Morning Came the 54th Day

 A time-table driven transit day. Bag-drag to the bus stop at 7am. New bus company 


Mt Isa to Longreach. The first section to Cloncurry, different route to the train, answered the question, why did the rail go the long way round? Because there are mountains!  Made for magnificant scenery.


The McKinnlay River. The last we saw with water in. All are just sandy river beds waiting for the next flood. From Cloncurry we turned south towards Winton. This hotel was used in the  Crocodile Dundee movie.

We stopped st another small place Kyuna. Below was a load of cattle bound for the rail at Longreach.

The road was long and straight, the country flat.

With some mesas on the horizon, Winton was close. It was very busy with tourists. Just one of the parking areas along the way.

 We had a 40min break to look around. Winton is the closest town to the dinosaur fossil  site. Lots of historic pubs, an old cinema, still operating and some attractive public art.

The most famous.  Very cute sheep.
 


 And then it was an absolutely straight line, every waterway dry. This pic describes it perfectly. Another two hours and it's 5pm and we are in Longreach. Not a long walk to our digs.  Accommodation was hard to source most of the way, this one was  one of the hardest.  Funny story here about Mary and stables...for another day. Even as we checked in, the owner took three enquiries....no room at the inn!
Easiest to take RSL option again. Interesting story here.

 As I have mentioned before, there's a million tourists out here which is good. But with no backpackers, no-one can get staff. Apparently last week the RSL was so busy, meals were taking more than an hour, due to lack of staff, and patrons becane abusive. The staff walked out. Fortunately the community came together the next day to talk about the issues. Whatever the  outcome things went smoothly last night.  The owner here says he could employ 5 people, if he could get them. Most places are serviced on request rsthet than daily due to lack of staff.
So the sun sets on the 54th day on our accommodation. We are indeed fortunate.

 


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