Dinosaurs and lots of driving

Tuesday, May 23, 2023
Winton, Queensland, Australia
Thursday May 18            Longreach
We headed back into Longreach to do a few more touristy things. Firstly it was a tour of the Longreach Distance Education School.  The tour was lead by a parent.  She did a great job. The P&C group raise money for the school doing these tours, the funds going towards various extra curricula activities, like a musical gala, camps and tours as well as  books…  It seems like a wonderful facility.
Next was the Qantas Founders museum.  It was interesting and a pretty good display, but after the brilliance of the Stockman’s Hall of Fame it was a little bit disappointing.  Better to do Qantas first!!  The founders were true visionaries.  It’s a great story.
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After a lunch in the park we headed back to camp, doing some domestic and communication jobs before having a wonderful dip in the artesian spa… cost of $2 pp!!!   At happy hour we played some music which was much appreciated and also enjoyed a few amusing stories presented by the owner of the park.
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We lashed out and went to the pub for dinner. Not such a brilliant choice.  The food was really good but not so the wait of and hour and a half.  Back at camp we had another couple of rounds of Rummikub.  Such a good game.
Friday  May 19  Ilfacrombe to Winton
Moving camp again we headed towards Winton about a 200km trip.   On arrival we had a coffee, wandered around the street checking things out and taking a few photos.   A Qantas cairn, sheep grazing in the median strip and a wall made of junk.  There was a promise of free showers, but they were rather sulphurous and cool, so we crossed them off the list.   At the butchers we stocked up for the next few days and were a bit sorry to hear the shop was closing at the end of the week.  Too hard to find staff.
We tried our hand at a bit of percussion at the “Musical Fence”.  Quite a misnomer.   Not a fence, but fun all the  same.  By now it was lunchtime and beside the golf course we managed to find a tree under whose shade we had a picnic. 
Back in town we visited the “Matilda Centre”.  It is mostly a dedication to Waltzing Matilda but there were lots of other historical displays about Winton as well.  Once again we felt it was over priced and not in the same league as the Stockman’s Hall of Fame.  There were lots of little facts we learnt about the song however… like exactly what the origin of “waltzing”, “Matilda” and “jumbuck”  We did feel rather ignorant!
Heading out of Winton we camped in Brandenburg National Park, about 25km out of town.  A delightful spot on the banks of a creek just where there was actually water in a deep hole!  Rick and Wendy's stove dramas continued from last year,!  The gas stove decided to stop working completely. Out with the trusty trangia again...and a fire while here. An evening by a campfire under millions of stars was delightful. 
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Saturday May 20  Winton 
We did the 50km drive back to the "Ultimate Dinosaur Experience" where we had a series of 3 tours. The first required  a 500m walk along a clifftop that gave us some great views.  This took us to the workshop/laboratory where we saw fossils in all stages of being cleaned up.  Many of the technicians were volunteers. 
Next was into a display room where we received lots of information about each of the animals there whose bones were all cleaned up. Finally we boarded an open air trailer with seats for a ride of about a kilometre to  a shed that housed 54m of dinosaur tracks.  These tracks had been moved to the current site. It took 3 women 4 years to disassemble and reassemble them. An incredible jigsaw!! 
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Nearby there was a walkway on the edge of the escarpment through the bush where lots of dinosaur replicas of various sizes had been placed. The guides had been trained well, but didn't seem to have any additional knowledge!! Our only real gripe was that we didn't get a lunch break!!!  Back at camp, firewood was needed, so Rick and Wendy headed off, outside the National Park. In order to make room for a decent wood supply Wendy got her bike off the roof and after loading the wood she rode back to camp. Preparing a gourmet dinner occupied us for the rest of the day.  Slow cooked lamb and quince with couscous followed by sticky date pudding!!! 
Sunday May 21  Lark Quarry
 A 100 km drive took us to Lark Quarry to the site of the Dinosaur Stampede Tracks.  Unique in the world.  Again, the guide was excellent. An amazing experience. 
We did a couple of short walks seeing some interesting plants but failed in a mission to find some special birds!  Back to camp for more gourmet cooking for our last night as a foursome.  Wendy was actually dropped off along the way so she could walk back. She was rewarded with seeing quite a variety of birds and flowers. We had neighbours from the Netherlands. They came over for a chat and to pick our brains about travel in South America. Dinner was roast lamb with a warm roast veggie salad with green goddess dressing followed by baked Wy Yung apples stuffed with WY Yung dried fruit!!! 
Our neighbours returned after dinner to enjoy our fire. We played some music and punished them with some bush songs!  It was a really enjoyable evening. 
Monday May 22. Bough Shed Hole to Porcupine Creek near Hughenden
We farewelled Paul and Bev at camp and in Winton filled up with water.  Heading for Richmond we followed the road towards Mt Isa for a while before cutting northwards on a dirt road.  We were pleasantly surprised when after only about 40km it became sealed!!!  Sealed it may have been, but lots of very dodgy sealed sections!   
 The dinosaur centre in Richmond also had a café and a table with a power point.  We plugged in the computer to get some charge, had a coffee, checked out the displays which were simply amazing.  Most of them were found by local land owners and one 98% complete, the best in the world. 
Moving along we stopped at a rest stop for a quick lunch then continued to Hughendon where we went to the fourth and final dinosaur exhibit.  It was quite clearly the lesser of the 4, but the replica of a huge dinosaur was all the same really impressive.
 We started booking a site at the Porcupine Gorge National Park, 60km away but something interrupted us and after we had travelled half way there and had no signal we realized we hadn’t completed the booking.  Oops.  We knew there were only 2 sites left, so decided it was a bit risky to go in  and fortunately there was a stunning spot just out of sight of the road, close to Porcupine Creek and with lots of firewood.  Perfect!! 
Tuesday May 23 Porcupine Gorge to Pinnarendi Station Camp 
We were packed and on the road before 8am.  There were a few lookouts that we wanted to check out and Wendy wanted to do a 4km walk to Pyramid Rock.   The gorge is absolutely beautiful…as good as many in the Kimberley and Pilbara.  With all the dinosaur fossils found in this area….it must be right up there in the world for the number and variety found, coupled with the fact that the gorge took millions of years to form has given  me a much more intense ‘understanding’ that in the big picture our lives are a mere fraction of a second!
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By just after 10am we had finished exploring and headed off towards the Oasis Roadhouse  where we had considered overnighting.  The reports on Wikicamps were very negative but Wendy found a spot 120km  further along that sounded just great!  We called and made a reservation and had our tent set up by 3.30pm on Pinnarendi Station.  A beautifully set up campground with wonderful amenities including a cafe.  Wendy retired there for coffee and cake to accompany her while updating the blog.   She actually didn't get far with the blog as the owner of the station sat down to have a late lunch and was on for a chat.  It was a really great insight into the local area, station life etc. and he pointed out a huge python sleeping in the rafters! 
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There was a 3km walk on offer, so Wendy took advantage of that and managed to see a few birds, flowers etc.    
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Comments

Murry
2023-05-23

Sounds wonderful as usual. Love the photos. Enjoy!

Maureen Hickling
2023-05-23

It's so interesting to hear about all the dinosaur relics. Great photos too!

Merran
2023-05-24

It’s fine being an armchair traveler with your detailed descriptions and such wonderful an accompaniment of photos. Good luck on the roads less traveled to the top!!

Lyn and Ken
2023-05-24

Love your photos. The gourmet camp meals sound amazing.

Val
2023-05-24

The pics were great reminders of our visit through that area and the Dino recreations. Is just amazing for sure. Forgot to comment on the pesky jigsaw - was it as hard to manage as the other 1 They are being heavily advertised on face book currently cheers Us 😀

2025-02-15

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