We set up in the free camp at Babinda with heaps of other campers. Pulled out the awning and chairs but the skies opened up and we had constant rain for the afternoon and throughout the evening. So we had to spend the time in DABUS watching TV…..

Driving through sugar cane fields and fields of bananas….heading towards Townsville..... We scooted around the outskirts of Townsville, picked up a few supplies before driving west to Reid Creek rest area for the night. It was Census night and we were still found in the middle of nowhere by a Census person....

The next day we drove through open plains and once across the Great Dividing Range, we had blue skies and beautiful warm weather again....The coast was either windy, colder and raining.... So outback Queensland is looking great..... We stayed the night at a disused railway siding near Pentland....OK some would say it was just another gravel pit...... there was heaps of grevillia's and birdlife... We had the fire cranked up, so creamy garlic prawns with spagetthi was cooked on the open fire along with a chocolate self saucing pudding....

Heading towards Hughenden we got to experience the conditions of the roads to come....We stopped and had a look around Hughenden before driving out of town towards Winton..The road ran parallel to the disused railway line. More open plains....thank god we had collected our firewood earlier in the day..the roads were very bumpy... shocking roads. Stopped in the afternoon at Corfield free camp, which is about halfway to Winton and spent a great evening at the local community owned and operated pub. Karyn who is paid by the community, runs and cooks for the pub. Spaghetti bolognese was the special of the night @ $10, enjoyed the night with two other travelling couples.

The next day we drove into Winton (Dinosaur Capital of Australia) and yes, the road conditions improved heaps after Corfield. Wintons surrounding area is lush green after the flood that the town experienced back in March. We had a walk around Winton, went to Arno's wall, the site of the burnt down Waltzing Matilda Centre and found a free camp just 3km's from town at a long waterhole.....A great spot to relax by the water. Threw some meat in to see if any yabbies were around, didn't get any but the next morning most of the meat was gone. The ground was quite soft and after having a shower the soft sand turned to mud, hence spinning wheels.. So after some digging Alan finally got DABUS out of a very sticky situation.
 
Back into Winton to have a play on the musical fence then checked out the bores and cooling dams, as Wintons water source is artesian and emerges out of the four bores at temperatures of 83 degrees celsuis. The bore water is then stored into two of the cooling dams. 

Next we were off for a tour of Australian's Ago of Dinosaurs which is home of the world's largest collection of Australian dinosaur fossils and has the most productive fossil preparation laboratory in the Southern hemisphere. We had a tour of both a working laboratory and the collection room. Great tour and views from the jump up were fantastic...

Stopped the night at Crawford Creek rest area and cooked up a roast lamb in the camp oven. The road from Winton to Longreach had the most roadkill we had seen on any of our trips travelling. Sea of yellow, white and purple flowers were abundunt during this drive. Once at Longreach we went to the QANTAS (Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services) Founders Museum. We did the museum, the Jet Tour and the 747 Wing Walk...

Great tours..... The Jet tour took us behind the scenes of a Boeing 747 and 707. The 707 is only one of four remaining in existence and John Travolta owns a 707, which he flies around the world. The Boeing 747 was huge and we got to stand within one of its engines. We were the only two to do the extra 747 wing walk which was great. We got to see the rear pressure bulkhead and horizontal stabiliser assembly, beyond the pressurised part of the fuselage. We also got to go down into the belly of this aircraft, into the cargo hold and saw all the electronics of this massive plane. Then our guide took us into the cockpit, where he saw us what some of the switches and buttons do. Alan was the captain with Lorelle playing co-pilot.......and to finish of this great tour we were harnessed up and attached to a static line, then got to walk out on the wing of this massive plane. The view was fantastic and we were both so glad we paid the extra for this tour.....

We got a certificate and photos at the end of the tour...So much to see that we had to go back the following day to finish off the museum...... Our afternoon was spent at the Stockmans Hall of Fame, were we did the museum....Heaps of reading......