Total pages read in May were 540. This includes the two books I’d lined up to read on holidays: How to Think, and Breaking Bread with the Dead - both by Alan Jacobs. I also started E.M Forster’s Howards End. I got about a quarter of the way through it in May and (spoiler alert!) finished it in June.
Day 19 was the last day of photographs on our holiday. Day 20 was spent travelling home. Day 19 saw us visiting the Warrumbungles again after previously visiting two years earlier. Our day began earlier than expected because it was freezing (literally) outside. We went for a walk around 7:30am to warm up! Later that morning we did a few short walks in the national park. Many of the sights in the park are simply awesome.
Day 18, the third last day of our holiday, involved a drive from Lightning Ridge, through Walgett, Coonamble and Barradine to Coonabarabran. Emu somewhere south of Lightning Ridge Coonamble I think they forgot an air conditioner Driving east towards Barradine Neilson Park, Coonabarabran
Day 17 was a ‘recovery day’ spent in and around Lightning Ridge after our 700km drive to get here. It’s an interesting place - eclectic; dusty but attractive; reputedly one of the poorest towns in NSW; beautiful and clear light. It seems that places with such clear light attract many artists. It is the same with Broken Hill. Plenty of tragedy and hard, physical work and plenty of artists as well.
Day 16 was a long driving day - a little over 700km. It should have been less than 600km but our GPS suggested a route that involved 170km of dirt - which we only discovered after driving the first 50km on tar. Anyway, the drive from Charleville to Lightning Ridge took us past/over the Angellala Creek Bridge which was the scene of Australia’s largest transport explosion when, in 2014, a truck carrying 50 tonnes of ammonium nitrate caught fire, crashed and exploded.
Day 15 involved a drive from Blackall to Charleville. Much of the road is flat and straight with varying forms of sparse landscape. A cup of coffee in Tambo and a couple of stops along the way saw us arrive in Charleville before lunch. After lunch we walked the Warrego River Walk which was only a kilometre or two long. Plenty of stops along the way to check out the river and bird life.
Day 14 saw us leave Winton for Blackall. After lunch in Pioneer Park we sought out the Black Stump and walked part of the Blackall bird nature walk in the afternoon. The Black Stump was a major survey point for western Queensland in the 1800s. Anything west of that point was ‘beyond the black stump’. Statue of Lieutenant Edgar Towner VC. Reenlisted for WWII and was promoted to Major. Edgar's sister, Greta Towner, WWI nurse The Black Stump (replica!
Day 13 was spent around Winton. The morning involved driving the ‘Route of the River Gum’ in Bladensburg National Park. The national park was formerly the Bladensburg cattle station. It was an amazing place - apparently desolate on the surface yet plenty of life when you pause and look and listen. The afternoon saw us visit two waterholes south of Winton: Long Waterhole to the south east and Pelican Waterhole to the south west.
Day 12 began 95 million years ago (or something like that) with our visit to the Age of Dinosaurs outside of Winton. Our visit comprised three components: A guided tour of the fossil preparation laboratory; a tour of the collection room and a couple of videos about the history of the discovery of dinosaur fossils; and a tour of the March of the Titanosaurs trackway exhibition and walk through Dinosaur Canyon.
On day 11 we drove from Longreach to Winton. It’s roughly 180km and there is little human habitation between the two. Winton Banjo Patterson wrote the words to 'Waltzing Matilda' on a property near Winton. rams ewes nice bin cutouts nice 'footprint' groovy chairs!