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Published: January 24th 2006
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Me idolizing...
a statue of AJ "Banjo" Paterson of Waltzing Matilda fame. Agenda: Winton.
A cave walk. BBQ lunch.
And lots of driving.
05:50 Alarm goes off. Press the snooze button.
05:55 Alarm goes off. Drag myself out of bed. Taking care not to fall out of the top bunk!
06:10 Lug my stuff to the bus and head inside for breakfast of toast and cereal.
06:27 Make my way to the bus with 3 minutes to spare!
06:35 Out on the open road again. My goal for today is to try and stay awake and enjoy some of the landscape.
06:57 The red sky from sunrise is truly beautiful. Then the blue/red/blue on the horizon opposite the sun is just as breathtaking to look at. Of course my camera is not able to pick up on any of those wonderful colours...another memory to etch into my brain.
08:00 I think the bus driver Brendan is trying to work against my goal of trying to stay awake because he put on a CD of locals telling their stories of living and working in the Outback. Boy was that dry material! I was out after 15 minutes...couldn't fight the heavy eyelids any longer than that. I tried but failed miserably. Mind you I
didn't stay asleep all that long because I woke up when the bus slowed down for some emus then kangaroos, sheep and cows to pass.
08:30 We've covered almost 150 kilometres. That means that there are around 500 kilometres to go. Our morning stop is supposed to be in a town called Winton. This is where we'll pick up a local guide who will take us on a gorge walk and show us some cave paintings and tell us some history of Winton as well. Today's lunch is supposed to be a BBQ. Yum!
10:23 Town of Winton. Home of where Qantas was founded and also where Waltzing Matilda was first sung in public by I want to say Cynthia Ferguson or was that Christina Macpherson...I’m not totally convinced that either of those names are correct. 😊 For a small town of 800 people (1500 if you count the outlying surrounding area.) there sure are a lot of hotels/motels, pubs and cafes, with a majority of these establishments having Matilda in the name. How original! lol One hour to our next stop for our walk, history lesson and guided tour. Oh yes and lunch stop!
11:23 We pick up our
guide Charlie and we go around his "small" 20,000 hectare family property. Saw the three sisters - Mary, Maude and Kate rock formations. We went on a small hike down a gorge to see some aboriginal paintings. To me it looked like they just got some chalk and spray paint and put up paintings on their own using some stencils. Charlie is quite a nimble guy for an older guy. He seemed to just power walk up and down the gorge. Made me feel more out of shape than I already am!
12:13 BBQ lunchtime! For lunch we had hamburgers and sausages. It was really hot out and I tried to find some shady areas to sit and eat but there really wasn't much to be found. So I sat with my back to the sun...second best option.
13:42 Back on the bus and headed on the road again. We had a long afternoon of driving ahead of us and Brendan our driver starts telling us about the area we're in. His voice lulls me to sleep.
14:12 Brendan still talking.
14:34 Brendan still talking.
14:36 Brendan still talking.
15:02 Brendan still talking.
15:23 Brendan still talking.
15:47 Brendan suggests, "Why don't we put on a DVD and before you know it, we'll be in Boulia." We watched "Muriel's Wedding" and was only interrupted by Brendan about three times to point out some wildlife. I must admit though that it was super cool watching the kangaroos "racing" with the bus. Well, they weren't really racing, just hopping alongside the bus. We estimated the two 'roos were going about 50 kilometres an hour. Simply amazing!
18:?? Sunset. Lovely reds and oranges.
19:13 Arrival in Boulia. We are given a lesson on what sheets are and are instructed to keep the doona (duvet covers) on the bed. There were a lot of animals on this property that has a 7 kilometre long drive way! They stressed the importance of keeping the gates shut to keep the inside animals in and the outside animals out.
19:31 Everyone is seated around the campfire and we're ready to chow down on our campfire cooked meal of beef stew, mashed potatoes, sweet corn and bread, peas and gravy. Yum!
22:46 Time to hit the sack since it will be another early morning start for all.
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