Windorah, Queensland, AustraliaWednesday 14 June
Happy Birthday to Kay who was going to be with us for this trip, along with Bas.
We miss their company around the fire.
Our stay on the dusty sandy dirty grey brown mud flats of the Bulloo River at Quilpie came to an end this morning thankfully, as i was finding it a little depressing, and we headed toward Windorah. 
The Diamantina Development Road we are following is littered with roadkill, kangaroos, emus, pigs and occasional cattle, which has increased in number as we have moved further west. Understandable, as they are the main population of this part of the continent. We've seen more groups of emus foraging on the treeless plains than I've seen in my lifetime. I asked Rick what type of grass it was. His educated answer: well, it's not couch!
We arrived at Cooper's Creek Camp, just east of Windorah, by 3pm, to set up with a view of the water (my request), before a walk across the road to explore the creek a little. Of course we had to dodge the flies, which have also increased in number significantly! They haven't been a problem until now.
Thursday 15 June
A much warmer night than we are used to - 12 degrees when we woke, so the gas heating is having a rest.
Rick put the yabbie pots in baited with sheep's liver, courtesy of Quilpie Butchers. He also did his style of fishing, which is cast in, put rod in rod holder and come back to camp, then an hour or so later have a look. The neighbours caught a nice yellow belly, but Rick caught a turtle!
We drove the 12 ks into town, along the Nature Drive (basically a rough dirt track with a few signposted plants). After some time in the Information Centre come library come museum, we did a bit of a drive around in readiness for our night in the caravan park here tomorrow night. There is a population of about 80, a tiny pub, a general store, a petrol station/coffee shop, a P.O., a caravan park and a one teacher school, oh, and a police station.
Back at camp we put a lamb roast on to cook in the BBQ and went for a walk across the one lane bridge to the camping areas on the opposite bank. Had a chat to a couple who also had a lamb roast on the barbie. They were more experienced than us as they knew to put the vegetables on at the same time as the meat.
Whoops! Back at the van we found our lamb cooked and we hadn't even put the veges in yet. It all worked in the end and we enjoyed lamb,veges and even gravy.
Friday 16 June
Big thrill this morning, Rick caught one blue claw yabbie, so we did the process we had been shown and popped it in a ziplock bag in the freezer, hopefully ready to add more to make a meal.
We packed up and moved the whole 10 kilometres to Windorah Caravan Park, the first official park we have stayed at so far. I washed continuously for a couple of hours, using our machine and the park's machine, and we plugged in everything that can be charged while we have a powered site.
Being Friday, we had hoped the pub here had pizza on the menu, but we would need to wait until next Wednesday, State of Origin night, for that. Bugger that! We're off to the pub as I type.
2025-05-22