Well, we have to admit that initially the vast distances between places, some with no phone signal, scared us. The drive from Katherine to Alice Springs was a prime example. What if we broke down? What if we had another puncture? However, there is a spirit of helpfulness in the Outback not found in the major cities. If you stop on the side of a road, even for a cuppa, someone will stop, or slow down, to see if you're ok, so we sort of relaxed into the Outback way of life and ended up loving it. The small 'towns' (some only had a population of 10) all need the tourists to stop and spend some money in order for them to survive, whether it be petrol, groceries or just a cup of decent coffee and so some pretty bizarre tourist attractions have arisen. Avid readers might well remember the alien of Wycliffe Wells! Some places have done this really well and you can sense that the town is ok and flourishing. Others haven't quite got it right and are still pretty run down and dead looking. So I thought I'd give you a flavour of some of the Outback towns we have passed through since getting back into Northern Queensland.

Let's go back to Cloncurry and the Rodeo. To be fair, Cloncurry has quite a large population of over 2,300 but it still has to entice people to visit as most people stop at the much larger Mount Isa 'only' 100kms away. Mount Isa is famous for its huge mining industry and offers tourists a very authentic underground mine tour, even down to the lift!! So, the rodeo is a big drawcard for Cloncurry but only happens once a year. Still, the town was packed with tourists and locals drinking copious amounts of Bundy and coke, so the bars, caravan parks and motels must have been happy. People were so keen to get a view of the Parade that they squashed up on the Post Office verandah. We had to laugh as the street below was empty! Another draw is the 'Curry" pie - named after the town but containing a decent whack of both curry and chilli. It was HOTTTTTTT!

We then did a detour to McKinlay, only 90kms each way from Cloncurry, but it had to be done when we realised the pub was where the Crocodile Dundee filmset was. We posed at the bar, held THE knife and stood by Wally's car. There wasn't much else at McKinlay (apart from two brand new, floodlit, astro tennis courts which we did have a game on!) but we stayed behind the pub for the night as did several others. There was a steady stream of people visiting through the day, and all have a drink, some a meal. The pub is still open, which many aren't so it must be doing something right!

Julia Creek was a very pleasant surprise. The Council have invested money in the local caravan park and come up with a novel twist. A lot of people now choose to stop there instead of the free camp, on the edge of town, as it offers their campers free 45 min sessions for two in their free standing baths, filled with hot Artesian bore water. These are housed in corrugated iron 'houses' with open views over the plains and open to the sky. It is all arranged so as to protect your privacy. We ordered their cheese platter and lay in the baths watching the sun go down, eating cheese and nibbles with a bottle of wine. Awesome - it was so good we went again two days later and celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary a few days early with a bottle of bubbly! Staying there also got you free entry to the 25m swimming pool next door, which although a tad chilly was done twice - it is their winter! In town the lady at the Queensland Country Women's Association baked 7 dozen scones every morning. She opened at 9:30am, served the scones with cream, jam and cups of tea or coffee, all for $5, which went to charity. When they were gone they were 'scone', which only seemed to increase her popularity (sorry, Bob's joke!). However, the Dunnart stole the show in Julia Creek! A what I hear you ask? That's what we said but we turned up for the daily feeding of the Dunnart and were amazed to see such a tiny, mouselike creature with biggish ears and a fat tail. They have only relatively recently been acknowledged as a species and only live in this area. As the clay cracks in the fields due to drying out they survive by living in the cracks until the rains come and they can get out and about again. The Visitor Centre has 2 in captivity and they are part of a breeding program with Queensland University.

The next few towns on our route were sold as the Dinosaur Triangle. This part of Queensland has turned up whole fossilized skeletons and there are many digs and countless museums. Richmond was the first of these towns and, apart from the Kronosaurus Korner museum, was in a bit of disrepair. There was evidence of trying to entice the tourist to stop, with a $5 camp fee, and a new manmade lake to walk around, but it just looked a bit sad. Saying that, its 'award winning sausages' were spot on!! Hughenden was the next 'dinosaur' town and was more inviting due to its proximity to the National Park. Porcupine Gorge was just stunning, another of those walks down cliff faces and back up again to see the Pyramid, but it was well worth it. The Visitor Centre had put together a list of things to look for on the drive out there, which had us walking through revolving gates to listen to whistling blowholes, looking at the Dingo fence and stopping at lookouts and unmarked graves. All of this would have passed us by otherwise! But Hughenden itself had a nice vibe - the American style café was quirky and we loved watching the free sheep shearing demonstration. The pork chops from the butcher here were to die for although we gave his 'award winning sausages' a miss (how can they all be award winning?!).

And then on to Winton, a smaller town, but it has heavily invested in two large attractions that make more people stop. We loved Winton, stopping behind the pub as we had heard that the new lovely owners donate all the proceeds from camping to charity, currently to the drought hit farmers! Winton has invested in a rather swish Waltzing Matilda Centre as it was here, in the North Gregory Hotel, that Banjo Patterson gave his first public performance of his famous song. However, 100kms away, down a part-bitumenised and part 4WD track, is Lark Hall Quarry. Here an opal hunter came across hundreds of dinosaur footprints perfectly preserved in a layer of rock underneath a hill. Part of this has been excavated and it is now known that there are over 3300 footprints of 3 different dinosaurs. The largest of these caused a stampede at the waterhole and the smaller prints are those of the fleeing dinosaurs. To help preserve these prints, and to make it into a viable tourist destination, a building bas been constructed in the middle of nowhere, temperature controlled, and with its guides housed nearby until their 'shift' is over! Some people drive themselves there but Winnie wouldn't have made the rough sections so we did a tour. This also went off road onto a station's property and we had amazing views from the edge of an escarpment. The colours caused by the natural erosion of the land were amazing - from reds to yellows to whites. Stunning! The whole experience was quite weird, the only evidence of a dinosaur stampede in the world, and we felt very privileged to have been able to see it! Winton also had a self-guided cemetery walking tour - a very odd thing to do but the booklet highlighted interesting graves and gave you the history. It actually was fascinating and we learnt a lot about local people such as Willie Mar. Willie was a Chinese grocer who in 1947 had a small-holding in Winton, grew all his own fruit and veg, and delivered it to the locals while living in pretty poor conditions himself. His son then took over and both were buried in the cemetery. The locals are trying to recreate his garden plot, renovate his 'house' and turn it into a sort of memorial to him. We were quite taken with this - maybe that's why, when a Chinese guy trying to sell his fruit and veg at the caravan park in Longreach approached us, that we bought hundreds of tomatoes!!

Longreach has basically been saved by one enterprising family and Qantas, and now seems to be on the tourist bus trail as there is a lot to do there. The McKinnon family offer tours of their homestead, a riverboat cruise, and a stagecoach ride. Of course, all these things cost money so we opted for the stagecoach ride. When asked who wanted to go up top our hands were first up! To get up we had to climb up (using the wheel spokes and the felloe!) and then we realised how small the seat up top was. No seat belts either, just a footboard to brace yourself with and a thin iron handrail at each side. As soon as we set off we knew we were in for a tough ride, bouncing around before we had even left the main road. Bob, in the middle, wound his arm around the seat back and I did the same, also clinging on to the handrail for grim death. The dirt track was even bumpier and the dust - oh my, the dust! We couldn't talk to each other or we ate it! Bob stuffed the camera under his shirt but it still got covered. Then, with a "Everyone ok up top?" the 5 horses were put to a gallop and we just clung on with silly grins on our faces. When I climbed down and the people in the carriage below gasped I realised just how much dust we were covered in. The guy actually blew it off us with a leaf blower! When we talked about it afterwards we both agreed that that would never have happened in England (due to Health and Safety!) but we loved the experience, even the bruises we got from hanging on!! The Qantas Museum and the Stockman's Hall of Fame are the other attractions here. We learnt so much about cattle mustering, droving and the stockman's way of life - so interesting and such a hard life!

Ilfracombe was next up and has tried hard but its 'mile of machinery' did nothing for us - just rusting old vans, tractors and farm machinery along with some old bottles and gun collections. We didn't stay!

Barcaldine was another story. The Council has invested VERY heavily in one structure - the Tree of Knowledge. It was here that, reputedly, the Labour movement was born in Australia, under a gum tree. However, that tree has not survived so a wooden structure has been built that is meant to replicate how big the tree's canopy was. As you can imagine the structure needed to house a tree is rather big and modern, compared to the old buildings and pubs in the rest of the street. It really looks uncomfortably out of place but is said to be wonderful when lit up at night?! But the best bit of Barcaldine was its caravan park, with Chinese takeaway - what a brilliant idea! I think all the campers were there and a lot of locals too judging by the queue outside. It's only open 3 nights a week but has gained a reputation so people stop there!

We then revisited the Gemfields. Having stopped here on our first loop of Queensland we felt like we were completing our lap, even though we're not back at Bills yet! The draw here is that, although you need a permit to fossick for gems properly, you can buy a bag of wash (gravel) that someone else has mined for you. You are shown how to sieve, wash and then search the gravel for gems. We were lucky again and found several nice sapphires! Since our last visit the council have improved the roads, made more parking and opened a wetland walking trail. More cafes have opened and there was a buzz about the place, unlike last year.

Now we are off to Carnarvon Gorge. When we were in the area last year we couldn't visit as the road in to the camping areas was unsealed and, with several creek crossings, not open to us. However since then they have sealed the rest of the road - it opened in Oct last year - so off we go!! Whohoo!!