Winton

Thursday, 3 September 2015

A few prime cows and calves

Mitchell grass plains

Brolgas

Emus

Just us out here!

Restoration needed, perhaps?

Jump ups near Winton

Road train

Where else would one park one's helicopter but beside the road!

View across the road from the caravan park

Chinese Market Garden

How many snakes in this photo???

Burnt out remains

Banjo Patterson (and admirer)

Size of dinosaurs at Lark Quarry stampede site

Wool classer, grade 3

Perhaps if I put the newspaper down ...

After making judicious use of the air conditioner before we went to bed, we actually slept quite well until the temperature dropped about 2.00 am and one of us had to get up and find the blanket.  This morning was much cooler early, with the temperature hovering about 22-23 until lunch time.

We were on the road for Winton by 8.30am, but the 213 km drive took a little longer than anticipated, mainly due to the lumpy road necessitating a lower driving speed.  The road surface was in fairly good condition, but quite lumpy and bumpy in sections.  We also came across a mob of cattle across the road, forcing us to drive very slowly.  It wasn’t only a cow we didn’t want across the bonnet, but the black byproduct of cows as well!  Although the vast, dry Mitchell grass plains seemed empty, we did see quite a bit of wildlife – eagles, kites, bustards, emus, live (and dead) kangaroos and were even lucky enough to come across a flock of brolgas very close to the road.  We didn’t see any pigs today, but did see plenty of dead ones yesterday.  One thing we didn’t see was traffic – we probably only saw about 20-25 vehicles all morning.

We are staying at the Pelican Van Park, which is only one block from the main drag of Winton, right next door to the Tattersall’s Hotel Caravan Park.  Both these parks are so much nicer than the Waltzing Matilda Caravan Park (which was quite dirty last year); we were directed onto site by Jason and supplied with plenty of information about the region.  Of course, the caravan park is gravel, but we do have artificial carpet grass under the awning.  The amenities are basic and look to be the same as the next door park.

After lunch, on the way to the supermarket, we discovered an old Chinese Market Garden, which was in production until 2000.  The buildings and garden have had restoration work started on them, but are very interesting in their current condition.  We even managed a walk along the main street, checking out the few shops – opal and souvenir – and enjoying some time looking at the dinosaur and sheep/wool displays in the old general store.  We were surprised to discover that the Waltzing Matilda Centre is still operating, despite the fire which only destroyed the coffee shop, art gallery and the First World War gallery.

It is amazing that we always seem to discover something new whenever we visit Winton.  The flies have also discovered US this year – they are such friendly little insects who hate to be outside or alone.