The Travelling Begins??

We arrived at Nairana Homestead early Wednesday evening - and it was just like arriving home.  There were a few subtle changes we noticed immediately – such as a new “loo” (yay, no more frogs to greet us at every flush – Bonus!), various H&S notices (including an Emergency Assembly Point - just for you Bloss), another window in the kitchen giving more light and air circulation, new covers on the old dining chairs (more comfort), extra cupboard in the bedroom for our clothes (no more ‘living in the suitcase’), and, WOW, the biggest bonus of all – a new washing machine – gone is the twin tub terror!

However, our arrival was not all smooth sailing as there was no water.  After four days without a shower the one thing the Old Grey One was really looking forward to was a long soak under the great outdoor shower.  Never mind – one more day smelling like the bush wouldn’t hurt us.  The pump was fixed on Thursday before lunch and the water is flowing freely again – and bodies are smelling purer, and all dusty clothing and bedding are blowing in the breeze.

Usually we are the first caretakers in for the year and spend the first two weeks cleaning, cobwebbing, and mowing, but this year we are the second ‘residents’ so those tasks have been mainly completed.  Our first task on Thursday was to check and set the wild pig traps after the previous caretakers had been ‘pre-feeding’.  This meant four hours out in the Park to check four traps.  Only needed to set two of the traps where there was evidence of recent pig activity. We will check them again tomorrow for any captures and notify the Ranger who will come out to deal with any pigs in the traps.  It was lovely to get out around the Park in the Kubota again but a little disturbing to see the dams and Mistake Creek at an all time low in the four years we have been here.

Now that we have arrived at Nairana, we have access to the internet, albeit a very slow  “dial-up” connection, so I shall endeavour to post to our travel blog every two days.  As we had no internet access whilst camping out west I kept a written journal and each new post from Nairana will include excerpts from our travels in the Outback and a few photos.

So, let us start at the beginning with a short excerpt and a few photos of the first stage of our Outback Adventure to Central West Queensland.

JOURNAL EXCERPT

We left Toowoomba at exactly 11am on Tuesday, 16^th April as planned.  The truck was fully loaded (over-loaded more like) and the Old Grey One had his track to Brisbane all planned out.  Somehow he got a little confused before leaving Toowoomba and we ended up taking the “scenic route” to Flagstone Creek – a fitting start to our Adventure.

Storms followed us all the way into Brisbane and after delivering “The Truck” to QR staff at Roma Street station we sat out the deluge that hit the city 10 minutes later.

“The Spirit of the Outback” arrived at Platform 10 (no Platform 9 ¾  in Brisbane!)  three hours later at precisely 6pm and we were on our way in our First Class Sleeper at 6.25pm.  Farewell Brisbane – hello Adventure.

10.00am Wednesday – Trekked over Great Dividing Range, which seems to be the delineation for lush green hilly country and the sparse dry flat plains of the West.  Travelling through the Drummond Range has slowed the train down to almost a crawl.  There are 37 cuttings and S-bends and looking through our carriage window we can see both the front engine and the last carriage at the rear of the train that has our Truck in.

4.30pm Wednesday – We have passed through some interesting towns since leaving the coast at Rockhampton overnight – Gogango, Boolburra, Duaringa, Dingo, Bluff, Comet, Anakie, Bogantugan (which was the start of the Drummond Range climb), Alpha (a town of murals and all streets are named after poets), Jericho, and into Barcaldine, where we had a half hour ‘smoko’ stop.  Barcaldine was an interesting place as this is where the Australian Labour Party was formed and outside the station are several information boards and commemorative plaques.  This is also where the “Tree of Knowledge” stood until 2006 when it was poisoned – it was the site of the Shearers Strike in 1891.  There are no less than FIVE outback pubs in the main street with a population of 1600 residents  in this region.

9.00pm Wednesday – We reached the end of our wonderful rail journey at 6.15pm into Longreach and we plan to stay here at the Discovery Van Park for two nights. The Park is about 1.5kms from the station and centre of Longreach.  It is very basic but will provide us with a couple of nights comfy accommodation before we start “roughing” it in the tent for two weeks.

END OF JOURNAL EXCERPT

The train journey was a wonderful way to begin our Central West Outback adventure – the food was wonderful, the sleepers very comfortable, and the trip very relaxing.  It was sheer luxury compared to what was ahead of us for the next two weeks.

Please join us in our adventure and marvel at the beauty of the Central West Outback.

(Photos in a separate post)