Saturday 29th June, Cunnamulla to Toompine 223km

After a walk around the park in the morning we left mid morning on the start of our trek to see the dinosaurs Travelling along the Bulloo developmdntal road we turned north toward Quilpie. The coutry side changed from crops to cattle and sheep mainly sheep and began to become more sparse in flora more scrubby than earlier. We had heard about the pub with no town so when we approached Toompine and saw it decided this was a place to stay. Apart from the pub these people also raised goats very healthy looking I might say 2 Donkeys and some dogs. Our overnight stay was free and included power, toilets, hot showers and all for free. We felt obliged to have a drink and a meal at the hotel as did 4 other couples. The meal was huge lots of veggies but generally just ok. Enjoyed the company of the other couples, that availed themselves of a meal. One donkey paid us a breakfast visit.

Sunday, 30th June Toompine to Welford NP 345kms

Next morning we headed towards Quilpie, we were told it is dead on Sunday and that is not wrong. Apart àfrom the I Centre and 2 Boulder Opal shops there was nothing else open. Fuel was purchased with c/card no one around to help if a problem. We continued our way north this time on the Diamantina dev.road and our o/nite stop a waterhole in Welford NP, small charge $5.45 each, this time 3 other campers. Windy and cold overnight but beautiful days at present. Welford NP is mostly flood plain very flat but the roads into it and around it are better. Most of this area is very flat and hard to imagine it can be metre under water in the wet. All the creeks and rivers in this area drain into the Diamantina River, which becomes the Cooper Basin

Monday 1st July Welford NP to Mayne River 273 kms

Our trip today took us through more flat open plains with nothing much on them. We heard on the radio that this part of Qld has now been declared in drought and we can under stand why.

The NP has plenty of kangaroos and emus running around they are both "dopey" animals running in all directions as they see you approach.

We fueled up at Jundah a service centre to the rural area, the general store in the town was smaller than our double garage, I would not like to rely on it for the weekly shopping but they had our diesel requirements. A lot of their facilities were fairly new and the public toilets also had showers and all very clean. After making enquiries about the roads at police station, we headed off .

We camped near Mayneside ruins on the Mayne River, we were soon visited by the manager of the nearest cattle station Mt Windsor, 2, 000 square miles and his buddy Graham, and a nice young man Kent.

We had heard the day before about drought in this part of Q'ld and Wattie and offsiders were doing the rounds of his dams and pulling out cattle stuck in the mud of the rapidly receding dam water. A quiet nighton our own with a campfire cooked meal.

Tuesday, 2nd July, Mayne River to Winton 190kms

We left our camp site on the Mayne River early this morning as we needed to be at Larks Quarry, the home of the dinosaur stampede,before 10.00am. There are 3 guided tours a day and there were around 40 on our tour this morning. Lark Quarry is 110km from Winton on rough corrugated road and we had to travel about 80km from our overnight stay.

The dinosaurs footprints are amazing 11 big ones and hundreds and hundreds of smaller size, any wonder they call it the Dinosaur Stampede.

The guide told us about finding them in the 60's through the actual excavation and taking casts in the 70's to age and prove etc, right up till today when they are conserved with a special building and they know there are more under rock not excavated as yet. He also spoke of what else is around in this area, so we are looking forward to heading for Hughendon.

We headed for Winton as Bill wanted to get our flat tyre fixed before we headed off Wednesday morning. Tyre taken care of, a pie for lunch, and shopping done we decided to stay the night in Winton. Twice before we stayed behind the main hotel in main street but this time we stayed in another hotel cp., as the main one was full. I estimated Winton would have had probably 250 extras in the town last night. The CP had free washing so I washed everything I could find, fixed my laptop whilst Bill caught up with some TV.