Monday 4.6.12 Hughenden

Things I forgot.

The photo is one of the largest deckchair in the world at the outdoor picture theatre in Winton

We have seen the quinine tree up this way. It was used to make medicine for malaria before being made synthetically. Also in Winton we saw an old outdoor theatre opened in 1918. Patrons sat on canvas seats. They had lots of old posters, films, tickets, slides etc. Part of it had also been used as a roller skating rink.

In the eighties the locals decided to have the world’s largest deck chair built and it is still there. Not sure if I have talked about the sunsets. They are beautiful pastel colours of pink and pale blue. Not what we expected.

We left Winton early and travelled to Hughenden. We have decided to head to the coast instead of going to Karumba. Hoping the coast will be warmer. This was about a 200km trip. As we have said many roads are under repair. This one was and we travelled on gravel road for about 10 kms. We had to slow right down as the gravel piled quite high in places.

This landscape was very flat with the Mitchell grass and few trees. We could see to the horizon all around. We saw some mesa formations also.  [MESA = flat top mountains – we are having a difference of opinion as to pronunciation, is it Mee Sa or May Sa? Our lines are open -  call now , well comment now!!!!]

We followed the electricity line for most of the way and worked out that 4 poles equals 1 km. Adrian and I live on the edge of excitement.

We arrived in town and found a caravan park, had some lunch and headed out on our bikes to explore. Just before this I hung the washing on our $12 clothes line from Aldi. It was tied down with many ropes to prevent it from flying away!

We headed to the info centre and hope to drive to a lovely gorge tomorrow, weather permitting. We enjoyed a lovely ride all along the river. The Flinders River that is. Adrian and I in our ignorance had not heard of it. We should have as it is the longest river in Queensland and it flows into the Gulf. There were bikes tracks for about 4km. The river was very low and sandy. Its looks as though it would be ok for swimming in summer. All along the tracks there are signs telling people how far they have walked. We have noticed this in a few towns. Headed back to the park and spent the afternoon chatting to people from Brisbane.

Tuesday 5^th June

Out to the Porcupine Gorge ( yes porcupine not Echidna). We had to call at the tourist info place as the road was closed yesterday. While they didn’t say the road was open to all traffic (4 wheel drive only) a phone call to the engineers at the council revealed that they hadn’t opened the road to all traffic but with the chief engineer yelling in the background to go, we decided it was fine, so off we went. It WAS fine. We had to drive about 70km with the last 4 km gravel/red soil. And we had no problems.

The Gorge is a sight to see (So see the photos). It was beautiful and I think this is a place where the photos do not give justice to the place. This gorge was formed by a combination of earthquake, volcanic action and weathering by rivers. The whole top is covered by basalt. Another tourist trek is to drive all thru basalt area but you need a 4WD. At the gorge it is also possible to camp and walk to the bottom of the gorge. Stopped here and had our morning tea with a yummy scone from the local bakery.Once that was over we sent back to the visitor info centre to do a tour through the centre there. A dinosaur/local history exhibition. Lots of fossils here[apart from Adrian!]This area is all part of the dinosaur trail. Also there are areas you can fossick for fossils and gemstones. The little museum had quite a lot of fossils. No sooner had we set down for the brief film about things then the phone rang.

Fay then spent about an hour doing one of her favourite things – talking to anyone named Colleen. In this case it was a Colleen of the San Francisco variety. The phone cut out three times but eventually they had said enough – strange as it may seem.

Outside the info place we had a long talk with other grey nomads (sorry – Fay doesn’t have grey hair, just the other three of us). They had come from Port Macquarie and Canberra.

We then had a treat and had lunch in the FJ Holden Café, a fish and chips and a burger, you can guess who had what (the proprietor was in fact F.J Holden).

See by the photos that the café is decorated with Holden and Elvis Presley paraphernalia. Quite a nice place where the prices were reasonable and food quite good. Had a lazy afternoon sitting in the sun and chatting with people.

Tomorrow after visiting another few local sights we head in the direction of Charters Towers. We may not make it all the way so we will see.