Lawn Hill National Park

We have just returned to civilization after 4 days at Lawn Hill which has been wonderful. The gorge goes for approximately 4 klms so we kayaked up and down for two days spotting crocs, turtles and lots of fish. Ron tried his hand at fishing and ended up catching two turtles, who promptly bit him as punishment. Yesterday we hiked the gorge which was about 8klms up and down the surrounding cliffs unfortunately I have had a problem with the memory card and lost all the pics. Tomorrow Northern Territory.

Ron, where's the map?

Blue said " down hoddle street, second set of lights turn right and the city is right in front of you"

I think we turned left instead ooooooops

T rex and Lunch

I kid you not. Today we went to the Lark Dinosaur Run which is approximately 110klms of horror dirt road from Winton. We are truly in the outback now, red dirt, low bushes and its 31 degrees but the local pool is closed for WINTER - spare me LOL

The Dinosaur run was fantastic, what you see above is the footprints of hundreds of small dino's having a drink on the edge of a massive lake, when all of a sudden out pops T Rex for a dino snack. The tracks in the pic tell the story, all the little ones are running from top to bottom as the water was at the top of the picture and T Rex came out of the forest behind them, so there was only one way for the little fellas to go - straight back past that nasty ol' dinosaur. You can see the big imprints from the T Rex as he is running towards the water and everyone is trying to get past him without being eaten. The big imprints are approximate 3 feet across so Rex as a very big boy. The smallest imprints are for dinos about the size of a chicken and everything upward from there. Truly amazing.

We have arrived in the Outback.

How do we know? well Fuel is now $170.9 an rising, the biggest tree on the horizion is no more than 4 mtrs and there is no water laying around.

Now for what it's like at night. The sky is BLACK very BLACK and there are millions of stars, bright and sparkling and the milky way is huge and spectacular out here. When you are tucked up in bed there are also some things you have to get used to - from about 2am the howls of dingoes in the distance, the coughing bark of the camels, the braying of donkeys, you know hee haa etc etc etc, and then there is the soft Thump thump thump of a kangaroo landing outside your van looking for something green. When you get up in the weeeee hours to go to the john you have to check just who is outside loitering, it is very easy to get a surprise in the dark !!! Sounds just like home LOL

Today we arrived at Winton, the home of Waltzing Maltida and they have a great exhibit dedicated to the story. Tomorrow we are off to the Lark Dinosaur run, which is about 100klms of dirt from here but is the only recorded imprints of a Dinosaur stampede in the world, so we are quite excited about seeing it.

We passed the fossicking test

We only had one full day to go fossicking so we signed up for a "Tag Along" tour, (this could also be a good theme night at the pub). Our guide was James and we headed off to the "Graveyard" to start digging. The sapphire is a blue with a greenish background and .9 of a carat and the zircon is wonderfully clear and is .89 of a carat. WERE RICH - LOL

Tres Butch

We have arrived at Sapphire in outback Qld and as the name suggests it is the centre of sapphires and Zircon etc. off we headed to make our fortune and as you can see fully armed with the necessary equipment. Day one we found one almost decent one and lots of bits and pieces and today we found a big zircon and some little sapphires. We have dropped two off to the gem cutter so stand by for more pics.

The weather here is HOT, HOT HOT during the day and then a 30 degree plummet of an evening to dam cold, touching on brass monkey weather. For the first time we have heaters and blankets at night and fans etc during the day.

A visit to Blackwater

Where ? you ask, well it is approximately 400klms from Rocky and the coast, and a large coal mining center. We travelled up here to see Tania, Dan and the family and had to make the emergency stop along the way, you know nature called, but apparently here nature calls in alot LOL

Yep this is in the outback of Queensland

By popular demand, 2 more on Carnavon gorge

Boowindi Gorge

If you look closely you can see Ron walking along the bottom of the Gorge. Carnavon Gorge was fantastic. The Gorge is 10klms long and has 7 off-shoots with ancient rock art, moss galleries, spectacular cliffs and wonderful palm and white gum forests.

On day one we walked the long track to the Boowindi gorge pic. above, which was a 22 klms trek, day 2 was a quiet one while we tried to get our legs to talk to us again, so we wandered off to the rock pool and read for a couple of hours. Day 3 was the moss garden, ampitheatre and bluff lookout and that was 19 klms.

For a moment we thought our luck had changed - Drags here in Roma, but it's cars :-(

Just thought you might be interested in our camp set up. Seeing as though we are hundreds of klms from anything bigger than a bathtub D'luded doesn't even get unpacked so she spends her time just lying around on top of RT (Ron's Truck). Ron is spending his usual morning doing crosswords etc which usually will get up through until 11am, by which time we start thinking about lunch. Of course on a walking day we will have done several klms by then - maybe. The Herb Garden is in front (that small green box) and has pride of place at most places we stay as usually we are the only "Gays in the village" and have to protect such things as FRESH herbs. LOL. The painting on the go usually lives next to the door and the BBQ is chained to Miss Guided. "Home, home on the range, where the kangeroos and emu play, etc"

The stage area at Toowoomba

We have finally arrived at Roma which is approximately 500klms west of Brisbane and the stepping place to the outback proper. When we set off from Toowoomba and dialed up roma on tomtom he came up with "turn right in 357klms" LOL

Lights at the Emprie Theatre at Toowoomba, or maybe our new dining room arrangement?

Hmmmmmmm which way to go ?

Toowoomba has been great. We woke up to absolutely clear blue unpolluted skies, and its the first time for a while that we have seen a sky so clean and clear. We spent the day doing some necessary odd jobs then conned the staff at the Empire theatre to let us in for a look. WOW what a theatre, and a great deco building. While we were there the Keiv ballet were setting up for tonight's performance of swan lake so not only did we get the tour but also the sound track of some of my favourite music. Then it was off to lunch at Weis, sensational, amazing best food since Melbourne. We both had the Mud crab , asparagus, Parmesan and spaghetti - it was to die for. The rest of the day was spent doing flash trash shops.

Tomorrow Roma the then the great unknown LOL.

Japanese Garden in Toowoomba

Good morning, well we finally fled the rain on the coast and turned left. Our first stop is in Toowoomba which is on top of the Great Dividing Range and a beautiful garden city. In recent years the city has also become well known for its food and cafe culture so we are heading out today to explore. The weather is perfect, clear blue skies, gentle breeze and for the first time in weeks "Miss Guided" will get properly dry (us as well LOL).

Tomorrow we continue on towards the outback and head to Roma for a couple of days.

A Yamba Farewell

This was our last night at Yamba and what a spectacular sunset it was. Thought you might like to enjoy it as well.

Roli DONT PANIC

I still live.

I just received my new camera in the mail and the latest trend seems to be that you don't get instruction books, instead you have to go to the web and download the manual. But before doing that I wanted to play with it, but horror of horrors its all in Japanese and as you can see from my reaction in the pic I was becoming a little annoyed at not being able to understand anything apart from the on/off button LOL.

Off to God's waiting room (Gold Coast) tomorrow to see Di and we are trying to get in and out in 3 days - we both hate the place and we figure if you stick around too long you end up staying permanently. Then Noosa to see Scott and then we get to take the big left turn and go inland.

Rough itinerary is Carnavon Gorge, Lake Maraboon for some fishing and boating,then Winton for the Dinosaur run, Mt Isa, Longreach and making our way to see Peter and Matt in Katherine NT.

Fully rigged

Well here is the proof that we actually use her. D'luded fully rigged and at her first pub. We paddled, peddled and sailed to two pubs (as you must) and covered a total of about 15 klms and could still walk after.

Ron bringing "D'Luded" home

Here is the first picture of our new toy. We have called her D'luded for obvious reasons and so far she has performed beautifully. She comes equipped with duel Pedal Penguin power and a sail.

Ron sits up the front and I control from the back, it also means I can take a rest and he doesn't know about it LOL.

Sailing off to the pub for lunch today.