Outback Adventure 2019
Day 20
McKinlay - Kynuna - Winton - Longreach
The Brolgas did dance for our arrival into Longreach this afternoon - but first we were greeted by the 10 or so roosters that call tonight’s campsite home!
We did get inundated with what we discovered to be Gidgee bugs last night at McKinlay. They came out in their thousands! Attracted by the lights we were invaded by them! All the recent rain from the ex cyclone that drenched these parts a few months back have brought these in by the thousands. At the Liberty 24/7 petrol station next door to the pub they completely covered all the bowsers. When I finished pumping the diesel and the pump stopped they fell off by the hundreds!
We hit the road just after 8am with our destination being Winton for lunch and wanting to get to Longreach tonight.
We drove through Kynuna and the Blue Heeler Hotel - not even in the same league as the Walkabout Hotel and so we were very glad of our decision last night.
Winton has a large music festival over the coming weekend. We saw the flyers in the NT and so we knew that it would be packed to the rafters. We caught the beginnings of the storm! The Main Street of Winton was closed to traffic and so we needed to skirt around the surrounding streets to find a park. We walked the main drag and we walked about the famous North Gregory Hotel in all its art deco glory- it’s changed a bit too since we were last here. At the back of the hotel is Arno‘s wall which is a junk feast of concrete and anything ever made!
We then drove out to the Musical Fence for a look around and lunch.
Following lunch we got back on the road heading for Longreach.
The road between Winton and Longreach has been affected by the Ex Cyclone and flooding. The road was up and down and 80kms in spots which made it an interesting trip. The best thing about the road though was all the caravans heading past us heading for Winton! Hundreds of them.....and that meant that they weren’t in Longreach!
Our campsite tonight is 5ks out of town by the Thomson River. The mozzies are about though- a by product of the rains too. We arrived to about 10 roosters who were very inquisitive as to what were our going’s on. They have disappeared after dark and so will be interesting to see when they reappear in the morning!
Late this afternoon though we were visited by a very large brolga. I’ve only seen them in Karumba previously and never one this big! It even did it’s little dance for us to show it’s delight at seeing us!
Tomorrow is ANZAC Day. We will commemorate the day in Longreach Main Street March and service in the morning before heading off on tomorrow’s adventure.