We were last to leave the camp and made our way up to Eulo, where we did some food shopping. John and I enjoyed our lunch on the banks of the Paroo River.
John Yeo and Ilonna have now joined us. The other 4 members of our party had left our camp early and followed another road to Yowah where we met late in the afternoon. We found a camp site out of the township in rough bush country. It has been a good day, but everyone is weary this evening.
What great day we have enjoyed with a variety of things happening during the day. Prior to lunch we called in at the Nocoleche Nature Reserve on the Paroo River. We walked into the river through the bush where we could easily see many, many pelicans. They were on the river ‘sailing’ along, then feeding as they swam and then spectacularly, they flew or soared together high in the sky. There must have been 200 or 300 of these magnificent birds. There were a few black cormorants and herons amongst them as well. I had never seen so many pelicans together. By now it was nearly lunch time, so we set off to find a spot to eat along the road north.
After visiting Wanaaring, we headed north to Hungerford Hill where we have found a very suitable campsite in the bush near the Currawinya National Park. Late in the day we crossed the border into Queensland. We are near a lake which will hopefully provide some water to wash clothes tomorrow. We plan to have several days here. The countryside is very different from what we have in NE Victoria. The country here has some low hills, but mainly it is flat There are Yapunyip trees, Eucalypt trees and acacias which can also be called Mulgas. The second day at this camp site was actually a ‘lay’ day which meant we attended to jobs about camp, our caravan and truck. During the afternoon while we were sitting outside our van a rather plump bird came to visit. I stated that it was a night heron, which proved to be correct. In fact it was probably a juvenile. It came very close to us and wandered around the camp…remarkably tame but not interested in a crumb of bread to eat.
Late in the day John and I went for a drive to the Granites which are very large boulders. We walked a short distance to them and walked around them. They are large and somewhat dangerous to walk on. There are quite a number of wild flowers in bloom throughout the bush areas
The day has been much cooler and windy. It was good to come down from the rocky mountainous spot we had camped on. Our first call was in White Cliffs to buy some food stuffs. There was very little available so we will need to be frugal until the next food shop. While in White Cliffs we visited an Opal Mining Establishment. The owner was knowledgeable about opals so we learnt quite a lot from his display. The opal that I have, was found at Lightening Ridge. It is different from the White Cliff Opals. Both the markings and colours are different. He was very confident that it had come from Lightening Ridge as I have always believed. We lunched along the way and continued on to a spot north of Paroo National Park. We enjoyed a short walk north of Peery Lake. We travelled a little further on and camped at a spot called ‘White Tank’. The evening is cool and we will certainly be eating and cooking inside.
