On the road about 8-30 we headed west to Longreach. It was not too far and would take about four or so hours. It was a crisp, sunny morning and the travelling was easy, with not too many cars on the road.We made good time, with the scenery unchanging and we saw very few animals, apart from birds feasting on road kill. Our first anticipated destination was Barcaldine. This contains the famous Tree of Knowledge, where in 1891, during the Shearer's Strike, the Labor Party had its beginnings. It was over 100 years old when in 2006 it was poisoned. Now a replica stands in its place. It was easy to find, on the main street into town, outside the Railway Station. We examined the plaques etc. and then went across the road to the local ... read more

Tuesday evening we walked one block into town and went to Sorbello"s Italian restaurant for dinner. The place looked promising as it was three quarters fullfull and seemed popular, A very with-it waitress was assigned our table and her service was excellent, recommending wine and allowing us a taste before accepting her recommendation. The menu was also extensive but I settled for a small Fettucine Crab meat and Fletcher chose the Gnocchi seafood. After a long wait the dishes came but Fletcher's was cold. The waitress apologised and got the manager who explained they had a new chef and would we like to have the dish made again. Fletcher just asked for it to be heated. Back it came to find the gnocchi was very chewy and large, not the delicate texture real gnocchi can be. ... read more

This year, the Oceania Area Aths Championships are in Mackay from June 7th-11th. We decided to see a bit more of Outback Australia so we set out on Friday to drive to Mackay. We had booked ahead on Booking.com to ensure we had accommodation along the way. Our first aim was to get to Broken Hill. We left a grey Adelaide about 8-30 and drove via the North/South Expressway to Gawler, stopping at Roseworthy to top up the petrol tank and buy some unappetizing pastries for breakfast. There was very little traffic going our way so it was a relatively easy drive.Once we made the Barrier Highway and lost our radio station, it was on with the audio of Dr No which we had started on our trip to Canberra. The main hassles were road works, ... read more

From Cradle Mountain we set out about 9am and headed north.We were ultimately heading for Launceston, but decided to check out the north coast on the way. Our first destination was Burnie which only took us about an hour or so to get there. We drove into the city and headed towards the Harbour, however, nothing extraordinary struck us so we drove past the port and headed east. Fletcher had a great desire to visit Penguin, one, because he was intrigued by the name, but two, because there was an athletics track there. We drove along the coast road which was very scenic. Penguin was a great little town. We parked on the foreshore opposite a very attractive old wooden church. As we walked along the edge of a grassed area we soon saw how the ... read more

Another early morning, as we had to drive into Queenstown to board the West Coast Wilderness Railway, which was scheduled to leave at 9am. We headed out on the road at 7-15am. The sun was just coming up and we had to drive straight into it, but the trip was uneventful and took about 40 minutes. We found a park and walked across to the station where we quickly were given our tickets and then made our way to Tracks Café for a coffee. We were told we were in the Heritage carriage, which was the premium one, so we looked forward to a great trip. We boarded at 8-45am and were greeted with a glass of bubbly from our hostess, Brooke. The carriage soon filled up with 16 of us altogether. There was also several ... read more