Min Min Adventure - Day 6 - Birdsville to Boulia.
So…we had a good night’s sleep in our room at the Birdsville Hotel. Will said there was a mossie in the room but it didn’t bother me for a change. There was no cacophony of bushland birds to welcome this day but there were two fellas loudly discussing business issues and complaining about bosses right outside our door.
We saw Trigger and Helen flying off to Broken Hill and we were off again just after 9.00. We stopped to look at the Artesian bore water being pumped out of the ground into cooling ponds on the edge of the town. The creek that flowed away was still steaming.
Our next stop was a grove of Waddi trees about 12 kilometres down the road. These trees are very rare and supposedly were between 500 and 1000 years old. The wood is very hard, difficult to burn and has been known to break axes.
Our next stop was the Carcoory Ruins, an old farmstead on land once owned by Sir Sidney Kidman. 5000 cattle had to die ia a terrible drought before they decided that the land was not suitable.
The land was once again very flat, but seemed to be even more sparsely populated by trees. We saw a couple of emus but apart from that only a few cattle dotted about here and there
Bedourie was the first town we came to after 180 kms. We stopped at the Road House to get petrol but nothing came out of the pump. There was a bit of fencing around the front of the building but a sign on the door said it was open and to use the side door. I went round and opened the door. The floor was covered with piles of tools and various materials but there was not a soul to be seen. It most definitely was not open. I was just backing out when I spotted a figure standing to to my left. It made me jump but on closer inspection I saw that it was, Elvis Presley, well, a full size model of him, singing with his guitar.
There was no other petrol in Bedourie and even the Information Centre was closed. We looked at an old Mud Hut and a Dust Storm sculpture and then quickly left. We had brought a can of petrol with us just in case so if we started to get low we could always rely on that to top up the tank.
It was another 190 kms to Boulia, our destination for the day.
Our next stop was the Vaughn Johnson Lookout. The view was spectacular and so flat way out to the horizon. There was a family from Western Australia in their swish camper truck up there too. They were headed to Adelaide via Coober Pedy. It sounded like they were having a great trip.
We came to a place where there were a few more Waddi Trees before we got to Boulia.
Boulia is the Land of the Min Min Lights.
The Min Min Lights are strange lights that people have reported seeing around these parts for years. They are only seen at night and appear to hover and even follow people.
We went straight to the Min Min Experience at the Boulia Visitor centre. The show was on every hour and I could see that the 4.00 pm one was booked out.
“Are we too late to see the show today?” I asked the lady at the counter.
“It’s very quiet,” she said, “I can fit you in now.”.
Will and I had the 3.00 pm Min Min Experience all to ourselves for $25 each. The woman introduced it as a unique state of the art laser and animatronic show. We were handed a torch for Health and Safety reasons because it was dark inside and the show began. Firstly some robotic chap, sat in a rocking chair outside the ‘Min Min’ pub, welcomed us and said if we wanted to know more about the Min Min lights we should go inside. These animatronic models had rubber faces moulded from real faces and looked quite alarming and creepy as their eyes moved, and mouths opened and closed. I thought they looked like the talking dead.
Inside we walked through various different, but beautifully created, dioramas where we heard of people’s Min Min encounters accompanied by spooky low lighting and ominous music. Finally we were told to get on the bus and we entered a room with rows of seats. We sat down and a screen showed the bus driver turning around to speak to us and welcome us onboard. Then we set off through the desert, (but not really). I suddenly noticed the seats next to me appeared to be moving and then realised all the seats were moving slowly around. We were on a revolving floor. Moody music played and lightning flashed and there was distant thunder as the scenery slid past in front of us before strange floating lights appeared (projections) dancing around us.
In the end the Bus driver said “ If you go looking for the Min Min you won’t see them. The Min Min chose when and where and to whom they will appear. They come looking for you.”
The whole thing lasted about 45 minutes and it was certainly different and great that we had it to ourselves.
Boulia also had the best town shop we had seen in days, though I did nearly tread on a huge, ginger cat lying across one of the aisles.
We went and pitched our tent at the Boulia Caravan Park by the bone dry Burke River. The site we chose seemed perfect and then after we had actually set everything up we noticed that the nearby tree made a sound like a circus clown car horn as two branches rubbed together in the wind. There was also a pony wandering about as well as a goat, a calf and a baby kangaroo.
We went back into town to explore on foot. We saw the Red Stump, Australia’s first 3d crossing at the school, a Corroboree tree (which was another Waddi Tree) and three actual live Brolgas! (A large Crane).
We had ‘ Camel Hump’ burgers for dinner at the pub, but I don’t think they were made from camel hump. I think the name was to distinguish them from the other Camel Burger on the menu which didn’t have a Cajun dressing or onion rings. After dinner we headed out of town to view the 360 degree , horizon to horizon, night sky which was amazing! I saw three shooting stars and made three wishes.
As we were driving back, we saw two bright lights away to the right they were moving closer to each other and then apart and then one of them disappeared and we could only see one of them for quite some time.
Were they the actual Min Min lights?
