy to accept our extra payment for "Total Care" coverage during this trip, but their affiliated interstate body were unable to deliver. They have not heard the last of this.

Kevin and Gail.
View a small sample of our trip photos at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/kevinh055

The Adventure We Didn't Need.

Our plan on departing Cooper's Creek overnight rest area was to travel south-east to Quilpie on the Diamentina Developmental Road, a distance of 248km with nothing in between. After travelling approx 60km we pulled to the edge of the one lane sealed road to allow an approaching road train right of way. As we commenced to move off the Landcruiser stalled. The starter motor worked fine but the engine would simply not start. My first thought was that the main diesel tank had run dry, so I switched to the full auxilliary tank, still no success. For those of you that know about diesels, my next step was to "crack" the six injectors, or in simple terms, loosen them all then using the starter motor, turn over the engine so that the fuel pump will pump diesel out of the loosened injectors and therefore bleed any air from the six fuel lines.

This was also unsuccessful - no fuel coming through at all. It was at this point that Gail observed that the indicator lights on the instrument panel were not illuminating when the ignition was on, therefore I assumed there was no glow plug voltage to start the engine.
My next step was to check all fuses - all appeared to be ok, so out came the workshop manual. Under the trouble shooting section it pointed to an item called a "fuseable link", which initially I had trouble locating. We had now been stopped for an hour when the first passing motorist stopped to see if he could asssist, followed minutes later by a policeman. The policeman informed us that the nearest RACQ depot was in Quilpie (180 km away). The motorist had a satellite phone so the policeman used it to call his office in Quilpie and request them to organise the RACQ to attend. As we were about two and a half hours from Quilpie we expected quite a delay. Then came the bad news, the police staion rang back on our good samaritan's satellite phone to advise that the RACQ "man" was on holidays - stiff shit..

As the policeman had already departed, our good samaritan offered to see what he could organise when he passed through Quilpie. Bear in mind we had no communications, even our HF radio could not raise anyone - great. So here we are not knowing when help would arrive or whether in fact it would arrive at all. Several passing vehicles (wrong direction) stoped to inquire and we advised them that help was on the way - we thought, silly us.

I kept working through everything I could, then eventually examined the circuit diagrams in the workshop manual. Discovered that there were four possible fuses/fuseable links that could cause glow plug voltage failure. So this time with the aid of my multimeter I proceeded to recheck all fuses etc.
Bingo, one small fuse was in fact faulty. Replaced it, instrument lights and glow plug now work. Press starter and would you believe - motor started, after a 7-1/2 hour stop. As it was now 5:15pm we rapidly packed up tools etc and headed off to try and cover 180km to Quilpie where we were booked in for 2 nights. One of our doors was not shut so I stopped while Gail closed the tailgate, then as we started to move off the engine stalled again, same problem, this time I went straight to the faulty fuse, blown again, replaced it and away we went again.

The drive to Quilpie took us over 2-1/2 hours, an absolute nightmare the whole way, what between wondering if we would stop again and the kangaroos, pigs, emus and cattle on or crossing the road. The last 1-3/4 hours being in darkness, but we were keen to press on and reach our destination while we were still moving.
Take it from us - anyone who willingly travels on remote roads at dusk and beyond is definately mad.
It was after 8pm when we eventually reached Quilpie and the caravan park. We were then shocked to learn that the policeman had not advised the caravan park of our situation, despite the fact that we had requested him to do so and given him our name.
A hot artesian spa at the CP then something to eat rounded out the day we would prefer to forget.

I still have to find the cause of the blowing fuses - that's another story for another day, but tomorrow we go on our planned adventure. That is to accompany the Quilpie mailman on his 500km round trip delivering mail and parcels to remote cattle stations - also another story.
Until then, cheers to all.
Kevin and Gail.
View a small sample of our trip photos at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/kevinh055

The Quilpie Mailman Run.

PLEASE NOTE: This entry is actually in the wrong sequence. It should follow after "The Adventure We Didn't Need". i.e. In between "Fuse Blowing Problem Resolved" and "The Adventure We Didn't Need".

After a very welcome sleep we were picked up at 7am from the caravan park in Quilpie by the 80 year old "Mailman" Dave. Two other passengers, Marion & Dennis Smith from Tatura in Victoria made up the full compliment for the twice weekly mailman run. Our vehicle for this excursion was a 4 door Toyota Hilux 4WD with tray back. The small canvas mailbags were carried in an old chest freezer on the back, together with sundry boxes, cartons, rolls of fencing wire etc for delivery to the various outlying cattle stations we would visit.

It was not very long before we left the bitumen, travelling for most of the remaining 500km round trip on dirt roads and property tracks. One of our first deliveries was to the homestead of a very isolated cattle and sheep station where the two young children were eagerly awaiting the arrival of a carton containing next months school lessons. Because of their isolation they do "Distance Education" via satellite. The boy was in year six and the girl was in year two. They do not go to boarding school until year eight. They had just spent 4 days at Charleville (300km) doing activities with their other class-mates who they only see once per term.

A number of other very large stations were visited, some as far as 85km from their nearest neighbour, before we arrived at "Trinidad" where we were greeted by the owner Margaret Pilliger who is a widow of ten years. Margaret runs the property of 650,000 acres in conjunction with her daughter and son-in-law who live in another house on the property. She treated all five of us to the best morning tea imaginable. Freshly baked scones, biscuits and walnut cake. She has the most magnificent green garden surrounding the modest house. Fruit trees with the biggest mandarines, oranges and grapefruit you can imagine. We were iinvited to look over the sheds, workshop etc before I helped her pick mandarines using a step ladder to reach the ones out of her reach.

In all we visited about eight homesteads, however three stand out for various reasons. "Araluen", a station of approx 210,000 acres is of special mention as here we were almost persuaded to fill the vacancy of resident caretakers. The young female owner is also a road train driver, bush pilot and also operates a very successful quilt business, "Quilpie Quilts". Consequently she has little time for looking after the homestead and garden. It was while we were here that the greatest coincidence occured. Our travelling companions of the day, Dennis & Marion mentioned several times that the temporary caretaker looked very much like their brother-in-law. When they mentioned the resemblance to the man, he answered yes to all their questions re their relations, name, nickname, previous hometown etc. It was in fact their brother-in -law who they had lost contact with 15 years ago when he divorced his first wife - the sister of Dennis.
His curent wife, (the mother of the property owner) and he had arrived at the property one week ago to fill-in as caretaker while the daughter took a roadtrain to Brisbane. The two men, Dennis and Vince had played footy together for years in Shepparton. Beat that!

Another property of mention was one where the resident was a professional roo shooter. I was able to find out a great deal about his profession. On a good night he shoots 70 kangaroos on the 25,000 acre property. At 80 cents per kilo, with the average roo around 30 Kg gutted, it's no wonder both he and his wife drive the very latest model Landcruiser utes.
The final property also worth mentioning was "Thylungra", currently due to be sold by auction on 9th Sept in Brisbane. This 695,000 acre cattle and sheep station has absolutely everything. Look it up on the internet.
Our very long and most interesting day concluded at 5pm when we were returned to the caravan park.

Kevin and Gail.
View a small sample of our trip photos at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/kevinh055

Longreach and Beyond.

Our Cobb & Co. coach ride was an outstanding success. After the traditional lap around the town centre in the coach we were off to the Town Common at a leisurely canter. A little known fact is that most country and particularly remote towns still have a Town Common for the general use of all town residents. In the case of Longreach, the Town Common covers around 3,000 acres of unoccupied land surrounding the town proper. Ratepayers are considered to have equal share and rights for the recreational use of this land. Each family is allowed to graze up to five horses at no cost. This allows the towns kids to have a pony even though they may live within the confines of the town boundaries.
It is also a place where leaner riders can take their motor bikes etc. and make use of the many dirt tracks criss crossing the open sections of the land. The lack of rubbish dumping was a feature that stood out, due in part to the fact that everyone has a vested interest in maintaining the area. There are also very heavy fines for offenders caught dumping on the Common.
The stage coach made great use of these formed tracks, allowing the horses to gallop along a section. Gail was one of eight passengers who rode inside the coach, while I sat right up top in the "Top Seat", previously reserved for the first class passengers. The experience of galloping through the bush was one we will cherish and long remember.

Whilst camped beside the Thompson River adjacent to the stock route, we were extremely fortunate to witness a large mob of cattle being moved from the Northern Territory to NSW under the control of two drovers on horseback, two on quad bikes and 5 or 6 dogs. The mob of 1,000 had to cross the river via the now disused highway bridge. There were many many calves within the mob who had been born "on the route" and many of them became seperated from their mothers while crossing the narrow bridge. This resulted in a lot of mooing and general noise until they all crossed the bridge then settled down to sort themelves out and graze adjacent to where we were located.

While in Longreach I finnally was able to rectify the problem with the LP gas on the Landcruiser. Simply a case of the switching solenoid being overtightened - partly my fault....

Once again we decided on an alternate route when departing Longreach. We want to spend a few days in Quilpie in the south west of Queensland, so rather than have to retrace our steps from Charleville when we reach there we will make a complete round trip of this excursion. From Longreach we travel south west to Stonehenge, then Jundah, Windorah and then east to Quilpie and Charleville. This route takes us right through the Queensland Channel Country.

Well, as I write this we are camped beside the infamous Cooper's Creek just outside Windorah, having camped last night at one of the best places to date. We sat atop a "jump up" with uninterupted views of the surrounding countryside, with the road snaking its way all the way to the horizon. And just to make everyone really envious, I baked a full roast leg of lamb in our Cobb campoven under a glorious sky full of brilliant stars. This is living..

Cooper's Creek currently is quite full, renowned for massive flooding most years of thousands of square kilometers. Some of the longest floodways we have ever encountered are in this area. A massive solar farm is currently under construction at Windorah, five huge dish like structures which will harness enough energy to power the entire town and also feed into the Qld. power grid.

We are now seeing lots of red kangaroos, wheras previously we mostly saw greys. Apparently the reds are more nomadic and with the extremely dry country out here the reds are on the move in their search for water.

Tomorrow (Wed 20/8) we move on to Quilpie where we have another great adventure planned. Tell you all about that in the next blog. In the meantime, love and best wishes to all.

Kevin and Gail.
View a small sample of our trip photos at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/kevinh055

The Land of the Min Min Light.

Departed Mt Isa on Monday morning. On this occasion we are departing from the popular tourist route which is east to Cloncurry, then south on the Matilda Hwy. to Winton and Long Reach.
Instead we drove south from Mt Isa to Boulia, possibly the most remote place we have visited to date. A distance of 305km, bordering the Simpson Desert and traversing the flatest, driest and treeless plains imaginable. Unfortunately we had a strong breeeze directly in our face consequently fuel consumption increased dramatically.

Boulia is regarded as the centre of the Channel Country of Queeensland and known better as the area where the Min Min Light has mysteriously appeared to locals and travellers alike. Situated 360km west of Winton, Boulia is really in the outback. Not being confident of sighting the Min Min, we instead visited the town attraction known as The Min Min Experience. This is a high tech laser and animatronics display which simulates this mysterious phenomena. We also visited the fossil display which has the most remarkable fossils of sea creatures dating back millions of years when this area was an inland sea. The curator of this exhibition, Dick Suter, the guy who located most of these fossils throughout the area was in attendance working on recently discovered finds. We were fortunate to be the only ones there and he gave us a personal tour - extremely interesting.

Another coincidence while at the Min Min Experience was that the guide, Sharon Walsh came from Wolumla on the NSW south coast where Colin lived for a number of years. Her family are well known in the area.

We departed Boulia around 5pm and drove East on the Min Min Hwy. for about 75km to our overnight rest area, Hamilton River (ruins) which was once one of seven Cobb and Co. staging points between Boulia and Winton. Talk about deserted - we were the only travellers there. Our only company being a pair of brolgas, a lonely bull and a windmill that creaked and groaned all night. We fully expected that if anyone was going to sight the Min Min Light, we were in the ideal isolated spot. Unfortunately (or fortunately) no sighting tonight.

Moving on next morning we stopped at a lookout which had magnificent 360 degree views of the Messa like country. A brief morning tea stop at Middleton, population 2, which is another story, then on to Winton where I again tried to resolve the gas problem.

Another overnight rest area stop 47km south of Winton, this time in the company of about 10 other travellers, then on to Longreach the next morning where we intend to stay for 3 or 4 nights at the Longreach Waterhole rest area on the outskirts of town. This free rest area is beside the Thompson River and is extremely popular with folks like us. I counted 54 caravans, trailers and motorhomes here on our first night. Tomorrow we are booked in for a Cobb & Co. gallop through the bush in a restored coach with billy tea etc.

Another coincidence - the couple next to us come from Tathra, once again a place where Colin spent a lot of time while living at Wolumla. This ladies sister has worked in the office at Bega High School for many years, where Colin also worked. It is a small world, isn't it.

Kevin and Gail.
View a small sample of our trip photos at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/kevinh055

Our Maltese Cross

Mt Isa stopover.

After leaving Banka Banka Station it is about 80km tothe junction of the Stuart & Barkly highways, known as Three Ways. It was here that we refuelled (@ $2.20 litre) in preparation for the long haul east to Mt Isa - a distance of approx 650km and only one fuel outlet, Barkly Homestead where the diesel is priced at $2.35 litre, a point to be by-passed. Our overnight stop was at a nice rest area midway between Barkly Homestead and Mt Isa. Curiously there is a Police Station located adjacent to this rest area known as Avon Downs. Heaven only knows why it is located here, but the constable was on duty outside his "house" with his radar and breathalyser. Maybe there are enough speedsters exceeding the 130 km/h speed limit to justify his presence.

Via the highway grapevine we heard that the annual Rodeo was coming up in Mt Isa next week, so we decided it would be wise to make an advance booking there as there are a few things we need to sort out and do. Three nights seemed ideal to carry us through to Monday when all the shops, garages etc would be open.
All caravan parks were almost fully booked out as the Rodeo is the major event on their calendar of events and this being the 50th anniversary made it even bigger. However we were able to get in, an unpowered site initially then move to a powered site later if we wanted to. After some deliberation it was decided that we would stay on for the week for the rodeo and celebrations etc.
Anyway one week in Mt Isa where there is lots to see and do appealed to us anyway. Visits to the extensive visitors info centre, then a visit to the undeground hospital took up part of Monday. Service of the Landcruiser on Tuesday, then a very rough bush expedition on Wednesday to search for "Maltese Crosses". There are only two places in the world apparently where these can be found, one being about 55km from Mt Isa and as we were to discover, 17km in from the highway on an extremely rough track into the hills. However we managed to safely negotiate the route following a very rough mud map from the info centre.
After a pleasant picnic lunch we started digging and sieving in the search forthe rare Maltese Cross. Luck was with us as we unearthed a very good example. (see photo)

The 50th Anniversary Mt Isa rodeo got under way on Wednesday night with heats of the bull riding and bareback riding. We went along and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a very big event for Mt Isa and attracts competitors and visitors from all over Australia. Kevin went again on Thursday afternoon then again on Saturday. Friday night there was a Mardi Gras parade with dozens of floats etc. All very good and warm enough to line the parade route on these balmy "winter" nights. Once again we are lucky enough to be close enough to walk to the various events.
Kevin and Gail.
View a small sample of our trip photos at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/kevinh055