16/8/2012
Ilfracombe to Longreach . This is only a 27km trip .
We headed straight to the Visitors info centre, ready to book all the tours we had read about - amazingly they don't do bookings!

So armed with the info provided by the lass on duty we headed for a coffee shop to make plans, after a few phone calls our bookings were in place - the first of which was one of 3 we were to do with a delightful company called Mckinnon & Co . This was a Captain Starlight show, a funny look at a day in the life of Harry Redford, a cattle duffer, the show used horses, a dog and even a chicken to tell his story.

By now it was time for a late Lunch so we headed to the Apex park free camp, a few kms west of the town - there were about 40 RV's there but we managed to find 2 spots together. Little did we know that by nightfall there would be around 80 of them. This is a good spot near the river, and off the road, with toilets - it is not picturesque but it is certainly a good facility close to the action.

Around 5pm we were collected, from the free camp, by McKinnon & Co and taken to their riverside camp, ready to board the Thomson river paddle steamer sunset cruise.

This was a delightful experience, with nibbles provided (BYO drinks) a commentary about the river, a little history and a magnificent sunset on the way back to their camp .

Back at their camp they had a cooked up a good old drovers stew, followed by apple pie and custard, billy tea and damper with golden syrup.

To round it off, Scotty ( the barefoot poet) entertained us with bush poetry, yarns and tales, once more reminding us that there is a lot of talent out here, by now we have had quite a lot of bush entertainment and there is an amazing amount of anti Julia (Gillard) feeling out here in Katter (Bob) country - subtly depicted in their yarns and jokes.

On the way back to the Apex riverside camp for a night cap and a night under the stars in the bush, our host and driver Richard told us Scotty's story.

He was a local guy who had a horse riding accident and was in a coma for 7 months, one day he came around and seemed quite fine except for a lot of vertigo, they discovered this was worse if he wore shoes, so he goes everywhere barefoot. Scotty has a lawn mowing business, and for years he mowed bare foot, till some joker reported him and workplace health and safety went mad - shoes or no work - McKinnon & co heard this and helped him out, by making him soleless shoes - with toe protection.

This explained why he performed all wrapped up in a heavy parker, for the cold night but still had bare feet.