11 February 2000

H-O-T! That's the only word for it.

We are at Winton in central Queensland (we got in about 4:00 p.m.) and it is seriously outback, quiet, dry, dusty and HOT!

We left Emerald a bit after 9:00 this morning and drove out through Anakie, Bogantungan, Alpha, Jericho (yes, it is on the river Jordan; no, we didn't see Joshua) and on to Barcaldine (pronounced BarCAWldn - not Barkldine). Between Emerald and Anakie (where you can fossick for gemstones - mainly sapphires) are paddock after huge paddock of cotton bushes. I had not expected to see them out here. But it was good to get back to the land of red dirt and bottle trees. The bottle trees are really nice: they have tall, smooth grey trunks in the shape of a bottle and largish but compact round, dark green tops. The country from Anakie out to Alpha is really beautiful in a very rugged, arid sort of way and a highlight of the trip (for me at least) was the drive over the Drummond Range. This is a range of low mountains/hills only about 300-400 metres high where the road goes through, but it stretches away on either side in beautiful, rugged, sparsely-vegetated valleys and peaks.

From Barcaldine (BarCAWldn!) we continued west through Ilfracombe (another pretty little village) to Longreach, a place which didn't impress me much despite its being home to the Stockmen's Hall of Fame and a Qantas museum - we couldn't even find anywhere to have a cup of coffee and something to eat.

And so on to Winton (refer paragraphs 1 and 2) where we are at the Pelican Waters Motel. Lorraine and I thought the name was wishful thinking until we went for a walk through town and discovered its original name was Pelican Waterhole. And talk about hot! It was so hot Lorraine had a cold shower!

Not too far tomorrow. Only 461 kms (about 5 hours) to Mt. Isa where we may stay a couple of days depending on how much there is to see.