Saturday 2.6.12 Winton

Had an early start from Longreach and the weather improved as we approached Winton. Stopped along the way for a cuppa and chatted to a lovely German couple. They came to Australia in 1968 on assisted passage and spent 2 years travelling around Australia. Many more dirt roads then! He was an electrical engineer and she was a teacher. They settled in Sydney and he ended up teaching at St. Joseph’s at Hunters hill for 30 years.  On retirement they moved to Qld and are now reliving their earlier trip. Maybe we will see them again on our travels. We found our caravan park and then headed off on our bikes to explore. Winton has about 4 caravan parks but is smaller then Longreach. We found statutes about Waltzing Matilda, 4 pubs, the pool and the church. We went to Mass and the priest was from Ghana. He goes between here and a place about 250 kms away. A small but organised congregation with an organist and violin player. They played lovely hymns we knew, even Isaiah 49, I hold you in the palm of my hand. The plates were $40 and $ 30 respectively. We probably added 25% to their income! Lovely church of St Patrick and a little school.

They have Mass every week, unlike some places. Headed back and had dinner,

Sunday 3.6.12 Winton

Well what a fantastic day! We decided to do an organised trip to Lark Quarry about 110 kms away.

We were a little uncertain but we thought we would give it a go. Fantastic! We saw so many dinosaur footprints. First uncovered in 1960 but only really come to prominence in last 20 years. The large footprints [preserved in mud] would have covered more then an A3 piece of paper.

They were on private land but it has been bought by the National parks. They have been covered by a huge barn structure and rammed earth walls. There were 100’s of footprints of different sizes. There were about 9 of the big footprints.

The guide was fantastic and informative. He is the caretaker and lives out there and conducts tours. He does a few weeks at a time and then someone else has a turn. The whole place was beautiful and the footprints were awe-inspiring. We really enjoyed the whole experience. Back home we had lunch and set off again to explore. Among other things we discovered a musical fence. They have a big music festival. There is one area set up as drums made out of junk and other bits and pieces to play music on. Next to this was the original [apparently] airstrip for Qantas. Then there was a huge shed with lots of old trucks and vehicles. Partly sponsored by Jupiter’s again. Refer previous blog. Bit cooler today. I am outside but have a jacket on. Adrian and I have a big decision. Will we turn right for the coast or keeping heading towards Normanton? Watch this space for the exciting answer to that question!