Not Slim, but definitely dusty

Bird of the Day:  Little Eagle

Plant of the Day:  River red gum

Scene of the Day:  The Darling at Trilby.

Art of the day:  The bone tree

Typically Australian thing of the day:  Sheep being loaded into a triple decker

Maximum Temperature 19 Minimum temperature 5

Distance traveled  with camper  0 without camper 47

Here is a shot of the camper from towards the River.  The car was positioned as it is to block the quite strong wind which was blowing, and indeed blowing out out the gas as we boiled water for coffee.

The amenities block included some photos of floods.  This one from 2012 shows the campsite next to ours which was a couple of feet higher.

They explain that the serious floods are not due to localised rains but downpours in Northern Queensland: as a result they generally have several weeks notice and can shift stuff around to get it out of harm's way.  They can often fly in and out until the airstrip gets too short when helicopters are used to get to town.

At the start of the tracks to the campsites is the Bone Tree.

This is also at the end of the airstrip and there are warnings to stop, look and listen before using the track beside the airstrip.

Yesterday's sheep were being loaded into a triple decker, and yesterday's cattle dog, plus his Kelpie companions were having great fun jumping over the yard fences and harassing the mutton-to-be.

An interesting cloud formation on our way to the site of the original homestead, of the million acre Dunlop homestead.

As with yesterday things had been left pretty much where they were when they ceased being used.  This is an old traction engine.

I can't remember what this boiler was used for.

The piles in the river bank are the remains of an old wharf designed to accommodate all levels of the River.  At some point I read that the fall of the Darling around here was 16mm per kilometre, leading to many meanders, such that river distances were approximately 3X the land distances.

A pretty blue flower.

I mentioned previously the wind.  This is the dust being kicked up from the track beside the airstrip.  Apart from making it difficult to keep the stove alight I was also concerned about it doing some bonsai on the trees near our camper.

Fortunately the wind dropped as the afternoon wore on.  That allowed me to get a couple of shots from down in the course of the Darling.

The moon rose romantically ...

... and I ignited a monster log towed in behind the car.

Back to index page