We made it!

So, after 5113km (From memory B&W  covered 3700km, we had a few detours), we were at camp 119. B&W left Gray and King here and went north looking for the ocean, they became bogged down although they found the Little Bynoe River, which was salty and had a tidal fall of 8 inches, pretty anticlimactic if they expected to be running hand in hand along a northern beach at the end of their trek.

I suppose it was a little bit anticlimactic for Jack and me too. We looked around camp 119, with its B&W blazed trees, and said “What do we do now?’ Thinking about it though, it was more the journey than the destination for us, where as this was reversed for B&W.

Anyway, the 4 of them headed back down in late Feb, and the monsoon season really hit, somedays only making a couple of miles. They had run out of food and had to live off the land which further slowed them down. They took 2 months to reach the top from Cooper ck and 2 and one half months to get back, missing Brahe who left, by 9 hrs, and that was that.

What good came out of the expedition? A lot of places were named by B&W up here, but they would have been found and named by some one else pretty soon, they same can be said for the land they covered. It did define a time in Australia’s history, when money  could finance an adventure for Queen and Country, such as this.I suppose the main thing is that it’s a good story, that most of us have run into at some point or another, and I particularly like the Becker sidelight and his paintings that exist in the National library of Victoria.

What are we going to do now?

We think we will travel to Cairn’s tomorrow, set up camp there or Port Douglas and go snorkelling on the Great Barrier reef, take our time going down the Qld coast, visit friends in Brisbane, and then straight home.

Thanks for reading the blog, I will probably only update it now if something interesting happen on the trip south, but I will still access it every night to read any comments. We have really appreciated these on the trip.

See ya.

We went to the Movies and saw ‘New Moon’ the only one on at the time. Jack and I tended to stand out amongst the other movie goers, as the only other males in the audience where those accompanying teenage girls. Jack and I both agreed there were not enough fight scenes.

Tomorrow we will go through Cloncurry, Burke and Wills roadhouse, and onto Normanton. 

An interesting side note, courtesy of my cousin Andrew, who told the story of  Private Wills, who enlisted in the Army in WW2. His place of enlistment was at Royal Park, where B&W’s started. His christen Name?….. Burken. Yep that’s right Burken Wills!

I bet he thanked his Mum and Dad every night he went to bed.

See ya.

We are not so happy today, 18 degrees and pouring rain, what’s going on? A man we were talking to today, has been in Mt Isa since 1969, and can’t remember such cold temps and rain at this time.

I re read my comments on Boulia, a bit harsh, but just one example. When we went to the pub there were about 10 people in there, drinking Bundy and cokes or beer, no one talking. We got our drinks and also sat at the beer, were we also looked straight ahead, sipping our drinks in synch with the others in the bar. A very strange experience and we left after the one.

Mt Isa is a large town, and when we went shopping, Jack said ‘It feels like we’re on holiday’. I thought we were.We washed and reshod one wheel of our beast of burden, we call him ‘white car’ because he is white and a car. I think we will be on bitumen from now on, so by cleaning it we won’t get filthy every time we lean on it to get spare tyres off the top after punctures.

We will probably aim for Normanton tomorrow.

See ya.

Ye who enter Boulia.

We visited Big Red last night, You head west from Birdsville, toward the Simpson Desert, on a good quality dirt track and suddenly Big Red (and little brother) stop any further progress for the faint hearted. It is a large sand dune that is put there I am sure as a test that to enter the Simpson. if you can cross it, you are OK to enter. Needless to say we didn’t try.

We travelled to Boulia today, we should have kept going. Boulia is not the sort of town to smile in, even the Min Min lights have left (google search), however we did test drive part of the dirt road we intended to go down tomorrow and yep, another puncture (do you think I am making this up?). So we are sticking to the Bitumen tomorrow to get to Mt Isa for tyre repairs. I don’t think I will ask anyone in Boulia.

Young Wills has the beginnings of a fine beard, a sort of bum fluff equivalent. It could be time for his first shave, although I could be a bit rusty (30 years since my last), maybe a barber in Mt Isa?

I have included a picture of the Dig tree and Jack on Big Red from the past couple of days

See ya.

Jack on big red

The dig tree inscription

The Dig Tree

So today we did the sights of Birdsville, it didn’t take long, but there is a beautiful Billabong on the Dimantina river, and the best place to swim is Pelican point, and it is complete with pelicans, and lots of other birds as well, so we headed out there. Out there they have a shade area thats great for people or cars, so we went straight under there for shade. Those who own 4wd’s with a roof cage might be able to guessthe next bit. Yep, we went straight under and the roof cage didn’t. It ended up sort of behind the car with the deisel, spare wheel and tool box attached. There were bird nests made of mud under the shade, and about 5 of these came down on the car, with eggs breaking on the windshield. Burke and Wills had arrived in Birdsville.

Anyway we did what any thinking person would do and went for a swim. After some lively discussion and witty repartee from young Wills, (He thinks this was my finest moment), we pulled every thing off, and rigged it back onto the car, (no damage to the car, Yola), and reloaded it. I have strapped it to the car, and with a bit of checking, I am pretty sure we will get it home. Jack thinks this was the funniest thing so far, but in the interests of camp harmony, refrained from laughing too much.

We went for another swim after lunch, it really is a lovely place, although Birdsville itself lacks a bit of atmosphere,(even the pub). At sunset we will visit Big Red (No not the Bouncer), it is a big sandune 40km from Birdsville and onto Boulia tomorrow. Sorry there are no pictures (especially of the Dig Tree from the other day), but, being on these satellite connected computer’s it is way too slow for something like that.

See ya.

The desert we covered  was mainly gibber with some sand, and very little else, a tree here and there close to any dry creek bed. We did have 2 good nights in Innamincka, staying at Cooper Ck Homestay with Geoff and Julie, they are very nice people and had tea with them, sitting outside (after about 9.00pm). They were even nice after I overloaded their power system in the morning (it takes about 20 mins of resetting to get it going) . In Birdsville tonight we are staying in a small room at the Caravan Park, the lady says they will be down to 27 degrees on Monday, I don’t know if that will help us though (We will be around Cloncurry or even higher).

Any way it’s off to the Birdsville Pub now, I wonder if Jack will be kicked out of there as well, most times we go into the Bar, the first question is ‘How old’s the young fella?’ ’15′ ‘Sorry you will have to go to the ladies lounge’. This is not so bad as it allows Jack to wear the clothes from the secret women’s business saga.

Tomorrow it’s off to Boulia.

See ya.

We  are staying with Geoff and Julie in an airconditioned room, it is 46 today, and have visited Wills grave, where King was picked up, and when it cools down a bit we will vist Burkes grave and the dig tree.

We do not have internet access here and not for the next few days, so blogs will be sporadic (we are onthe only internet computer in Innamincka and is very slow).

We are onto Birdsville tomorrow, very slowly to avoid punctures.

See ya.

It turned out they woke up Duck when they rang as he had had the odd one or two. Anyway Duck asked a few questions about me and Jack and said he’d come in before he’d give us the number. Duck turned up, he looked like he was out of a Ben Bowyang comic, with a touch of Mr Magoo. He decided he needed a bit more topping up, and of course, to be polite, I had one or two as well.

I told Duck what we were doing, showed the Ludwig Becker book I own, (which was passed around the Bar) as well as a map, and a bit later Duck slipped me a piece of paper with the phone number on. I must have passed the test, although when I rang Yola later she could tell that I had been tested. 

We went back to the Pub for tea and by this time Duck was talking Swahili. I rang the station manager, Damian, a nice chap who would have been happy to show us the Grave, but it had been raining in Quilpie and that flows into the Bulloo river, and you couldn’t  cross it to get to the grave. After all that!

Anyway, this morning we saw Duck, fit as a Mallee Bull,  and had a good talk to him, told him what had happened. A nice chap.

We left our B&W route today to visit Cameron corner, where SA, NSW and QLD meet. There’s a Pub here as well (they seem to be everywhere), and the guy that ran the pub did have a good vocabulary, but often needed linking words starting with F in his speech pattern. Needless to say, Wills was very impressed.

We saw the Dingo fence, Fort Grey, where Sturt fought aboriginals and kept sheep, and photographed Cameron Corner. My bum was at 2.00pm (NSW). my head was at 1.00pm (Qld), and my left arm was at 1.30 pm (SA). I was all over the place. 

All over the place.

We mentioned the Willy willy’s previously, the photo below does not do them justice. They start about Midday (after temp reaches approx 40) and you could see up to 10 or so at any one time. Some reach hundred’s of metres into the sky. Jack and I have competitions to see who will see the first of the day. Jack won today, 10.30 am, it was 40 by 10.15am.

Of to the dig tree and Innaminca tomorrow.

See ya

We left Broken Hill today, after saying goodbye to Lavine and Kevin from Bribie Island (near Caboolture), who have camped next to us for the last two days. Kevin’s engine in their Ford Futura blew up just outside Broken Hill, and will take a week or more to fix, so they are spending their time in the Caravan Park. Kevin buys a $2.40 bus ticket each day to visit the Futura. He got quoted $4200 to fix it plus or minus $20 from 4 different repairer’s. “There all in Kahootz” he told us, and is probably right. Lavine was in a bit of a tiz as we were packing up, Kevin had lost his false teeth last night. She asked us to check the toilet’s as Kevin is not the best in checking places (they asked the right people, didn’t they, Yola), but luckily as we were pulling out, the false teeth turned up in Kev’s Stubby holder. All’s well that end’s well.

Today we did about 400km to Tibooburra, along the back roads, close to where B& W went. I think we are nearly always within about 15 km of their path, the difference occurs because we are on roads, and their latitudes were slightly out due to inaccuracies in their chronometers. By this time the Expedition party was  a shambles, Burke and Wills had taken 7 people ahead, and then further split this at Cooper creek (near the dig tree) where he left four people, and he , Wills, King and Gray headed for the Gulf. Becker was in the final group first split at Menindee and now trying to make their way north to meet with the rest of the expedition.

Becker was very unwell (after all a horse had trod on his foot and he was 53 and had to paint all the time) and two others, Brown and Purcell were extremely ill.

We were in much better condition as we made it to Tiboburra, it has a great pub with Drysdales, and and Clifton Pugh paintings on the wall as they used to stay there.

We are going there for tea tonight.

See ya.

……and Peter and Jack.

First of all, let’s clear up some nonsense. I have noticed in the comments a sense of sympathy for young Wills, especially after the foot stomping and cross dressing incident’s. Let me tell you, he is from strong stock, and is developing quite a strong hide, one that will only get stronger as time passes, and thank you to Wendy for correctly pointing out it was a herd of goat’s. 

Now, down to business. We headed to Mutawinji to try to find the gorge and cave that Becker painted today. We had a 6 km work in front of us, but with 4 l of water and a packet of snakes and starting at Midday, we knew we would have no problems. After 3km we found the Gorge and started the walk up it, with what seemed a few wild goats, but increasingly more as we got near the top. As we reached the point where the falls would be if there was water, we realised we had been ‘herding’ (thanks again Wendy) the goats,as well as some very irate Kangaroos into a dead end, with us blocking their way. Jack said ‘let’s go’, but before we could, the goat’s did. I do have it on video, but this will not do justice to a hundred stampeding goats running toward you, interspersed with hissing kangaroos, and Jack trying to scramble up rocks yelling ‘I told you so!’

Anyway, after they passed , with the exception of 20 or so kids who had the good sense just to stay there, we found the top of the Gorge Becker painted, but a lot of Gum trees had sprung up in the creek bed due to lack of water that made a good photo difficult. We also found a cave that could be one that Becker painted, have a look below. The aboriginal paintings are no longer there, I suppose it depends on what pigments they use.

Anyway on the way back, there were many Wily Wily’s, more than we have seen in the past and larger, although we see a lot in these high temperatures. One passed right over us, and I did notice Jack closing his eyes, tapping his heels, and whispering ‘There’s no place like home’, but it didn’t work and we were still 130km from Broken Hill on a dirt road.

Here are the photo’s, onto Tibboburra tomorrow.

See ya.

Becker's cave painting

Our cave