Friday 21 August

Well today we had to pack up and head further South - did we want to go? No.

The run out was uneventful and we stopped at Bramwell Junction Roadhouse for morning tea.

Moreton Telegraph Station welcomed us for lunch and then we made tracks for the Wenlock River.

It was quite early when we stopped by a Billabong adjacent to the Wenlock. We made afternoon tea, lit the fire and 1:43 PM&P put up their tent. Tom and Mal built a fire and then Tom, Pauline and Sue went off for a walk while Mal minded the fire which had tried to escape into dry grass - now that would be a disaster.

2015 08 22 - Saturday

Well it was departure day - the morning was perfectly still - the trees across the billabong reflected in the glassy water.

We all trotted out to enjoy the morning.

We packed up and finally Tom and Pauline headed South and we headed for Lockhart River.

The road in was in good condition except for many rather rocky creek crossings and the odd one with water as well.

Its an interesting drive in and we arrived in town to Jo, hanging over the railing of her friends house.

So we parked up and went in to meet Annette - she is a FIFO nurse who lives on the Sunshine Coast. We heard a lot about the local dry community which is really only dry for the white staff but the locals drink on regardless and there is no one who is going to enforce the liquor ban - so life stumbles on.

There is only one private enterprise in the town which is the art gallery, but it is probably fair to expect that it is not a self funding process - irrespective of how good the art works are.

Well after a good long chat we moved Vicki over to Jo's place and Met Christina and Tom who are young environmentalists who are up here doing a research project. They are both terrific young people in their late 20's and very passionate about their project work.

Well we left them behind to complete their packing and headed off to Chillie Beach and Portland Roads.

The road is much worse than the drive in, however we bumped along until we pulled into the carpark at the beach.

Sue, Jo and Annette walked off down the beach while Mal did some photos and a drawing - to keep him happy.

We drove over to Portland Roads, it reminded Mal of 1770 back in the 1970's - we heard the story of the visiting boatie who pulled up in the bay and went spear fishing for some fish one afternoon. The fish was good so the next afternoon at the same time he went back to repeat the process - they found half his body tucked under a log way up the river a few weeks later. The crocs up here take no prisoners.

We wandered up to buy an ice cream from Jim - the man who only wears jocks and a tea shirt. Jim appears to be an un-rehabilitated hippie. The ice cream was good and the experience was well worth the few dollars.

By this time it was close to 6pm and we were ready to walk up and meet Greg and Sharee -

We had cold drinks, a super fish and seafood meal. We met with David and Julia, who are travelling in their range rover.

On the way home we met Christina the wildlife lady, she had a scrub python wrapped around her neck - she had fallen off her motorbike trying to avoid the snake. So we stopped and it was the highlight of Jo's evening that she got to pluck some ticks off the python with some tweezers.

We arrived home and the town was mumming, the grog was flowing and it was right next to Annette's place - we found out the next morning that it went all night.

Sunday 23rd

We woke up about 7.30am and then sat around chatting about people, relationships and the problems of the world.

The little chap from next door came over, he is only 6 months old.

Sue and Jo retreated to Vicki while Mal played with his photos.