Life After Boulia - Middleton - Kynuna - McKinlay - July 2010

MIDDLETON

 

Well we left dusty Boula and drove to the Middleton Hotel which lies between Boulia & Winton (194km); it was just as dusty here and quite strong head & cross winds were a battle of power in the tow tug against mother nature, added to this was the odd road train.

 

Middleton pub is on of those top 30 Queensland pubs I keep mentioning and this one is the only stop in town; it is in the Camps 5 or earlier book for free camping and it did get quite a few in later in the day. The free camp sits directly opposite the pub and they have a sign up calling it “Hilton Hotel”; if you do end up this way make sure you call in or even camp over the road. Whilst we were there a single seat mustering helicopter landed next to the pub and the guy went in for some supplies and then took off over the roadway, interesting to see all this unfold.

 

 

The Middleton pub taken from over the road at the free camping area

 

 

The Hilton Hotel sign; you may struggle to read what's written at the bottom of it but it says “No Air conditioning, No TV, No Pool, No Charge”.

 

 

The main road that runs in and out of Middleton; even Linda was able to cross this road without holding my hand for fear of getting run over.

 

 

Inside the pub is a strange set up as when you walk in the door if you turn right you are in the owners lounge room with the kids, dog and TV or turning left puts you in the bar. Apart from beer, wine (limited) and soft drink the pub does have a few spirits but best not ask for a Bloody Mary or Strawberry Daiquiri, you may get chucked out.

 

 

Everyone at the free camp over the road from the pub; the pub meals were not too bad, Lin had pie, chips & gravy for $6.50; I had a beer, piss & look around ($5).

 

KYNUNA

 

Left Middleton towards Winton to get fuel; we did not stop here but turned north and headed to Kynuna for the Blue Healer pub & caravan park. Obviously it is not much of a park but a great little stop; the price was $15 per night with power & (good) water connected to the van. The amenities were okay from a blokes perspective but Linda opted to use the shower in the van.

 

One couple were staying there after being up north for 2 months; he told me that on the way up he paid $10 now on the way back it was $15, so much for increases based on the current CPI!!!

 

 

The Blue Healer pub and before you ask yes it is in the top 30; I can't have too many more to do, shame really as it would be nice if there was a top one hundred. I may make up my own list.

 

 

The sign above was when our Son John & partner Marie passed through here with our 3 granddaughters Ruth, Shandelle & Karly in June 06. He told us he had written on the wall but when you go inside the pub there is not one area of roof or wall left to write on so finding it was difficult. We added Nana & Poppy and The DavLin Rig to it for the photo.

 

 

The wall of hats inside the Blue Healer.

 

 

And for the blokes quite a number of bras we scattered around the walls; would have been a great place to be when some of this sort of stuff was happening.

 

McKINLAY

 

We rolled into McKinlay after leaving Kynuna for Cloncurry; we did not overnight here just stopped for a couple of pictures. Not much here just the pub and van park and a service station.

 

 

The sign that advertises the Walkabout creek hotel & van park.

 

 

With McKinlay only being a short distance from Kynuna the pub was not open when we arrived (much to my disgust) so we could only get a picture of the outside, we did not want to hang around until opening time.

 

It's now of to Cloncurry where we are stopping for a while; Joe & Glenys are bringing the bus out for a few days break from the farm so we will spend more time with them before heading off to our next destinations. Our next stops will be the Bourke & Wills roadhouse, Gregory Downs, Adels Grove and Lawn Hill National Park.

 

Hope you all are well and enjoy this post; until next time take care and if you are travelling do it safely.

 

Love & warm regards –  David & Linda –  The DavLin Rig

 

Boulia Camel Races - July 2010

We finally made it to Boulia for the fun, frivolity and shit loads of wind & dust at the yearly camel races; the races follow a circuit around several country towns but Boulia is the cream of the crop, if you see any forget the rest and make your way here and see this one.

 

Once again make sure you stock up as there is only one store here that sells everything and I mean everything, from bread, milk and normal grocery lines to TV's, tiles, hydraulic oil in 44 gal drums, hardware, generators and bags of cement. Suppose they have to as either way (Winton or Isa) to buy anything is 300km +.

 

Cost per person for the 3 day event was $40 and for that they open up the grounds for free camping for the week prior and up to a week after the event so it is not a bad deal. The ground has an amenities block with hot & cold water and showers which is bore supplied but very clean and drinkable (no smells or bugs to worry about). You had to pick your time for the showers; mid morning and mid to late afternoon may see you short of hot water.

 

 

The road to Boulia from Isa is 320km or from Winton 360km so it all depends which way you want to travel. Either way the road is single lane with a wide shoulder either side, if road trains approach make sure you get completely off the bitumen and stop. These rigs are 53mt in length and 3 or 4 trailers long; the last thing you want is the oncoming rig hitting the dirt on one side (40 plus tyres) and throwing stones and dirt everywhere.

The above is part of the morning training on the lead up to the events which take place mainly Saturday & Sunday; we arrived on the Tuesday to make sure we got a good spot for the van. The training involves a lot of camels being let out on the track and 2 or 3 guys on quad bikes behind the pack giving them some encouragement to get a move on.

Boulia's red stump advising that west of here is the Simpson Desert.

Boulia's only pub the Australian Hotel; this one is also on the top 30 to see in Queensland; beer is $5 a can to either drink in or take away, glad I picked up a few in Isa before heading here.

Market stalls were set up by some visitors (6 or so stalls in total); this guy seemed more interested in knitting hats for his stall stall rather than get involved in the race events, this is the second bloke I know who likes this sort of stuff; one of our readers knows who the other is.

Getting here early was a good choice as we managed to get a good camp spot near the amenities; from here we could reach with about 3 hoses to fill the tanks up when required rather than cart water in containers.

Although there was quite a few in when we arrived the camping ground swelled considerably from the Wednesday on, from a town that normally boasts a population of 300 the numbers go out to 3000+ for this event.

One of the races in progress; over the weekend there was about 16 in total.

This was another event to behold called “camel tagging”; it is quite simple to explain but not so easy or quick to do. Several camels are let loose in an arena where the object is to tag the camel by sticking a piece of duct tape to the camel, run back to a marker and then chase the same camel and retrieve the tape, fastest man (or woman) wins. You can see the duct tape near the camels hump which has just been put on.

A photo with the winner of the cup and in case you are wondering the winner is the beast in the background with a hump, not me.

The blokes had to be quick at night time if you wanted a bit of you know what; the trick is be early so you don't end up with an ugly one.

This was one of several signs around the camp and racetrack area; apparently there have been some quite painful but funny accidents like people being so pissed they have fallen into camp fires, it seems if you do this you sober up quite quickly.

This was our Boulia family; a great crew that got together to enjoy daytime races and nighttime happy hour and a good camp fire. Hope you are all well and still living the dream and hopefully we will catch up soon (don't forget we need side access!!!!).

Don't know if anyone watches channel 7 and the morning show Sunrise but if you do you will know this guy David Koch, nicknamed “Kochie”, how he made it way out here had me stumped.

One of the many nightly fires enjoyed by us all at Boulia.

 

This was a fantastic place to be and we would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to experience the raw environment and great hospitality Boulia has to offer. The people we met and the friendships we made will stay with us for a long time to come; the deeper you delve into what these small outback towns and communities have to offer the more you want to see.

 

Hope you have enjoyed our Boulia experience; take note this event is on every year on the second weekend of July; you can find out more by contacting the Boulia tourist info centre and if you go make sure you see the Min Min lights show in town, the cost is $15p/p and it is worth every cent.

 

Love & warm regards to all –  David & Linda –  The DavLin Rig  

 

Julia Creek & Mount Isa - June/July 2010

JULIA CREEK

 

We arrived at Julia Creek caravan park after leaving Richmond; we wanted to stay here for a couple of days to have a look around before going out to friends Joe & Glenys on a cattle property 40km out of town. Once again it is advisable to stock up on as much food as you can carry before visiting a lot of these small country towns; availability of some food items is limited and the prices are very high. Choices for major food shopping on the Townsville to Isa route is Charters Towers then nothing much else until Cloncurry and then Isa; its okay if you do not intend to stop for any length of time but if you are intending to stay a while here and there then stock up. Most small towns have good and reasonably priced butchers but is the other food and dairy lines that are expensive.

 

Julia Creek caravan park was closed for a week or so and had just reopened a couple of days before we arrived; all the drive through sites have been done up with a bitumen surface so nice and tidy sites. The park is pet friendly and at $18 per night ($108 per week) very good pricing; bins were placed at almost every site and the amenities were cleaned regularly.

 

The town has 2 mini supermarkets but as said before the prices are high; as an example a 500g block of cheese ranged in price from $14 –  $16. Gannons Hotel is the local pub and is on the top 30 list of pubs to see in Queensland; needles to say I had the odd one or two at this establishment. The town has a few variety type stores but nothing major; Cloncurry has a Woolworths but Mount Isa is the first place you will find K Mart, Bunnings and now a newly opened BCF. Overall the town is nice and the caravan park is clean & friendly so well worth a day or so.

 

The drive through sites at the Julia Creek caravan park.

After our short stay at the caravan park we headed off to the 40 thousand acre cattle property Joe & Glenys are managing. The property is situated about 40km from Julia Creek on the Wills Development Road; we were asked if we could check the mail box (an old fridge) at the start of the driveway to the house; believe it or not the length of the driveway to the house is 4.6km which is a long way to go just to check for mail. I let Linda do the checking just in case of snakes; don't want to get bitten do I. 

Our parked position for the week at Joe and Glenys house on the property.

Sunrise over Werrina Station.

Not sure what Joe had been promised but by the smile on his face it must be something pretty special; another cup of tea maybe.

Lin & Glenys at the property.

 

After the week here we were of to Mount Isa; we had a great time and it was really good to catch up with old friends that we have known for over 20 years. Thanks for having us, thanks for the entertainment and a big thanks for letting me work on your computer.

 

MOUNT ISA

 

We were invited to spend time with Gary & Maureen who are friends of ours that we met on one of our travels about 3 years ago; we hit it off with these guys straight away and we do have a lot in common (hey Gaz). They were working at the golf club and they had use of a cottage, we parked alongside, connected water & power and settled in for a week or so.

 

We are unable to comment on any of the Mount Isa parks as we did not stay at any whilst we were here so you may have to do a little research if you intend heading west. We did hear several comments from people at Isa and Cloncurry but it maybe best to form your own opinion as there were good and bad comments about most of them.

 

The Isa township sits on one side of the Barklay highway and the mine occupies the other side; the bad part about this is if you live here you can never get away from the mine view, it is quite predominant from wherever you live in town. It does have all the services, Woolies, Coles, Kmart, Bunnings, McDonalds etc but strangely there is no Big W or Target stores, a new BCF opened on the weekend we were in town so plenty of people in for the opening specials and sausage sizzle.

 

We were not overly keen on the town itself even though it did have the best shopping available since leaving Townsville; the streets look unfinished and dirty but it is a mining town. Some things are expensive as they charge like everyone is working in the mine and earning $150K + a year so be careful what you buy. Fuel was by far the cheapest and the woolies servo had diesel at 126.9; funny the price at Cloncurry was 146.9 and the fuel trucks have to go through Cloncurry to get to the Isa, so much for blaming transport costs.

Parked at the side of Gary & Maureen's cottage; bindies were the only downfall.

Another day of craft; Linda & Maus making cards and crocheting beanie's.

Part of the Isa township with one of the stacks in the background

Linda visited the underground hospital; this is a must see tourist spot, one of many things to see and do.

Check the stirrups out at the right hand end of the chair; sort of open wide and smile for the camera.

“You want me to do what with the ball”

Gary, Maureen, Linda & me at the 18^th hole; we started on the 18^th  and finished on the 18^th, check out the latest Tiger Woods clothing label worn by us all.

 

Once again we had a ball; Gaz & Maus left the Isa for Melbourne a few days after we left for the Boulia camel races. We have spoken recently and they are not liking the weather that much after the heat of the Isa. Don't worry guys it will be summer there soon but unfortunately winter shortly after that.

 

Hope you all are well and looking after yourselves; our next update will be Boulia and some further posts after that.

 

Love and warm regards to all –  David & Linda –  The DavLin Rig

Hughenden - Richmond - June 2010

HUGHENDEN

 

Time for a bit more catching up so Hughenden & Richmond are on this update and both places are well worth a day or 2 (longer if you like). We stayed at Hughenden overnight only as the park is very basic and the rail yard is directly opposite so the train shunting early in the morning is not so nice.

 

We stayed at the Allan Terry Caravan Park, the cost of this park was from memory $20 so quite cheap; almost all the sites were drive through if you were early, arriving later meant you had to back the van in so you were back to back with the other van (see picture). The amenities were again very basic but kept clean

 

Hughenden being Hughenden is mainly only used as a stopover not so much a tourist spot although there is a few things to see around town, also this are is part of the “Dinosaur Trail”.

Our site: bitumen drive through, the site next to us shows the back to back configuration. 

The town has all the dinosaur artwork that is prevalent to the towns that come under the “Dinosaur Trail” umbrella, including this winged metalsaurus.

Linda's new pet; we were going to take it with us but she would not get rid of all her craft stuff to make room in the van; how selfish!!!

One of the many 4 long road trains that move along these outback roads; they are okay on the wide roads but meet one of these on the development highways (single lane) and you will know what it's all about. The drivers of these rigs are very good; on single lane roads it is pretty much mandatory you pull completely off the road and stop.

 

RICHMOND

 

We stayed at the Lakeview Caravan Park which has great views as it looks over Lake Fred Tritton; it was very relaxing here so we stayed for a week. Every so often we feel it is good to settle for a period rather than the hurry of one night stops. We met up with a great couple that introduced Linda to redclaw; they are a big yabbie, obviously not to my liking.

 

The park was kept very clean and tidy; the hard part out in these western towns is trying to keep water up to the lawns, the park managers were doing a great job in keeping it somewhat green and the dust down. Price for the park was $25 per night or $22 per night for seniors, we managed to get the $22 per night rate and for staying 7 we paid for 6 ($132) so very economical.

 

The water is palatable (just) but does have a strong sulphur/magnesium smell and the brown staining is a fair indication of bore water. We have been in bore water towns previously but the smell is quite strong, very similar to Winton for those that have been there.

 

 

The park layout; you can see the lake at the end of the road.

We were given directions to a few fossil hunting sites; our biggest find was a tooth and a small piece of a bone, the tourist / fossil centre told us they were nothing more than part of the remains of a kangaroo (thought we were going to be on telly with our find).

A lot of crocodiles seem to launch themselves out of the foot path here and devour the rubbish bins; saves on council garbage collection I suppose.

This is the “Kronosaurus Korner” tourist & fossil centre; well worth a look around, there is also a great cafe & bakery inside the complex.

Quite a mouthful.

One of the great sunrises at Richmond.

On loan; one of the redclaw caught by our friends at Lake Fred Tritton, Lin was a little unsure about holding one of these.

4 of the cooked redclaw; Lin may have been a little nervous holding them but she was definitely going to eat one.

 

Hope you enjoy the read and will post up again soon.

 

Love & warm regards to all –  David & Linda –  The DavLin Rig.