Wandering with a purpose - the road to Forbes

It seems an eternity and another lifetime since we left Lawn Hill Station, but in reality, it’s only been six weeks.  It’s been a busy time - different busy; and time has passed quickly.  I haven’t had much opportunity to sit and write, but today is 39 degrees and we’re parked up in a little caravan park, so I’ve retreated indoors with the air conditioner.  Gotta love Darth!!!

Queensland is a big place.  We’d given ourselves a month to travel from the Gulf down to Forbes and although we weren’t in a hurry, we didn’t have much spare time for dawdling either.

We cruised back down through Julia Creek, where we’d spent three weeks previously.  It was great to catch up with a few familiar faces and here all the news, but the town was quiet now.  The flocks of tourists had gone and the main street was nearly empty.  We chose to stay in the caravan park this time.  We wanted to try the new artesian bath houses that everyone had been raving about during our time there.  These beautiful bath houses had an opening to the south, so you take in the views while relaxing in the warm waters with a glass of wine and a cheese platter.  Bliss.

There was new territory to explore as we moved through dinosaur country.  We hadn’t been to Richmond and Hughenden before in our travels so made a point of heading that way.  We’d heard the dinosaur exhibit, Kronosauras Korner in Richmond was well worth a visit, and we can confirm that it is.  It houses a large collection of marine fossils and we spent a couple of hours in this fascinating place.

Kronosaurus Korner - Richmond

Hughenden also has a dinosaur exhibit (they were really active in the ancient inland Eromanga Sea, leading to the now famous Dinosaur Trail) however we chose to pass on that one and made our way about 70km north-east of Hughenden to the Porcupine Gorge National Park.  We had a couple of lovely, quiet days there, exploring down in the gorge, paddling in the waterholes and generally relaxing.  It was a pleasant change to be able to sit and read a book for a while.

Pyramid Rock - Porcupine Gorge NP

We scooted down through Winton, only stopping for the night as we’d spent a fair bit of time here previously, and moved on to Longreach.  We decided to stop a few days here.  It had been hot and dry four years ago when we came through Longreach and we had decided to keep going.  This time we took in the Australian Stockmans’ Hall of Fame and had a good look through town.  

Australian Stockmans' Hall of Fame

There’s lots to see and do in Longreach; as well as the Hall of Fame, there’s the Qantas Founders Museum and the Kinnon & Co. pioneer experiences. But what we really came for was the pork chops!

In 2014, on our way through, we’d stopped to pick up some supplies.  We’d called in to the local, family-owned butcher shop and purchased two beautiful looking frenched pork cutlets.  Four years on, we still rave about those chops.  They were the best we’ve ever had.  Could they be replicated?  We called in to the same shop and had a laugh with the young guy behind the counter when we told him our story.  We wanted those wonderful pork chops again.  Could he provide? Yes, he could!!!!

Sometimes when you re-visit old memories you’re disappointed, but not this time.  

Leaving Longreach with a full freezer, we made our way through Barcaldine and headed south to our next stop at Lara Wetlands.  Lara is a working cattle station which has diversified into offering camping around the beautiful natural wetlands on the property.  They also offer tours of the historic old Queenslander homestead.  We knew of Lara because our Farm Rescue mates had visited here for a week in July and helped out with some work on the homestead.

We pulled up and stretched out and enjoyed an afternoon of watching the prolific bird life and taking in the restorative waters of the natural artesian hot spa.  Very relaxing.  

The beautiful Lara Wetlands

Thermal pool at Lara

The next few days were spent slowly moving south, then east, through the towns of Blackhall, Mitchell, Roma and Miles; farming communities who were all struggling with the drought.  We stopped off and spent a bit of money in town - coffees, fuel or some groceries - and made use of the excellent free camps that were usually available.  We made a note to return to explore further another time.

As we got closer to the coast the weather turned a little.  The temperature was lower and there were ominous black clouds on the horizon.  What was this???

After passing through Dalby, we took the road up and over the ranges, through Gympie and down towards the Sunshine Coast.  We had a few busy days planned in the area as well as some lovely catch up time.

Thursday was our first appointment.  We had booked the van in to get a satellite TV system installed on the roof.  When we first travelled our thoughts were “Meh - if we get TV reception, we get it.  If not, it’s not an issue”.  Then after months of not getting it, and facing even more time next year in areas without signal, we decided to bite the bullet.  Now we've really joined the nomads and we’ve got this enormous dish on the roof and are sorted.

On Friday we had the van booked in to get all the fly screens replaced with midge-proof mesh.  Another upgrade that we had decided was necessary.

We had a fantastic weekend catching up with our friend Wendy (unfortunately David was off on a fishing trip) and seeing their beautiful home in Doonan, just outside Noosa.  It was a long weekend in Queensland, and school holidays so Noosa itself was busy, but we enjoyed the peace of the rainforest and were able to take in an excellent dinner at a local eatery and a visit to the famous Edmundi Markets.  A bucket-list item ticked off for me (not sure about Doug, but I think he enjoyed it).  

We also experienced a huge thunderstorm and rain event which gave the van a good rinse off.  Poor girl hasn’t had a wash since I can’t remember when.  The rain took to worst of the red tinge off her.

After leaving Doonan, we moved a whole 80km down the Sunshine Coast to Caboolture for another couple of appointments.  The van was in to Sunland for a couple of touch-ups and upgrades on Tuesday and then on Wednesday, the car had a well-earned service.  

Time was catching up with us and we had to keep moving.  We were due in Forbes in just over a week.   We headed down through Brisbane (not a bad effort and thanks to our GPS)  - and we had a lunch date in Warwick.  My old friend from teenage years, Helen, lives on a property outside Warwick with her husband Evan and her two wonderful dogs, Max and Clemmie.  We met for lunch which turned into us staying the night out at their place.  It was good to catch up after such a long time and it felt like we’d just picked up where we’d left off.

It was Friday now, and here’s where our weekend took a different turn.  We left Helen and Evan’s and headed west, stopping off in the little town of Inglewood for a coffee.  The main street was bustling and we asked the lady in the bakery what was going on.  Just 70km up the road, in Milmerran, the biennial Australian Camp Oven Festival was about to get underway and it was going to be a fantastic weekend.  

The website said all camping was sold out, but just on the off-chance, I gave them a call and we were lucky to get a cancellation spot (the only one they’d had!!).  So we turned around and headed to Milmerran and weren’t we glad we did.

We had a wonderful weekend of music, food and displays and demonstrations and of course, the fiercely contested camp oven cooking competition.  

Serious camp oven cook-off

We’d arrived just after torrential rain and the showgrounds were churned up and muddy, but the weather improved and the ground dried up and all was well.  

Mud in the showgrounds

We spent Saturday and Sunday wandering around, taking in things that interested us, and then heading back to sit under the awning and listen to the music until something else took our fancy.  It was busy, with over 1200 vans, motorhomes, campers and tents but it was well organised and we loved it.

Wonderful offerings being prepared

Huge damper - I think Tassie is on steroids

Having spent a great weekend in Milmerran, we now had to high-tail it south.  We had heard great things about the little town of Bingara and stopped off there for a couple of nights.  It was supposed to be only one, but it was so nice, we decided to stay on.  We were camped on the Gwydir River and shared our campsite with local horses, lizards and a platypus that came to visit us every afternoon to play in the rapids.  It is a really lovely town (I know I say that a lot, but it is).  We have compiled a list of towns that we like enough to think about settling in, and Bingara made the list.  There’s not many others on there as yet.

Bingara residents enjoying the sun

We had successfully skirted around storms that were dumping lots of rain in parts of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland and made our way down through Narrabri to another little place called Tooraweenah (or Tuggaweenah if you listen to my husband!!!) for our last night before arriving in Forbes.  Our month had gone quickly.  As I said at the start, it’s a big place, and you need more time than you think to see it.

It was Thursday now, and we made the short trip through Dubbo and arrived at the Forbes Showground just after lunch to set up and get ready for what was going to be a huge week.  We were here for another Farm Rescue, but this one was going to be a little different.