Macs with Packs: The Perfect Storm

Hello again :)

We arrived in Cunnamulla after our long drive, not sure what to expect. We had booked to stay here for three days. We left in such a hurry to get across NSW before they closed the border that we had a lot of things we still needed to catch up on.

First impressions weren't great - dilapidated houses sat raggedly on dry, scrappy lawns and caravan after caravan lined the wide streets. Our accommodation in Cunnamulla's "Boutique" Hotel was a pleasant surprise. Although the room was tiny, it was really nice. The only downfall was that they use artesian water here and it smalls sulphurous, It's not very pleasant to smell but it's lovely soft water.

Over the next three days we grew to really like the town and its people. It had some real characters. What amazed us though was the number of caravans in town. It turned out that there was a perfect storm of circumstances that drew everyone together. Firstly, covid had sent many people like us rushing for a border - in some cases any border that let them escape lockdown. Secondly, it was the start of school holidays in Victoria, NSW and Queensland. Thirdly, the "Birdsville Bash" was a week or two away. This is a huge event. About 10,000 people make their way to Birdsville to dress up in costumes and race on foot down the huge sand dune there. And lastly, rains had just happened right through the area. When it rains, the clay roads turn to a sticky, slippery mess and most dirt roads were closed. This had the effect of funnelling all those lockdown escapees, holiday-makers and bash-goers along the same few roads.

It was incredible seeing hundreds of caravans and campers in small towns. The townspeople were overwhelmed. There was nowhere near enough staff. We were served meals by 13 and 14 year-olds and grandmas. The local cafe roped in every family member they could. Anyone could walk into these towns and have a job within an hour. Accommodation was booked out everywhere. Once we realised this we frantically booked ahead and had to take whatever we could get. We ended up altering our trip to wherever we could get a room. It's something we didn't expect to experience in remote outback Queensland.

On our first night we ate a great meal in the pub then had sticky date pudding delivered to us in our room so we could watch the footy! It was fun but we won't talk about the footy results....

Much to our surprise, the weather was quite cool. It was lovely and sunny during the day but still only reaching a maximum of 14 degrees or so. I took to wearing my big coat everywhere - even in our room!

We spent a lot of time in the dining room of the pub with a map spread out working out where we would go. In between planning sessions though we got out to check out the town. We heard there was a local football game (rugby union apparently - I have no clue about any football except AFL) on between Cunnamulla and Longreach. The Longreach team travelled over 700 kms to get to Cunnnamulla just for the game! We heard it would be on at 5.30 but we heard music playing a couple of hours earlier than that so we wandered over to the footy ground. Music was playing, people were gathered around and there was a real party atmosphere. The players were standing in their teams on the ground so we asked someone when the game would start. "It's just finished", we were told! Damn! Still, it was fun just hanging around checking out the crowd. Hats were the thing - but only Akubras or baseball caps. I couldn't get over the way the local girls dressed in boots, jeans, a buckled belt and pink checked shirts. The clothes were straight out of an RM Williams catalogue. Classic! Even the kids wore the cowboy clothes.

After the match they auctioned off some jumpers. One of the players was obviously a stock and station agent and entertained us with his rapid-fire auctioneering skills.

We kept trying to buy fuel but the queues were horrendously long so we'd leave again. In the end we had no choice but to line up. This is our car half way along the queue. It took just under an hour to get to the front of the queue.

They had four pumps but only one was working. I went in to pay and the guy behind the counter was Indian. We're in the middle of nowhere and the petrol attendants are still Indian! When I asked him why only one pump was working he just shrugged his shoulders.

On that note, one of the surprising things to come out of covid is that all the tourists are Aussies. With the exception of the Indian petrol attendant, all the people we've met have been anglo-saxon with a smattering of aboriginal locals. It's a bit weird.

We had heard about some sort of a movie at the old railway station so we went to it on our last day. We were blown away by the money that had been spent on it. The screen was 15 metres wide, the rows of seats were luxurious reclining theatre seats and the show, about the importance of the railway line to the town, was incredible. A hologram station master led us through the interesting history and locals appeared in the movie to tell their stories. The funding, from government grants, must have been huge!

Two sisters from Sydney had been employed to play music at our pub each night for 10 nights. Kristina and Tash were lovely girls and we spent our last night sharing stories with them (and we might have introduced them to Cointreau!). What a great way to see the country!

Moving on from Cunnamulla, the next town along the caravan highway was Eulo, home of the world lizard-racing championships! This has to be the worst 'big' something ever!

Below the big lizard was the lizard racetrack - a small circular enclosure that the lizards race around. The world record holder completed the lap in a couple of seconds. All lizards are returned to the exact location they were taken from after the race.

Next to the racetrack is a special memorial to Destructo, the cockroach who beat the champion lizard in 1980. Sadly, he was accidentally stood on after the race. You've got to love a bit of Aussie humour!

Nearby was a lookout on a small hill. The view over the arid landscape was amazing!

Pushing on to Yowah (don't you love the names?) we found a remote, dusty town based around opal mining. We learned enough about opal mining to understand how hard it must have been to mine in the past. It's a very isolated place and must get so hot in summer. Opals were for sale for thousands of dollars!

The roads around here are so remote. I love the vivid red soil.

We arrived in Thargomindah and had a great cabin in a caravan park. The artesian water here didn't smell and was incredibly soft. We washed hair and clothes and felt all lovely and clean.

John did some bike riding here. He picked a road then I drove 40kms along it, dropped him off, then he rode back. These roads are through unfenced farms. So in addition to watching out for roos and emus, you have to watch out for cattle and sometimes sheep on the road.