After two lovely long stops we thought we should get our butts into gear and eat up some of the kms we had to travel so decided on a few one nighters to get us out west.
We followed the Bruce highway up to Rockhampton which we have travelled multiple times but then broke new ground turning west from there along the Capricorn highway. The road was relatively busy as multiple mines are accessed from here and that traffic along with the multiple caravans meant we didn’t as yet feel too far out of it.
We stopped in a tiny town called Dingo and other than the noise from the giant road trains passing by every so often it was a pretty restful sleep. We continued on along the Capricorn until Emerald and then picked up the A4 out towards Barcaldine. This is where we finally felt we were back in the outback!
We stopped off at Barcaldine at the Showgrounds where we had stayed before and thought we would venture out to one of the pubs to watch the origin. We were both looking forward to this as we hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol for 3 weeks so thought this would be the perfect event to quench the thirst. Unfortunately the atmosphere was not great so after eating dinner we went back and watched the game from the van and continued our abstinence from alcohol. The next day we continued west.
After the previous two days of driving and one night stops we decided to take a bit of a rest for 2 nights and realised we were driving distance from Winton and our favorite station stay at Oondooroo. This would be our 3rd trip through Winton and each time the scenery has been different. The first time it was so dry and not a skerrick of grass to be seen, the second it was lush and green and grass everywhere to this time where the grass was long but brown/yellow. It was amazing to see it through all the changing cycles.
We arrived at the station and along the road were greeted by Jason and a few hundred sheep he was moving to another paddock. Yep it definitely felt like we were back in the bush again! The station was the same with lovely grass sites and we were soon set up and having a chat with Jason discussing how different the place looked since last time we were here. We didn’t stay with him the second time when we saw Winton with green grass but when we were with last at the station it was getting pretty tough for Jason and the family so it was great to talk to him when things were better and they were able to put more cows to pasture.
We had already seen the sights of Winton in the past so thought we would go and play a bit of golf while we were here. The course was sand greens and you had to tee up the ball through to the green due to the number of small rocks everywhere but we still had fun!
There is something about being in the outback that sings to your soul. I don’t know if it’s the sheer expanse of it, the realisation that we are at the mercy of Mother Nature or the remoteness of it all but it’s something. The sunsets and stars are the best you will ever see and it reminds you that it’s the small things in life that truely matter. Both of us said we could spend a bit of time out here but we have a destination to get to so unfortunately we only stayed the two nights and were off again. We will definitely be back! S