Our visit to Canarvon Gorge was not the ideal visit at all, due to rain and overcast weather –  but it provided some learning experiences and we did get to see some of the area.

We allowed ourselves a bit of a sleep-in in the morning, and then had to make some phone calls to see what the road conditions were like etc. We decided not to take the caravan in, but to drive to the next town, Rolleston, and leave it at the caravan park there and just do a day trip into the gorge. Initially the lady we spoke to on the phone at Rolleston thought that maybe the highway between Springsure and Rolleston may even be cut off by floodwaters – we didn’t think there had been that much rain. After a few more enquiries, we decided to give it a try, and got through to Rolleston without problem. We parked our van at the site, packed our food and rain jackets and spare dry clothes into the car, and headed towards Canarvon Gorge. It was midday by this time, so we knew we wouldn’t be able to do any long walks, but there were a few short ones we could try. It was a 45min drive to the turnoff to the gorge and then 20 Km of unsealed road to the gorge area. After about 10mins driving along the road in, we came to what was to be the first of a few creek crossings. In the dry, they would be a levy, but with the rain, the water was flowing quite significantly. There were 3 other cars in front of us who we think were driving as a convoy and were checking out the crossing. One guy walked across to see how deep it was – about 30cm deep. Then cars came from the other direction and went across as we watched – some with trailers. So we felt quite confident then. We went across no problems. Another 10mins down the road and we stopped again at another creek crossing with a line of cars. Michael walked ahead to check out this one and came back saying ” You  might all want to hop out. There’s a car stalled in the crossing and the guy 3 cars in front of us with a Landcruiser is going to use his snatch strap to pull him out.” We did so, which was probably the first time the kids had seen that done, so it was a learning experience. The people who had been stuck (a mum, dad, and 3 children) had only been in a small car – they had driven in 2 days earlier (before the rain I guess) and then had heard the rivers were rising so had been trying to drive out while they could – but got stuck on that crossing. Their car engine had been flooded so they were not able to continue driving out. They had been travelling with another family whose car was still on the gorge side of the river. They decided they would all go back to the bush resort they’d been camping at and stay another night and sort out what to do. So between the 4 cars who had been congregated there at the crossing, we were able to fit them all in and take them back to the bush resort, about 10 mins away. We had the mum, Nicole, and the youngest boy, Jarrod (5yrs) in our car. They were from New  Farm in Brisbane and were quite friendly. They met up with their friends at the bush resort and we said goodbye to them there. Then we continued on another 5 mins down the road to the visitor and information centre. 

It was now about 2pm, so our walking time would be limited, but we were thankful we had been able to get in safely. We found out then that the main track into the gorge had water across the very first creek crossing and was likely to have a lot of water crossing it. This would mean a slower walk and we wouldn’t have had time. But there were some other shorter walks at the mouth of the gorge. One we were able to do easily was called Baloon Cave – it was about a 15min stroll to an overhanging cave with some aboriginal stencil art on its walls. There were a couple of bridges with creeks flowing underneath, on which the kids enjoyed playing ‘pooh sticks’. There was a Nature Trail which only went a short distance before being blocked by a wide creek (which I think normally has stepping stones over it). Then we found a path which followed the creek and started along that. We came to a section which had a wide expanse of rocks and pebbles beside the creek and the kids wanted to stop there to skip rocks in the creek. We found a big rock to sit on for afternoon tea and stayed there about half an hour, enjoying the solitude and the picturesque setting. While it was misty, it wasn’t actually raining at that time. There were some very interesting rocks of all sorts of different colours, most of them quite smooth and some with pittings in them which made them look like ‘moon rocks’. Hannah and Beth started a collection of their favourite rocks, which by the end was turning into a huge pile and they wanted to take them all home! Sam was working on his technique of rock skipping most of the time. Lauren found some of the coloured rocks that broke down easily and used them as ‘chalk’ on white rocks, and then as ‘war paint’ on herself. It turned out to be a pleasant time there. We then walked back to the car and began the journey back to Rolleston.

 We had no dramas with any creek crossings on the way back, and didn’t see many other vehicles this time. We did see a few wild pigs crossing the road and we also had to slow down to almost a halt for a herd of cows also crossing the road. It was quite funny seeing the back end of a cow trotting along the road just in front of the car, in an attempt to get out of the way. Back on the highway, then the 70km back to Rolleston. When we arrived back at the caravan park, we remarked that we were glad we had booked in early that morning, as it looked chock-a-block full, like extras had been squeezed in. Probably travellers who had been planning to go to Canarvon Gorge , but were unable to get through and so stayed at the closest van park. It was very wet getting into our van – mud and water everywhere! Hopefully tomorrow we could get somewhere dry and clean up.

We stayed one and half days at Longreach and mainly visited the 2 most often visited attractions there – The Qantas Outback Founders Museum, and The Stockman’s Hall of Fame. When Michael looked it up, he thought it was Sunday that was the only day the Stockman Show was not on at 11am, so we planned to do the Qantas museum in the morning of Sunday, start on the Hall of Fame Sunday afternoon, and then do more of the Hall of Fame Monday morning, including the show.

So Sunday morning it was off to the Qantas museum. We got tickets for a museum entry and jet tour. The tour started at 9.30, so we did that first. Unfortunately there was a very cold wind that morning and we had to be outside for the jet tour (the jet was not in a hangar).  We all had our jumpers on, but we wished we’d also taken our beanies. Anyway the tour went for one and a half hours, most of which was spent learning about and looking through the Boeing 747 200 series plane. Apparently it is the only one of this type on display in the world. We also looked through a Boeing 707 and heard about the great feat that it was to bring it back to Australia from South End in England. Michael and Sam probably enjoyed the tour more than the rest of us. I found it a little interesting, but would have been happy with half the time – certainly Hannah & Beth would have preferred that too, but they did well to be patient as long as they were. I actually found the museum more interesting than I thought I would – manly the history of Qantas and the stories of the men that founded it – I find these aspects more interesting than the technical information. There were some simulators and activities for the kids to do.

We got home about 1pm to have lunch (having had our own morning tea picnic in a windbreak area outside the museum). I was feeling pretty worn out and lay down to have a rest for a while. When it came time to head off to the Hall of Fame, I asked if I could opt out for the afternoon. So Michael took the kids to put in about 2 hrs worth of looking there. I rested for a bit longer, then did some typing on my blog. We had some milk and things we needed to top up on, so I decided to ride the big bike (the one we brought for Lauren – which is actually my bike – but I don’t use it much and she’d outgrown her old one) into town, which was only a couple of blocks away. It felt good to have some exercise. Neither of the 2 grocery stores were open – I guess being a Sunday in outback QLD, they still had the closed on Sundays philosophy. We had UHT milk and there was nothing else on the list that was urgent, so it didn’t matter. I went back to the van and decided I’d get parts of dinner ready early. When Michael and the kids got back, I asked who wanted to go for a bike ride to the park I’d found on my way back from town. Sam and Hannah said yes – Bethy wasn’t able to come as she was worn out and emotional. The 3 of us went and had a nice ride around on the bike for about 20mins. Then Sam went back to the caravan park and Hannah and I went riding a bit further along the road to where there was a nature walk. We walked along for about 10mins, but it was getting late, so we went back to our bikes and headed back to the caravan. We had a beautiful view of the sunset along the road, as there were no houses around us. Back at the van, Michael had put together the last of the dinner, so we were able to sit down and eat. We had live country music in the background as there was a guy playing his guitar and singing in the communal section of the park. He was quite good and quite a few of the ‘grey nomads’ were out listening to him. After dinner, it was the usual night time routine – showers, stories and bed. Just before leaving Canberra, we had found ‘The Betrayal’ book Sam and I had been reading a couple of months ago before it suddenly went missing. It’s quite a long book  – an historical fiction about John Calvin. So I’ve started reading that again with Sam at night.  I’m usually ready to go to sleep after I’ve read that with him.

The next morning we had to pack up the caravan as we were leaving that caravan park.  Once packed up, we headed towards the Stockman’s Hall of Fame. We had found out that Michael had misread the website information and the only day the Stockman Show was not on, was Monday – today. It was bit disappointing, but one of the ladies at the caravan park the previous night had said the outback show at the Gold Coast was just as good – so maybe we’ll have to go to that sometime when visiting the Normans in Brisbane. Anyway, we filled in another 2 hrs at the Hall of Fame – I could have stayed longer, but the kids had seen enough between yesterday’s visit and today. I really enjoyed the early explorer gallery and pioneer Australians gallery. Sam and Lauren really enjoyed the stockman gallery right at the end, and also the RFDS gallery. Hannah and Beth enjoyed bits and pieces of all the galleries – the interactive parts mainly, like listening in to the types of conversations people had on the party line of the early telephone service, and the ‘talking head’ as they called it – an animatronic about the life of a stockman. We had some morning tea on the grounds outside the building and then hopped back in the car for the drive back east.

Day 3 was, for the most part, less eventful than the previous 2 days. We had a bit slower start to the morning but still got away about 9.30. We drove to Bourke, and learned that it was named after the governor of NSW in 1835, Richard Bourke. The surveyor and explorer, Thomas Mitchell, had founded it at this time and originally set up a fort (Fort Bourke) to guard against the tensions that had developed with the local aboriginals. We also learnt that it is located on the Darling River, which Hannah excitedly announced she was learning about at school (the major Aust river systems). Despite an interesting history, there wasn’t a lot to see in a quick visit, so we mainly filled up with petrol and continued north. After about another hour of and a bit of driving, we entered Queensland, stopping to get a photo of the sign (which was in the middle of nowhere – halfway between Bourke and Cunamulla). Then it was continuing north towards Cunamulla. It was certainly long, straight road territory, surrounded by semi-arid mulga landscape. We didn’t see much live wildlife, but there was certainly more dead wildlife on the road than we would normally see. And therefore a lot more vultures and other birds of prey. On average, we only passed another car coming in the opposite direction every 20 mins or so.

These kinds of long drives were a good opportunity to do schoolwork with the kids. I would sit in the back of the car amongst 3 of the children and Lauren and Sam would take turns in sitting in the passenger seat. Lauren and Sam were able to do their work mostly by themselves. So I would help Hannah and Beth. I would read their spelling words to them and check their markings etc. and I would set them their maths sheets and help if they needed help. Hannah would sometimes write a page in her journal about something that stood out from that day or the previous day and do a drawing. I would get Bethany to narrate some sentences about what she wanted to say about the trip (usually prompting with some ideas). The only problem with doing schoolwork in the car was that it led to bad handwriting, with all the bumps – but I had to overlook this if we wanted to get some done.

We reached Cunnamulla about 2.30pm and stopped there for some afternoon tea and a play at the playground. The park was right next door to the Shire Hall, which had in the front of it the statue of the ‘Cunnamulla fella’ – the subject of the song by the same name, made famous by Slim Dusty. The song was a tribute to outback stockmen. Because this was probably the first ‘tourist attraction’ that we visited, it was also the first place were we noticed at least 4-5 other caravans parked in the same spot. We were about to join the tourist throng, rather than feeling like we were on our own like we had at Molong and Byrock.

After about a 45min stop at Cunnamulla, we got back in the car for another nearly 2 hr driving stretch to Charleville. We reached Charleville at around 5pm and stayed at the Cobb and Co. Caravan park. The owners were a lovely couple and the husband showed us to our site by driving Hannah and I (who had gone into the office) on his golf buggy, with Dad and the others following in the car. Once we pulled up, he said he’d better give the other kids a ride also, so they piled on with him and he took them for a ‘spin’. We had another one of the frozen meals I’d made back home, and then Michael and the 3 older children went off to a night time session at the Cosmos Centre – an observatory which has very high-powered telescopes. There had been some doubt over whether it would go ahead or not that night, as there had been some cloud build up during the afternoon. We had rung ahead to check. But the cloud lifted and they rang us back at 7pm to say it was going ahead. I stayed back at the van with Bethany, as she was usually worn out and asleep by 7.30. I told her she would have a special walk with Mum and ice-cream the next day. Michael and the kids got back around 9.30pm and reported that they had all enjoyed it, especially when they got to see Saturn and its moons through the telescope – they took a photo through the telescope lens in which you can see the planet with rings around it. They had also got to see other stars and constellations – a good science lesson for them.

Day 4 was another day of lots of driving. We got away from Charleville a bit later than we should have – but I let Michael sleep in a bit, knowing he was getting tired from the driving. We had some DVDs on iPads for the 2 younger girls to watch if they woke up early – and had earphones for them so they didn’t disturb anyone else. Bethany and I got up around 7am, but the others (including Hannah) slept longer, which I think they needed. I did a bit of grocery shopping in the main street of Charleville while Michael took the kids to a park. It was nice experience the relaxed shopping in the main street of an outback country town – I visited the IGA, the bakery and the butcher – and there wasn’t a shopping mall in sight. The others picked me up from the side of the main road, I loaded the groceries in the caravan fairly quickly, and then we were off, heading towards Blackall. It was the usual drill with schoolwork again once we were on the road. Lauren and Sam weren’t too happy about how much schoolwork I was asking them to do, but Michael and I both reminded them, it was best to get it done while we were just sitting in the car for long periods as we wouldn’t be doing as much once we were out and about sight-seeing. And they weren’t able to do much more than about an hour’s worth anyway, as we couldn’t acces their maths on the CD ROMS yet.

At Blackall we stopped at the monument to the “Black Stump” – early surveyors in the region used the stump to sit their equipment on to read the stars etc. The colloquial saying “beyond the black stump” seems to be traced back to the stump here at Blackall – everything west of Blackall was “beyond the black stump”. We also briefly stopped for a photo of the monument to Jackie Howe – the shearer who set the world record for hand sheep-shearing. In ? he sheared 325 sheep in 8 hrs ? mins.

Next stop was at a little village called Tambo which is an the Barcoo River and it has a lovely rest area and picnic spot near the river. We had lunch there and the kids rode their bikes and had a play.

Then it was back in the car for another hour’s drive to Barcaldine. I drove this stretch (the first time I drove during this trip – Michael wasn’t as confident of my driving with the caravan in tow – but since it was mainly such straight roads, and he relished the rest, he passed it over to me. I think it was about half an hour before he started to relax though – still, I’d rather he was on the cautious side than being too overly relaxed about the care needed when driving with a caravan.

At Barcaldine, we got out for about 20 mins to see the site of the first artesian bore which successfully drew water in western Qld. And just outside the train station is a memorial to the ‘Tree of Knowledge’ – a tree which marked the site of an historic gathering of discontented stockmen and pastoralists in ? – they were unhappy with wages and conditions – this gathering was the beginning of what became the union movement and ultimately the Labour Party. It was a very unique kind of memorial – the stump of the original tree was still in place, but surrounded by glass pavers in a way that you could see the roots underneath. Hanging over the tree, making a type of roof canopy, a whole lot of timber reeds, forming an interesting pattern.

Once again, back in the car, and this time headed west for the hour’s drive to Longreach. It was going to make it a late setup, but we really wanted to get there, so we could set up and stay there for 2 nights. We arrived about 6.15pm, Michael, Lauren and Sam set up while I drove the couple of blocks to get some pizza for dinner. This was dutifully demolished and then Hannah and Beth had quick showers and off to bed, followed not too long after by the rest of us.