Min Min Adventure - Day 3 - Quilpie to Windorah.
So…I did eventually get some sleep, but no thanks to that flippin’ Barking Frog!
We were up, breakfasted, packed and off by 8.30.
First we went to see the Opal Altar in St Finbar’s Church, then nipped out to see what the other camping area in Quilpie was like. On the way we saw some emus so stopped to take pics. Unfortunately we walked straight into a patch of spiky weeds and Will couldn’t move in his crocs so I had to go back to the car for his boots. Yikes, those spikes were lethal. This ‘Outback’ malarky is full of challenges.
We never got to see the other campsite because it was through a closed gate. We headed back into Quilpie to the Airport to see where Amy Johnson landed years ago. I hope she wasn’t wearing crocs!
We then left Quilpie and headed off to Eromanga. I was driving today.
We hardly saw any traffic on the way to Eromanga, nor any wildlife. We,ve only see two kangaroos the whole trip so far.
Eromanga is Australia’s furthest town from the sea which is odd since we discovered at the Eromanga Natural History Museum that it is named after a huge inland sea that once covered the centre of this continent.
The Eromanga Natural History Museum is in the middle of nowhere but it was well worth the trip. We were in time for the 11.00 am guided tour. The young couple we saw up Baldy Top the evening before also rolled up for the same tour. Australia is a big place but the ‘Outback’ can be a small world!
Our tour guide was Shauni. She was brilliant.
The museum all started years ago after a local 14 year old boy found an interesting rock which turned out to be part of a fossilised dinosaur bone. The dinosaur that it came from was unlike any that had been found before. More excavations followed and the dinosaur was nicknamed ‘Cooper’. His species is still to be officially named but he is in the top 10 largest dinosuars in the World. Two 3d printed replica legs stand in the middle of the Eromanga museum and they one day hope to be able to display a full size replica.
They have 90 years of fossil recovery work lying on the shelves at the Museum encased in plaster to protect them until they can be properly cleaned.
They have gathered the remains of about five different dinosaurs like Cooper, each with niknames like Sid, Monty, Zac and Tom.
They also have bones from Diprotodon from near Eulo that we visited yesterday. Diprotodon is megafauna, ancient animals but younger than dinosaurs. They have been found in the mud wells near Eulo. Diprotodon was a prehistoric bear/marsupial with a rear facing pouch. We saw some Diprotodon jaws at the museum.
The whole visit was fascinating and we were glad we went.
We headed from Eromanga, north to Windorah, about another two hour drive. The road was bitumen all the way. Apart from two vehicles just outside Eromanga, heading south, we didn’t see any other vehicles for the next 260 kms! It is quite breathtaking to see the extent of all this road building out here when there is nothing but scrub for 260 kms between small towns.
The temperature outside rose steadily from the low to high 30’s, topping out at 39 degrees as we got near to Windorah. We stopped to have a look at Cooper’s Creek and and found wildlife in the toilet bowls at the roadside loos!
Windorah is very small. We found a shady camping spot at the town campsite but went to look at some nearby cabins before we set up the tent. The cabins were air conditioned and looked quite smart so we have paid to stay in No 6 for the night. We spent the rest of the afternoon sat in the cooling breeze of the air con rather than explore Windorah. Our neighbour next door is the Flying Doctor who stays here once a fortnight.
We had dinner in the evening at the pub. Will had Chicken Kiev and I had a huge Mixed Grill! We are avoiding all fish dishes as surely it cannot be fresh out here!
After having no signal, or WiFi yesterday we used the Pub’s WiFi to upload some pictures.
Tomorrow night we are intending to bush camp near Beetoota before getting to Birdsville the following day…so there maybe no more updates for a few days yet.
