Winton

On Thursday the 27th of May we left Muttaburra and headed toward Winton. We took the direct road to Longreach. It still has 10km or so of gravel but it is a pretty good road and they had recently completed some sealing of the road and are currently working on more sections. Great for the locals and travellers for Muttaburra. Longreach has a big shopping centre which I knew from a previous visit so I planned to get quite a few things there in the way of shopping. The Mitre 10 there also is well stocked and they have a gas refill system that is state of the art and well priced. The gas bottle I had been using was all but spent so it was a good opportunity to fill with gas before heading to remote areas that would charge like wounded bulls for gas. It was by no means full when I started the trip, maybe a third full at best. So with all that sorted including fuel we left Longreach. It is amazing how things workout. I did all of my shopping etc. Jan & Ross had a few things less to attend to but through them having to return something to a shop and buy an alternate item we wound up driving out of Longreach about 500 metres apart. We got away from Longreach just before lunch so wanted to kill some kilometres before stopping. We stopped just before 1pm for lunch. The land is so arid and plain looking but I love to visit it. It is great grazing country and there is a lot of feed around. There were some amazing landscapes though, which I must get a photo of next time. Whilst sitting at the rest area shelter enjoying a couple of sandwiches loved watching these wild finches that were nesting between the timber frame and the corrugated roof of the structure. It was to small an area for predatory birds to get into. It is amazing how birds are able to find safe places to nest.
I had not realized it but I inadvertently wound up getting a photo of the scrawling of some other travellers who wanted to record their presence at this rest stop. So I am now immortalizing their presence here on the internet. On the timber rafter is recorded, ‘Tiny & Julie, Nick & Shana – CCAMC, Central Coast American Motorcycle Club 2005’. It got me thinking, are Tiny and Julie still together, and what about Nick and Shana? I could check that out, but no, as much as it would be nice to think they were still together I have a holiday to pursue.
Therefore we pushed on to Winton and dropped into the Visitors Information Centre to get some info. I have been here before so Jan and Ross wanted to explore their options. We went to the Long Waterhole free -camp. We got a nice spot on the waterhole and set up.
Got organized and went to the North Gregory Hotel for some poetry and history about Winton. At 4.30pm on most days Gregory North, a three time Australian Bush Poet Champion, does one of his three or four routines that is very entertaining. It usually includes some Banjo Patterson poems, history and stories about Winton and the region. It is well worth a visit to catch his routine. When Linda and I were here in 2017 we also had the good fortune to see the chook races that were run by the Publican at the time. It seems that he has left this pub and now runs a pub at Tambo where he runs the chook races down there. I don’t know if you picked up that Gregory North does this show at the North Gregory Hotel. My understanding is that it is purely coincidence. Anyway he is really good and a must see if you go to Winton.
At the end of his show we went back to camp for dinner. It was a nice sunset but they all are out here. I was trying to get the reflection of the sunset on the water but missed it I think.
On Friday I had a relaxed morning and lunch, getting up to date with the blog and other stuff whilst Jan & Ross went into town doing the tourist thing. When they got back there were these emus that were foraging around and down for a drink.
Jan told me about the museum in town which I don’t think that I had seen before so it was my turn to do the tourist thing and I went into town to check out the museum. The museum is housed in the Corfield & Fitzmaurice General Merchants building. Corfield & Fitzmaurice were pioneering retailers who established a thriving business there which was a main supplier of goods to the growing community. The museum has a display of the dinosaur stampede and info and photos on the sheep and wool industry and sheep stations in the area.
I love the country pubs. Had to get these photos.
A fellow runs this tourist info tour on his horse and coach. A nice idea. It is not quite the Cobb & Co Coach trip in Longreach but it is a nice addition to the Winton landscape.
Then it was back to camp and enjoy the sunset. Whilst having our fire our neighbours, Ken and Sue, came over and introduced themselves to us which was nice. We invited them to join us at our fire which they did for a while. As it often happens on the road we would be getting to see them further down the track.
The next morning we woke to a magnificent sunrise.
With that our Winton visit was over and we hitched up and left for Julia Creek.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gregory Downs and Lawn Hill National Park

Image
On Sunday the 30th of May we left Julia Creek and headed for Gregory Downs. Jan & Ross got away a bit before me as I filled a couple of jerry cans with diesel and grabbed a coffee. So then I headed off and caught up with them a hundred kilometres or so up the road when they stopped for a coffee. These plains are very flat and some would say boring. To a degree that is true but these plains are awesome at the same time. I would not choose to live here but it is great to visit it and take it in. There was no rest stop for Jan & Ross to stop at but they found this driveway to some cattle yards they could use. The whole scene was great so I am glad I got the chance to stop and take some photos. We then pushed on to the Bourke & Wills Roadhouse which is also known as Four Ways. We had been discussing whether Jan & Ross would choose to leave their van there and would come into Lawn Hill NP with me. They would take their tent and some other comforts but the idea being that t...
Read more

Mendooran & The Trip Home

Image
I wound up staying with my mate Dave at Lightning Ridge for four nights. I did not want to rush home, after all, Sydney was in lockdown with an extension of that lockdown just announced. So on Friday morning the 16th of July I said goodbye to Dave and headed off. I was going home via Walgett, Coonamble and Mendooran to the Blue Mountains. I was hoping to get a better road than you do from Walgett to Burren Junction. Well I was wrong there wasn’t I! It was a very poor road to Coonamble. It was not good beyond there until I reached Gilgandra. It improved greatly from there for the rest of the trip home. I stopped for a cuppa about 62km out from Coonamble at a rest stop. I went onto Coonamble and fueled up there and stopped at a rest stop in town for lunch. Up the road from the rest stop was this silo art mural. Very nice. The Castlereagh River runs through Coonamble and I was about to be following the Castlereagh all the way to Mendooran where I was stopping for the night. The rest...
Read more

Forsyath & Cobbald Gorge

Image
Saturday morning the 12th of June we left Einasleigh and headed for Forsyath. Before we could leave though I would have to be able to start the Landcruiser, wouldn’t I? But that did not happen did it! The batteries were partially flat. The thought that my batteries were dying had been on my mind for the last week or two. They were just over five years old. When you know your vehicle so well you detect little changes and the vehicle had not been starting with as much vigor as usual. So it came as no surprise that it would not start. So fortunately Ross was in a handy position with his van on that he could pull forward and give me a jump start. It is funny that a couple of months earlier I had to jump start Ross’s Landcruiser as his batteries had died at that time as well. Back then we were caravanning on the Murray River. So once my vehicle was started we were mobile toward Forsyath. We would be staying at the Forsyath Tourist Park for two nights on power. We were in an overflow area as...
Read more