[QLD] Winton,Boulia,Mt Isa,Camooweal

After leaving Longreach on Thursday 27 May we arrived in Winton for one night. That afternoon we walked around town visiting local sites such as Arno's Wall - a local's 250m fence which has everything cemented into it - even a kitchen sink, plus a gate made out of hub caps - now we know where all the lost hub caps end up! We had a drink in the pub where Banjo Patterson first recited Waltzing Matilda (note: my drink was a disgusting glass of wine which I found out was from a 10 litre cask - it pays to ask "is the wine out of a bottle?")!! Our camping neighbours suggested we take the back road to Boulia (360kms) through the channel country as it was more picturesque than the highway to Cloncurry, and they were right - it was only a single lane road but interesting. Had a rainy night's stay at Boulia Caravan Park.

Next morning we headed off for Mt Isa. As we got closer to Mt Isa we could get radio reception and found out that it was race day there, with the first (of only five races) kicking off at 2.15. We thought that might be fun, so Paulie put his foot down and we hightailed it to the Isa (noting the racecourse location on the way in), checked into the Sunset Caravan Park, had showers and got dressed ready for the races. The caravan park was about 10mins walking distance to the racecourse, so off we set on foot and after 10mins I asked Paulie "are we walking the right way?" - he assured me we were, "it's just at the end of this street". WRONG - we were totally lost and of course running late for the first race, and to top it off it was a stinking hot day. We were in fact walking away from the racecourse and after half an hour of walking we finally asked a local for directions. Once we were heading in the right direction, we could actually see the first race in progress, so 15mins later we found the entrance to the racecourse and headed straight for the bar - for a cold drink of water first up! So that  meant we would only see four races - but we backed three winners and it was a good day after all.

On Monday 31 May we drove to Camooweal - our last Queensland stopover. Not much to do in Camooweal, so we settled into the roadhouse caravan park, had a pretty quiet relaxing arvo and an early night to bed so we could get away early next morning for the 470km drive to Tennant Creek.