Birdsville to Boulia

Campfire at sunset on the common.

We spent a night back in Birdsville camping on the common area and topped up with water and diesel.  Helen didn't get much sleep - she was texting our daughter as she was walking in the Kokoda Challenge on the Gold Coast Hinterland, a 52 km track.  Took her 17 hours starting at 1 pm on the Saturday afternoon and finished early Sunday morning.  Briony did appreciate the messages of encouragement and we are so proud of her effort, so hard both physically and mentally.  Also equally proud of Todd and Tenelle for being her support team and having hot food and drinks waiting for her at a Checkpoint at 11pm in the freezing cold!!

We had arranged to meet Terry and Joan at Boulia for the Camel Races and Hack and Jody were travelling with us. We left first and stopped at the Waddi Trees (known for their exceptionally hard wood and longevity) for coffee then pulled into Carcory Ruins for lunch.  The Waddi trees are a protective species and are found in only three locations in Australia - Birdsville, Boulia and a conservation reserve in the NT.

Hack and Jody had left later and caught us up at the ruins which is part of Roseberth Station. Jody was all excited saying after we had left the Waddi trees they had been talking to a local, the Mayor of the Diamantina Shire, Geoff Morton. "Oh" we said "we know Geoff, our daughter is good friends with his son as they worked together on Mooraberree Station!"  What a small world we live in!

Carcory homestead ruins

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The Carcory Homestead Ruin (also spelt as Carcoory and Cacoory) is a roofless stone structure located on the northern end of Roseberth Station, eighty kilometres north of Birdsville. Thomas Mitchell made the first exploration of the area in which Carcory Homestead is located in 1845. Explorers Burke and Wills made further investigations in 1861, and it was while searching for them that intensive exploration of the region was first undertaken. In the 1870s, this region comprised some of the last remaining unclaimed land in Queensland.
The land on which Carcory Homestead is located is believed to have been taken up about in the late 1870s as a pastoral run.
The date of construction of this homestead is unknown, although buildings of a similar construction are found in Central Australia as far south as Robe in South Australia and as far north as Boulia in Queensland.

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After lunch we continued to King Creek (approx 30kms south of Bedourie) where we found a spot with enough room for the two caravans and made camp for the night. The section of road from the Ruins to King Creek was quite corrugated in parts.

Our camp at King Creek

This may have been a juvenile Falcon

In the morning we were eager to get going as Jody was keen to have a dip in the Bedourie arsesian pools, as were the rest of us.  We arrived before morning coffee so while I pumped up the tyres on the caravan, Helen went to a coffee van on the side of the road. As it turned out this was the van which I helped out after being bogged at Birdsville - should have had a free coffee!!  We all enjoyed the artesian pool, which was quite hot, however the swimming pool was close by where you could cool off with a temperature of 28 degrees!

The Artesian Hot Pool

Jody myself and Helen enjoying the hot thermal pool, 35 to 40 deg water

This is the large much cooler pool. You could stay in this longer and chat!

It was around lunch time before we could drag ourselves away from the pools and started to make our way to Boulia another 217 km further north. This was a pleasant drive (sealed road - NO DUST!) with the country side changing and as we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, the vegetation increased and sighted many more gum trees. Met up with Terry and Joan at the Boulia Racecourse and enjoyed a much milder evening not requiring to rug up with heaps of layers!  With 4 more days to go before the start of the Camel Races, we were surprised to find heaps of vans already set up - going to be well attended this year.

All set up at Boulia Racecource with fire going for happy hour!

During the days prior to the races we had a couple of trips into Boulia - one to top up with diesel and Helen found a Laundrymat where she washed all our dusty clothes (as did many other people, particularly as they had also attended the Big Red Bash).  Called into the little Supermarket who were already struggling with supplies. Next truck in was Friday (2 days time) meantime no bread, no milk!  Can't imagine what will happen when more people arrive for the Camel races - luckily we still had quite a bit of food on board.  Another day we all headed into town for lunch at the Australia Hotel - Terry and I were keen to try the camel burgers however they had been sold out so had to settle with camel sausages!  We also caught up with Cathy and Peter Sandicock whom we had travelled with in the 4WD club in Adelaide and had a lovely lunch and catch up reliving our wonderful adventure memories.  Back in camp we had a fire lit for Happy Hour each night and enjoyed the wonderful company including Gary and his mate who would bring some wood - box bush that he'd carried from Newcastle - over and have a bit of a chat!  Such a character and a generous man as he also gave us his remaining wood supply when he left.