Tyre Snakes and Stick Lizards



Trish's Fella



The Cullamulla Fella

Cunnamulla is a nice wee town, had a nice meal at the Cullamulla Hotel across the road from the Cullamulla Fella , supposedly famous from a song by Slim Dusty, can't say I've ever heard it!
Funny thing when you drive long distances trying to avoid lizards, we actually drive over them as opposed to running them over, when you look in the mirror the eejit is still in the middle of the road sunning itself.



Trees at the Paroo River near Eulo QLD



The road kill is amazing and after awhile the shreds of tyres look like snakes and the sticks on the side of the road look like dead lizards, must be driving too much....speaking of which...we're now in Charleville - I haven't checked out the history of the name yet but will let ye know. Missed a few 'roos by THAT much... drove over lots of lizards and we've now covered 2000km....oh, did I mention the weather? 31C and clear blue skies, glorious! Still the rivers are all full and like the Yarra look like they're flowing upside down as they are so muddy.



The Vortex Guns

 We've just booked a tour of Observatory tonight, supposed to be brill, big sky country with not much light from town...Amazing some of the things people do...like some eejit with some very big cannons who tried to make it rain in Charleville in the 1890's...it took floods in the early 1900's for them to discover the guns didn't work!


I'm gathering too many photos so I'm gonna put them on Picasa and yis can look at 'em if ye want, i'll get the link loaded tomorrow or maybe the day after...I am on holidays ye know !!!

Back O' Bourke

After 2 nights in woop woop we're now back in "civilisation" in a wee town called Cunnamulla.
We spent 2 nights in Gundaburra National Park, its about 50km south of Bourke and then about 30km off the main road...did you know red dust gets into everything? Nothing out there but drop toilets and trees.
We didn't get there until sunset and the roads were alive with wee beasties, pigs, goats, emu and kangaroos lots and lots of 'roos.
Peter Ustinov once said "when driving in Australia one expects something interesting to be around the next bend, there never is but you still expect it"...he was bloody right, its a long way between stops with nothing in between UNLESS ye get off the main road...speakin of which thats what we're about to do if the roads are open. From Cunnamulla we're hoping to drive west to the SA Border and check out the Burke and Wills Dig Tree and maybe pop into Innamincka for a lunch. We plan to stay at Noccundra which has a pub and nothing else, but what else would we need? Its about 300km west of here but some of the roads are still closed and some open to 4WD only, which is OK but we'd have to ditch the van somewhere so may have to leave it for another time but thats tomorrow and ye never know where we'll want to go by then...ahh life on d'open road...Festy get the horses....

Broken Hill

Hi De Ho Campers,
Nice uneventful trip to Broken Hill, the gateway to the Outback. Great little town (sorry, City!) with lots to do...Flying Doctors Base, School of the Air, lots of art around the place. Went to Silverton to catch the sunset...oh, and have a beer at the Hotel...wasn't too sure about this photo though........

As usual the sunset on the Mundi Mundi Plains didn't disappoint, the moon rise was even better but our camera didn't do it justice, all we were missing was a glass of vino and some crakers and cheese...sorted for the next time!

On to Cobar and then to Bourke, we had hoped to head north from Broken Hill via Tibooburra but the road is closed due to flooding, the road out to Silverton is showing signs of LOTS of water gushing through the desert. Not much wildlife out there, horses and goats but no 'roos so far. We were also going to take a short cut to Bourke from Wilcannia but that too is closed to most traffic. Hope we can get to the Dig Tree, dog fence and the other real outback spots....

The Plan

Well.....the plan is to drive from Adelaide to Mount Isa via Broken Hill, Bourke, Cunnamulla, Charleville (yes, there's one here too!), Blackall, Longreach and Winton and return to Adelaide via the Birdsville Track BUT at the moment the Outback is under water and a lot of roads are closed. Talked to Broken Hill Tourist Office (very helpful bunch they are) and all the main roads are OK but a few of the unsealed roads we were going to try are either closed or one should "proceed with caution", probably not ideal for towing a caravan!
We're hoping the rain is now passed and by the time we get around to the Birdsville Track it will be open, if not it will be a wee drive down the middle via Tennant Creek, Alice Springs and Coober Pedy...no matter, either way will be brill.