CLONCURRY TO YEPPOON

---

CLONCURRY TO YEPPOON

Thurs 5th Aug, We had a look around town, (not much to see ) and had a relaxing day at the caravan park.
They had a bush poet last night and a country singer tonight. Very pleasant stay.

Fri 6th Aug, A long 342 kms to Winton today and on the way we saw quite a few of the 400 Harley riders that had been at a group gathering at Mt Isa this week. Not a blade of grass at the caravan park but neat and clean. We were again entertained by bush poets and a travelling family band. They were all great.

Sat 7th Aug, Up early and off in a small bus out to the Dinosaur Stampede display 120kms out in the bush.
They have spent a bucketload setting it all up, but quite impressive. In the afternoon I went out to the Dinosaur Fossil Preparation Facility where you see how they open up the fossils to store and display them.
Again, more poets and singers. Good fun.

Sun 8th Aug, Pam and I spent 4 ½ hours in the Waltzing Matilda Centre, ( center set up to honour the song and the song writer). There was lots to see and very well set out. Another relaxing afternoon in the park.

Mon 9th Aug, A short trip ( 180kms) to Longreach today. We arrived to stormy skies which turned into rain so our planned dinner cruise down the Thompson River was cancelled. It rained nearly all night.

Tues 10th Aug, No rain this morning, so we went off to the Stockman’s Hall of Fame where we saw a stockman with his trained horses and sheepdogs do some tricks and round up some sheep. He then brought some enormous bullocks in to the arena and made up a bullock team and proceeded to haul in a log and raise it up on to a timber jinker. Quite impressive. Well worth a visit.

Wed 11th & Thur 12th Aug, From Cloncurry we drove down to Emerald where we stayed for two nights. On the Thurs, I drove back to Anakie to their annual Gemfest Festival. Quite a big event with many stalls and activities there. They also had some country singers to entertain the crowd.

Fri 13th to Mon 16th Aug, We headed off to Yeppoon on the coast for a few days. On the way we saw several large coal trains with 3 engines on the front and 2 engines in the middle of about 70 coal trucks.
Yeppoon is a lovely place with many small islands and small hills surrounding the area.
We drove down to Emu Park to see the Singing Ship, ( a large tower that hums in the wind ) that was created to honour Capt James Cook who landed in the area. On Sunday we took the ferry over to Great Keppel Island for the day and went out in the glass bottomed boat to see the coral. A most enjoyable day.
On Monday we went into Yeppoon to vote and had a relaxing afternoon at the caravan Park.

Tuesday 17th Aug,

I am finishing up my blog from here as we will be going down to Maroochydore for a few days then heading home to get Pam’s knee looked at in Melbourne. It’s still not too good.

Thanks for sharing our trip. I hope that you enjoyed seeing where we have been and what we have been doing over the past few months.
Love & Best regards, Doug & Pam Brough.

---