Day38-Day 40 Cunnamulla -Home!

Not sure how I managed to get the large Photo of Montecollina Bore at the end of my last posting but it is very nice so will leave it there.

Yes we are now home!!
We left Cunnamulla a Monday morning by 0830 and stopped at Bollon for Morning Tea on the banks of the River.

Went to the heritage centre there and Col,Lyn and Jan checked out the camp area on the riverbank which they found to be excellent and there were several vans already there.
Continued on, had lunch in St George then went and set up camp at the Nindigully Pub. got a great spot on the bank of the Moonie river.

Went up for happy hour at the Pub and they had a singer /guitar player there to entertain.

                        Cooked our last Camp Dinner and had a lovely mouse free nights sleep.

Left Nindigully by 0830 and headed up Chelmer Rd -through properties connecting us to the St
George /Moonie Rd.It was a nice drive with  lots of Kangaroos and Emus out and about plus lots of great looking Cattle.
We headed up this way to call in on some friends of ours who have a 9000 acre property at Flinton.Had Morning Tea with Sharon and just caught Kent before we left. He works on a Moonie oil field 4 days a week and was able to duck home to catch ou with us. 
Headed for Toowoomba through Westmar/Moonie/Dalby. We all stayed the night at Graeme's brothers place at Highfields. It was lovely to be in a nice warm house as the weather continued to be very cold and bleak.Had a good night with Ross and Sandra and of course Bundy-the Dog!

Jan was the unofficial trip leader the next day so the girls decided to go to "the Village Green" at Highfields where there was a quilting shop/Scrapbook shop /Chocolate Shop/ and other gift shops!!
as the fellas were outnumbered they very graciously filled in time.We arrive at the shops around 0830 and after a lovely coffee left around 1000. The day was once again quite cold and bleak.
We headed towards Warwick, Jan leading from No2 position, but turned onto the Settlers Way. this was a lovely scenic drive through  hills and villages to Killarney. Had lunch at the Pub in Killarney. On leaving Killarney we turned off the main Rd once more to Queen Mary Falls Rd.
This was also a very scenic drive .Stopped at Dagg Falls

and Carrs lookout-looking towards Wilsons Peak.

We connected up to White Swamp Rd

 and came back onto the main Rd at Old Koreelah.Turned onto the Mt Lindsay highway to Kyogle.

Stopped for the traditional ice cream at Wiangarie shop.
Arrived back in Lismore around 1630. What a great trip !! Great group!!

Just wanted to add a couple of photos of note not  previously shown on this Blog. The first is to show a a piece of camp gear contributed by Jan which was used everyday at least once and most days twice.Only a woman travelling on her own could carry such an essential item,the rest of us have the brakes put on us about what is truely essential by the male of the species.Yes we used it at the painted desert to wash up after our pancake breakfast. Jan and her dishdrainer.





The next photo is a Panorama taken driving into Palm Valley -Finke Gorge National Park. Very beautiful spot -even the Panorama shot does not do it justice.

It has been fun sharing our travels with you all. We travelled approx 9000Klm and saw some really beautiful parts of Australia. 

Signing off from Graeme and Yvonne

               Col and Lyn

 Jan

Day 32-Day 37 Coober Pedy/Lake Eyre/Maree/Montecollina Bore/Noccundra/Cunnamulla

Day 32 – Day 37  COOPER PEDY – LAKE EYRE – MARREE – MONTECOLLENA BORE – NOCCUNDRA - CUNNAMULLA

Well hi to all of you trip followers, Col here, and have we got some stories to tell now!

First of all we had a birthday party at Cooper Pedy for Yvonne before we travelled via gravel to William Creek, the road was OK and William Creek now has a bitumen main street (Only one street in town), this town is now buzzing because of the water filling Lake Eyre, they now have a real caravan/camping area, flight booking buildings, public toilets, and roadworks depot as well as the original pub.

We had the customary drink in the pub, bought our pass to the Lake Eyre National Park, and travelled on the rather rough track into the Lake at Halligan’s Bay, WHAT A SIGHT, more than we expected, looks like a beachside landscape more than a desert and salt lake scene.

We set up camp before taking the mandatory sunset photos.

After dinner we were invaded by the hoards of field mice,

 even though we were warned, we were not prepared for this onslaught, finally we gave up and went to bed, only to find that these were circus mice, they climbed the tents and somersaulted their way back down all night.

After an almost sleepless night (And some people call this fun) packed up and headed out to William Creek again before heading further south towards Marree, on the way we stopped at many Old Ghan rail siding ruins.

. Further south we stopped at the South Lake Eyre lookout for more photos. We camped at Marree for the night for a good nights sleep (At last)!

Next day saw us travelling to Lyndhurst for fuel and turn left onto the Strzelecki Track which now has some sections of bitumen.

 We stopped at the Montecollena Bore

for the afternoon and night, big camp oven cooking night with campfire session after. Still a few mice around but were dazzled by the antics of the dozens of native ‘Dusky Hopping Mice’

 which kept us entertained all night, they were friendly to the point that you could scratch their back with a stick, and did not climb anything.

Next day saw us travelling further along the Strzelecki Track to a short cut to bypass Merti-Merti and get us to Cameron’s Corner a bit quicker, beer and pie lunch at the ‘Corner Store’

This is the border of Qld/NSW/SA

where we were informed that the road through Bullo Downs was still flooded and closed, so we headed along a desert track to Ormicron Homestead and then north along the very rough and very, very dusty road which goes between Tibooburra to Noccundra. Stayed at the Noccundra waterhole for the night with dinner at the pub. Still a few mice jumping on tents but mild compared to previous episodes.

Next day – up at dawn again and headed into Thargomindah for fuel and morning tea, while in town we visited the Tourism Information Centre, which is now in the old hospital building and also now has a historical display, did a town crawl to check out the other sites, is still a nice, neat town!

Further east we had lunch at the ‘Lake Bindigolly Nature Reserve’, this place is full of water birds and the lake is full.

The road between Noccundra and Cunnamulla is alive with emus and cattle, most of which seemed to like our section of the road and caused us to stop occasionally to give them ‘right of way’. Set up camp in the Cunnamulla Caravan Park for 2 nights as we reckon we deserve a rest and it is another friendly town.Had some beautiful roses growing in gardens around the town.

Cunnamulla Fella