June 22nd

Opal nut as a miner finds it

We were told that the road north to Quilpie had been closed because of flooding from the Bulloo River. With this news in mind we walked slowly around the town and visited two of the Opal Businesses. Miners have developed skills to cut the Opal nuts found in the Yowah area and then display the cut and polished opals for sale. The finished gems are beautiful, showing iron stone, petrified wood and beautiful opal colours and patterns.

An opal nut which has been opened to show opal inside

The town is clean and orderly and cows and kangaroos seem quite at home on the streets. By the time we had driven to the town lookout and viewed the wide scene and eaten our lunch we found that the Bulloo River had receded so we were on our way travelling north towards Quilpie.

The drive was interesting with many obvious spots where water had been well over the road.
We went into the well known Toompine Hotel where the Land Rover Tour Group were all parked. The Hotel was providing them all with entertainment, food and drinks and a place to camp.

The day was becoming late and foolish young grey kangaroos persisted in 'playing chicken' with our vehicle. It seemed that they always needed to be on the other side of the road. Luckily we did not hit any of them. John spotted two Brolgas and we also saw a family of variegated wrens and several zebra finches.

We have camped on a high hard gravel rise on the side of the road about 10 km from Quilpie. This evening the lights can been seen as a glow in the sky.