29 June - 1 July Blackall

On Tuesday after a 3.5 hour drive with a lunch stop at Augathella, we arrived at Blackall greeted by a swarm of locusts. We set up our van by the Barcoo River, which is a 3 minute walk to town. A lot of the shops were shut down or said "back in 10 minutes", but nobody came back. The population is only 1,600, compared with 6,000 some years ago. The attractions here are the Jackie Howe memorial, The Black Stump, The Wool Scour, Petrified Wood, Memorial Parks to name a few. A fantastic skate park has kept the boys happy (if you like bruises and blood) as well as catching fish off a bridge with their legs dangling on the main road - very quiet road thank goodness. Jamie and the boys had a swim in the Artesian pool, very warm water with sulphate. Matty reckons the water here smells and tastes like rotten egg. As with all our campsites, there has always been that special person who has made a great impression on us and will always remind us of our time in whatever part of Qld we were in. In Blackall, there were 2. The first a local, Stewart(60 y.o) born and bred here, drove his tractor, horse or ute up to the camp ground every day for a chat and delivered firewood. He was so interesting, so down to earth and such a nice bloke and his country lingo made every sentence into an exciting account of just ordinary things. The second, a "bikie" pushbike that is. Sandy pedalled up to our campfire with every supply needed for his journey around Qld strapped to his bike. He has ridden 3000kms since Easter and still has a long way to go. He set up his swag near our vans, shared our campfire, cooked his lamb chops, polished off a bottle of red, told stories, jokes and answered all of our questions about his journey. For him this is a personal endeavour - a dream since he was a very young boy. I so admire his spirit, strength of character(semis flying past him on the highway, sleeping under the stars in all weather conditions)and the will to follow his dream. A wife and children await him at home. He was incredible and rode off singing a song about Raylene and Rhonda! We are having the time of our life!!!! Oh yes, the opal shop was a hit with the boys, sorting through rough sawn rock to reveal different coloured opals.