Sorry its been so long everyone we had such a great time in karumba and made some great new friends while we were there we went camping with the inlaws a couple of times and had such a great time first camping trip we went on was up to a place called the gilbert river this is on the burke development road heading up cape york and we camped on a river bank with a few freshwater crocodiles around.  Kristy and I both thought what have we created with our children when carter asked where is the shower and how was he going to wash his hair god we glamp to much. On the return trip home we went a different road which lead us past the entrance to one of australias biggest cattle stations called delta downs along this road we had to open a close a lot of gates and it had long stretches of bulldust. 

 

As most of you would have heard I also dabbled a bit with the locals my hectic lifestyle included Thursday night lawn bowls Friday morning bingo and Friday afternoon bocee I tell you I was exhausted by the end of Friday arv so I needed a nanny nap.  On one weekend we drove to nearby normanton to the local rodeo and we hung out with the locals if you know what I mean was a real eye opener watching them ge drunker and drunker and trying to understand what they are saying.  All in all was a good day and got us out of karumba for the day.

The other camping trip we went to was down to Gregory downs then out to lawn hill for the day words cant describe this place we canoed up through some of the most amazing gorges I have ever seen breathtaking is all I can say the only problem is we took the camera up there but forgot to take pictures we were both just in awe of the surroundings

 Grandad took the boys and I fishing as much as he could and the as much as it shits me to say the boys out fished me we had so much fun chasing blue nose salmon and grunter we managed to catch heaps of catfish I caught a small shark it wasn't the best season for fishing up there but we enjoyed going fishing anyway the pic of carter is of a barra that a guy behind us caught he got three in a day

 

The actual Melbourne cup came to town and it was probably the biggest thing to hit karumba in a long time also the next week was the school fete and they had a duck race but since the river is croc infested they had it in the local pool with fans blowing them down the pool there was one particular duck that took off down the pool leading by a mile then all of a sudden stopped about 4 meters away from finish line then one other duck took the lead then the lead duck took of after it but it was to late I felt sorry for the duck that came second then they pulled the winning ducks out of the pool and called out the numbers and bugger me it was bloody carters duck that was leading the whole way and we got bloody second then to rub it in first prize was $500 second prize a bloody meat tray so pissed off  meat was alright though I suppose we will miss karumba and so many great memories but we have to keep travelling and explore this amazing country of ours.

 First day here and billy just goes grabs his chair and scabs some chocolate cake

 

Lightning ridge to Karumba

After leaving lightning ridge we drove south heading to walget and then west to bourke let me tell you neither of these places are high on our must revisit list we travelled north from bourke to a little truckstop just in nsw it was $10 bucks for the night no power and in the middle of no where but we didn't mind it was funny in the afternoon whilst driving there we seen a car overtake us doing I reckon 120 when all of a sudden about 100meters up the road he hit this big kangaroo we seen it go straight over the roof and land on the road him hit the skids and I slowed down to make sure he was alright they were fine wife was a bit shaken but ok and no damage to car so all good we kept going onto the this truckstop for the night when we got there it looked like old macdonalds farm there was cows sheep dogs emus horses goats all just wandering around our caravan. 

This photo was taken from the truckstop after leaving there the next morning we headed to cunnamulla the town famous for the cunnamulla fella we enjoyed this town and wandered around checking out the parks and river walk the town itself is tidy but tiny and it didn't take us long to see everything and ead back to the caravan park on the river we had chosen it was a tidy little park and they had green grass with no prickles it was great to kick off the thongs and sit there with your feet touching the grass the kids kicked the footy around and ash just lazed about on the grass as well I feel sorry for her we haven't seen green grass for so long just prickles and dust her feet must be getting tough now we went down to the river bank and lit a fire and chilled out with a couple of beers throwing the ball for ash and kicking the footy with the kids I could have stayed another night but we had to push on.

From cunnamulla we went to charleville where I was looking forward to the yabbie races but the bastards cancelled it for some bloody creek to coast show so I took carter to the cosmos centre andi am happy to admit I was blown away this place was awesome you look through these telescopes at stars and a planet and holy shit there is so much more up there then we can see it was really worth the $20 entry fee and carter enjoyed it that much he wanted to go back the next night as well we did stay 2 nights but we didn't go back we just chilled out for the day and that night we left the next morning and headed towards quilpie I must admit I was a little excited for a long time I had wanted to see where my old man worked geez dad what a bloody shit hole you work at there is nothing but dust and flys and heat here we stayed the night at dads work yard and done some washing ect but geez there is literally nothing there. Glad I went there and seen it now though but wnt be heading back for a while like 50 years. We continued west towards windorah this was the place we would leave our van and head into the wild wild west towards birdsville there wasn't much at windorah a nice little town besides the 10000000 flies and I am not joking far out ash was going crazy chasing them.  the next day we packed the car and took the 5hr drive to birdsville it really is in the middle of nowhere it was 120ks of bitumen then 280ks of dirt road the road wasn't to bad I thought it reminded me a bit of the development road up the cape but the mighty landcruiser chewed it up and spat it out.  Upon arriving and birdsville it was soon figured out that there was twice as many flys here then at windorah holly crap they were every where billy soon got the shits and at one point I looked at him and he had 2 fingers up his nose I said to him what are you doing he said the flys were annoying him and hey tickle when they go my nose so I don't want them to fly up my nose dad I couldn't tell him to get his finger out of his nose it was to funny we headed to the bakery for a famous birdsville pie what a croc of  shit they were terrible I have had better pies from nerang servo reheated anyway off to the pub for a cold beer and let the kids play they actually had green grass and kids playground after a few cold beers off to put up our new tents what a bloody shit fight we got them up in the middle of the dust bowl they call the camping gorund and headed off to conquer big red the famous sand dune on the edge of the simpson desert this is about 35ks out of town when we arrived there was a guy in a 3ltr patrol airing down and another guy in a 200 series look on I went and chatted to them they guy in the 200 series was worried the other guy seemed confident and I was like well I am having a crack air down and I said to the guy in the patrol whos first I will he said kristy wasn't happy about the look of this so she got out left the kids in the car (great mum) and we watched the pootrol try and conquer big red well he tried allright till halfway and couldn't go any further so down he came and got a bigger run up this time but still wouldn't make it he said you have a go so off the mighty landcruiser took hi range second gear and she ate it up straight up over the top then I realized I had just done it and it felt awesome so I drove back down told kristy to get in and up we went again this time didn't make it kristys big bum I needed more power so I reversed back down and more berries as roothy says and up and over we went I dropped kristy off and moved the car so the others could try but both struggled then the 200 series made it but the poor pootrol just couldn't do it so being the good sport I am I went back down and showed him how 2 more times.  We stopped at the top watched the sunset and drove back to the pub for a celebratory drink and a shit house meal not happy with the food at all.  So off we went to our lovely little tents for a fantastic nights sleep (not) in our little 3 man tents carter and I in one billy and kristy in the other and ash tied up outside between us.

 

Lightning Ridge

After finishing up work i mentioned to kristy lightning ridge is only 120ks down the road lets go and have a look so here we are at lightning ridge and i must say i am happy we took the time to come and have a look at this unique place from the opal mining to the artesian hot pools its not a bad little town to visit with a great van park.  Yesterday we went to a place called the black hand opal mine which is a mine started a long time ago and the miner when bored would sit in cave and carve things into the walls which are sandstone it is now a tourist attraction and well worth the visit its 100 foot down and you put a hard hat on and walk down all these stairs to the main cave where the carvings are its 16 degrees down there and they have a very impressive range of opals for sale there was one opal worth 44k down there crazy stuff.  We were let free to roam the various tunnels and caves that he had dug out and carved things into and some of the pieces are amazing.

 

 

They also have what they call door tours here there is 4 colours we done both green red and yellow tours on the green tour it took us to a lookout where they reckon they have pulled enough opal out of this area to pay to rebuild the gold coast skyline there was a house built out of beer cans and bottles that was built in 1977

 

 

 This is a thunder box that everyone on a camp here has to have carter calls them outback dunnies the camp as they call them are 50mx50m and they then put ramshackle sheds on there camp and start mining they have no power water ect they run solar panels or generators put up water tanks and dig thunder boxs they are everywhere here the guy who works at the black hand was about 25 years old and last year found an opal worth 1.5million on his camp.

 

 

 

 These artersian spa baths are about 200m from the caravan park and we went there everynight for a swim they are about 38-45 degrees and are very relaxing tomorrow we head towards bourke then north towards quilpie and birdsville all in all we are enjoying ourselves alot we have had no issues and the kids have been really good ash is loving the new places i feel bad tying her up all the time though so i try and play with her as much as possible similiar theory with kristy :P