Min Min Adventure - Day 7 - Boulia to Winton.
So…this morning the thing I least expected was to be awakened by camels chewing outside our tent, but there they were.
We were breakfasted (bacon), packed and off by 9.30 am after finding that the Stone House Museum in Boulia was not opening today because the woman who works there on Saturday couldn’t get in today.
We set off to Winton, 360 kms away to the East. Today I was driving.
I have learned on this trip that Zooey has ‘cruise drive’, which at the press of a button and the push of a lever, means I can lock her into a set speed and take my foot off the accelerator. It’s been so great for these long journeys.
I soon caught up with a White Toyota but they pulled over and let us pass, however a few kilometres further on we saw a sign for ‘A Point of Interest’ so pulled over to look. It was the first of the Min Min Horse Rider signs (see pics below). The White Toyota didn’t stop and headed straight on past.
After we again set off, I soon caught the White Toyota once more. Now, don’t think I was speeding because I wasn’t. I was sticking to the speed limit of 100 kph with Zooey in ‘cruise’ mode. The White Toyota was obviously sticking at a lower speed.
Anyway they pulled over again and let us pass and we headed on out to Winton. The land we were driving through was again very flat as far as the eye could see with very few landmarks for differentiation. After about 160 kms it did change and hills appeared. Some were cone shaped while others had sloping sides leading up to flat rocky outcrops on the tops. It looked a bit ‘Nevada-ish’ to me but it was unlike anything we had passed though before.
We came to the Cawnpore Lookout so stopped and climbed up to take in the view. I loved the scenery around here so, sorry I took lots of photos it. While we were up there we saw the White Toyota approaching but they steamed on past onwards to Winton. We climbed up one of the ‘Mesa’ hills to get an even better view before finally setting off again.
Halfway between Boulia and Winton is the Middleton Hotel, they must have got excited when they saw us approaching down the road at lunchtime, but sadly we just continued straight on past and left the to cover the table with dust sheets again.
It must have been at least another hour before we caught up with the White Toyota again. This flippin’ car was ruining my day. For days we have driven for hundreds of kilometers and not seen a soul. I jus wanted the road to myself! Is that too much to ask?
This time they didn’t pull over they kept on going but did drive further to the left so I could pass as the road suddenly widened a bit. I put my foot down to overtake but nothing happened…if Zooey is in ‘cruise’ mode, it would seem you can slow her down by braking but you can’t speed her up without switching off flippin’ ‘cruise’ mode. I was learning all this while heading down the road at 100 kph and could see I was running out of wider road. The White Toyota occupants must have been wondering what was going on as I was way over on the right but not going past them. I was frantically pressing and flicking buttons and levers and uttering a few choice phrases before finally I got past them.
“We are not stopping again, no matter how interesting the point is or how spectacular the lookout view!” I said.
Finally we got to Winton at about 2.00 pm. It had felt like an endless journey today and I was glad our travlling was over for the day.
Winton is the self titled Dinosaur Capiatal of Australia. Methinks that Eromanga might disagree with that!
We went to the newly rebuilt Waltzing Matilda Information Centre, the previous one had burnt down in 2015. This new one was very swish indeed. We went to look for information on the two dinosaur exhibits locally that we (well, I wanted to visit) but reading the leaflets on them we (I) were/ was disappointed to see that the latest entry for today (Saturday) was 2.00 pmand that they both were not open on Sundays!
What a disaster! I wished I had planned ahead more and looked into that but since we set off we have hardly known or bothered what day it was. However I overheard an American Woman speaking to the woman behind the desk.
I discovered that, wait a minute, the dinosaur exhibits were not closed tomorrow after all! Despite what the brochure said, they were open on Sundays! The woman behind the counter booked the American Woman and her husband onto a tour tomorrow. I got in line and when the woman behind the counter asked how she could help I said “Can we book a dinosaur tour tomorrow too?”
So… we are booked on to the 11.00 am dinosaur tour ‘Winton, Age of the Dinosaurs’ tomorrow. There is a downside though, firstly, as we won’t be finished until 2.00 pm we won’t have time to get to the other dinosaur exhibit 100 kms away that has real dinosaur footprints preserved in mud.
‘We shall have to come back and do that again,’ said Will. I don’t think he meant it.
We had a drive round Winton to see which of the two available caravan parks we liked best. Both looked dry, dusty and hot but we did manage to get a shady-ish spot at one.
After putting the tent up we went for a wander down the high street hoping to find somewhere where we could get some food other than pub grub, like a Thai or Chinese Restaurant…but no there were just four pubs to choose from. We had a drink in one and used the public WiFi for a bit. Their menu looked OK but we later found out that they were only doing pizzas that night. The barman recommended the pub next door so after some hot (even though we only turned on the cold taps) and stinky artesian showers at the campsite we went back into town for dinner.
I haven’t mentioned that the temperatures today have been in the mid 30’s so we sat outside and braved the flies that wanted some of our meals too. Will had a Thai Chicken Stir Fry, but despite everything that I said previously I stuck with the Seafood Basket, good old pub grub!
