Ilfracombe

Friday, 5 September 2014

 

Dust storm approaching

Emu departing

Thompson River

Caravan park exit

Meg

Museum

The menu

The cook?

An outhouse, with sheep and dog

A mile of machinery

Boys just have to play

Part of a gun and bottle collection

General store display

A machine thingy - and very blue sky

Enjoying a shady verandah

Ilfracombe General Store

First building in Ilfracombe

Another cold night has been followed by a glorious day – very hot and very little humidity.

We left Winton this morning for the 200 km drive to Ilfracombe, via Longreach.  The road was much improved on yesterday’s effort and there was a bit more traffic, including roadtrains and four very wide loads which necessitated us pulling off the road and stopping.  Very happy kites and crows on this section of road, I don’t think we have seen such concentrated roadkill before.  We were also lucky enough to see a bustard, which strolled across the road in front of us (no, the camera was not on my knee!), as well as a number of emus.  When we were about half way to Longreach, we noticed what looked to be a red cloud above the horizon; this turned out to be a dust storm which we only caught the edge of, luckily.  We crossed the Thompson River at Longreach, and were surprised to see a proper river with water – and pelicans.  A further 28 kms brought us to Ilfracombe, for a two night stopover.

The caravan park is again typical outback, being gravel, but is well set out with wide roadways and good sized sites.  The lady (owner/manager?) was very friendly and allowed us to select a site and get set up before even thinking about payment.  Backed on to site, opened windows, hatches, connected electricity, water, unhitched, jacks down, awning extended, television antennae raised – then DISASTER!  No television reception –the footy finals start this weekend and Sydney are playing tomorrow afternoon.  Back to talk to the nice lady and discovered we were parked in an area that did not receive television.  Himself thought seriously for five seconds and decided he wanted to move.  The nice lady showed us some more sites and promised we would definitely get reception on any of them, so packed up, rehitched and moved site.  While we were setting up, Meg came to visit, bringing a large seed pod in the hope someone would play with her.  We later saw her conning a lady outside the pub, as well.

We decided to treat ourselves to lunch, after all the unhitching, hitching and unhitching, so walked to the general store and café (only café in Ilfracombe, actually) and enjoyed a nice sandwich before continuing our walk and doing the sights.  We were astonished at the number of historic buildings with displays – all free admission – and a complete mile of old farm machinery along one side of the highway.  The Wellshot Museum was very interesting and informative about the development of the wool industry and then the town and was a good starting point for the other buildings.  It is amazing what a locality of approximately 400 people can do for their community.