Griffith,  Nice Town, Great Wineries .......  Our first stop after departing Moama on Monday May 1 was Griffith where we stayed two nights.    Griffith is a modern, wealthy, cosmopolitan town with very good facilities, a number of tourist attractions and best of all, lots of wineries.  There were two highlights of our stay in Griffith, first of all Rossetta Winery where we made friends with the lovely lady in the tasting area and secondly the cemetary where we didn't make friends with anybody.   The cemetary is a must see.   There is a catholic section which has an incredible array of marble monuments to local Italians born both in Griffith and Southern Italy.   It is just amazing to see the amount of trouble they go to to honour their loved ones.   Well kept, fresh flowers, photos and in a number of cases monuments, all prepared but with no one buried.

After spending a day in Griffith it was made obvious to us that we were expected.    Not only had they turned on beautiful weather but they had named a street after us.  It is indeed an honour and I would like to thank the Griffith City Council.

Heading North.......    We departed Griffith on Wednesday morning in the rain.  Just a light shower, nothing to be to concerned about, we're heading north to the warm weather.   Who's kidding who.  100 km down the road we stopped at Hillston.  Not because it's a nice town (which it is) but because the road was quickly disappearing under water.  75 mm in Cobar and 125 mm in Bourke. Paddocks were flooded, the sides of the road deep in water and in a number of places as shown in the photo the water crossing the road.       Every unmade road in the Shire of Bourke was closed to traffic due to the rain.   This rain together with rains earlier this year have transformed the outback into a green, lush environment and vastly different from what we witnessed only 8 months ago.     The cows and sheep all look fat and healthy so if this is any indication then the farmers will do well this season.

Cobar .....   Before reaching Cobar we came across some travellers who had stopped for a coffee break on the side of the road.  We decided to stop also and Rob luckily happened to hear a hissing noise coming from under the guy's bonnet.  On investigation, it was found that a heater hose had burst.  With some innovative mechanical work done, the driver and his wife reached Cobar where mechanical repairs were carried out.  Cobar is a small mining town in the far west of New South Wales which has had plenty of rain over the past few weeks.  The caravan park we stayed in overnight had lush thick green grass on every sight and was a pleasure to stay at, even though we were still experiencing occasional showers. We took a tour of the Outback Heritage Centre which we found quite interesting.

Bourke - As in 'The Back Of'....    This was our next stop not too far up the road.  This town had had 5 inches of rain so again the sides of the roads were very boggy and luckily we did not come across any road trains coming our way.  The road is very good and since it was opened up in May 1999, it has brought a lot of tourism to Bourke.  This is seen in the main street where the pavements have been all bricked paved and the original metal bars protecting the shop windows have been removed and replaced with colourbond pull down shutters.   The park we stayed at was just the other side of Bourke and it had copped the downpour with the caravan sites quite waterlogged.  There are some beautiful old buildings in Bourke and also the grave site of Fred Couples who did so much for the aborigines in Bourke.  He requested to be buried with wide open spaces around him.  We found his monument in the Bourke cemetary - a very simple grave site and an aboriginal monument commemorating his life.

Unfortunately due to the rain, all the unsealed roads out of Bourke were closed, so we could not see a few attractions which were on the Mud Maps.

Charleville.... Our next overnight stop was to be Charleville.  We arrived around 4.30 pm and found the park to be absolutely chock a block.  To get out in the morning, you had to nearly move out in shifts, but the very friendly owner and his wife were there to help.    On the road again and during one of our quieter moments Liz was heard to say and I quote "What is that Rob?  It's smaller than a cockroach and bigger than a kangaroo."  What the hell am I supposed to look for.  Well the photo tells the story.  It was a goanna we met on the roadside on our way from Charleville to Blackall.   He was sunning himself and was quite happy for us to stop and take photos.  What we have noticed on this section of our trip is a lot of emus and kangaroos.   The lush green countryside has really brought these animals out into the open and even during the day you have to watch the sides of the road for kangaroos.

Blackall....   This is just a small town further up the track.  The caravan park was very nice and it seems that everyone is moving along together as we keep bumping into the same travellers.  Along with some caravan neighbours, we took a run out to the Blackall historic woolscour.  It is unique in its presentation as it is totally unchanged since its earliest days of steam power.  Built in 1908, it is the only surviving woolscour in western Queensland and it is a living museum of a walk back in time to the engineering capabilities of Australia's pioneers.  The guide, Trevor gave a comprehensive history of the woolscour, but any visitor who was not Australian may have had trouble understanding his Queensland dialect.

Unfortunately we had arrived at the caravan park the night before the camp oven cooking night.  It always seems to be that you are either there the day after or the day before the event.

Thank goodness these towns have something to advertise and sell their towns to the passing traveller.  One town that would have been struggling to get their name on the map would have to be Augathella, which is famous for its "meat ants".  Yes the sign promoted as "meat ant country"

Longreach....  This town is the largest town in central western Queensland with a population of 4500 people.  Finally the rain has gone, and we are seeing beautiful sunny skies.  The weather is around 25 degrees but cool at night so we're not down to shorts and sleeveless tops quite yet.  We arrived to find that the Longreach Show was commencing the next day so the town was a buzz.  Our first stop was the Qantas Museum set up within the company's original hangar built in 1922.  Quite a good display which will be extended with a $10 million grant being given by the Federal Government.

The Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame opened 10 years ago and is well worth a visit.  It gives a comprehensive history of Australia from the arrival of the Aborigines more than 40,000 years ago to settlement by the British, exploration, the establishment of grazing, agriculture and follows the story through to the present day.  You really need at least 5 hours to view the entire facility.

It was then time for the Longreach Agricultural Show.  There is nothing like a country show. There were lots of country people catching up with friends and acquaintances who they may not have had contact with for many weeks and just the whole layback carnival atmosphere.  There was the crowning of Miss Showgirl, dog jumping competition, shearing competitions and more.   We even had a chance to visit the bull auctions and Liz, inadvertently brushing a fly from her face, ended up purchasing a 1000 kg Santa Gertrudas bull which we now have in the back of the 4WD (No Bull).    This was then followed by the fireworks display, which did not quite match the New Year's Eve celebration on Sydney Harbour and around the world but were really quite spectacular for a town so small.  We even had front row seats.

After two days in Longreach, it was time for us to move on to Winton

Winton - The Home of Waltzing Matilda .... and the birthplace of Qantas.  Winton is 176 kms up the road from Longreach.   Again, we missed the campfire cooking at the caravan park which was on last night or is it on tomorrow night.  I dare not ask.   Anyway, we arrived at lunchtime and hit the town in the afternoon.  Winton is known for the Waltzing Matilda Centre (the origin of our national song, so they say).  This centre is very well done with the life of Banjo Paterson and Waltzing Matilda and is an impressive combination of Australia's history and today's technology.

Mount Isa ..... 'Been there, done that'  Having spent a few days in Mount Isa last year we will not be tourist on this stay.   Our main purpose for stopping a few days is to stock up on supplies, do all our washing and update the WEB Site.  Believe it or not Mount Isa is the largest town that we will be in from now until we reach Perth in mid August.

This section of the trip has been very interesting mainly because of the wide variation in weather conditions and some excellent tourist attractions.  The weather has now improved and is what we expected.    Every day, clear blue skies, 28^oC during the day and down to about 12 to 15^oC at night.  What could be better.    For those that are interested we have already travelled 2750 km since leaving home, petrol prices have varied from a low of $0.765 in Ballarat to a high of $0.949 in Charleville.  In Mount Isa petrol is $0.865 and with the Caravan Park receipt a discount of $0.05 per litre.

From now on we leave the world of manufactured tourism and head to the real outback and the tourist spots that mother nature has constructed over millions of years.

Until our next update.