05.08.07

BOULIA

Nothing but clear blue skies, left Birdsville about 1030 after washing the van at the bore( yes I conceded, mind you after following the water tanker at road works later in the day it was just the same). Di used phone box to ring home and said “I will walk down to meet you”. Well I finished and drove back and filled with petrol (145 cents) and she was still talking to some folk at the phone booth. Turned out to be Peter Obrien from Kyancutta and his wife. They had friends with them who turned out to be the parents of the James boys who played for Port and the Crows. (Crows beat Power last night; I was able to pick up 5AA).

The road to Bedourie was interspersed with patches of bitumen but the dirt was not too good. Stopped at Cutta Burra Crossing which has permanent water and lots of bird life. Took photos of Zebra finches nesting.( found out later that still shots did not work real well but have some good movie footage. Met a couple there from Warnambool who made us a cuppa, they were travelling in a Nissan Ute with a Rosewarne camper, these are very good and lots of them. Stopped at the ruins of Cacory Homestead which was the first property Sidney Kidman bought, after losing 4000 head of cattle to drought it was abandoned in the early 1900’s.

Stopped for a short while at Bedourie and went on to Boulia arriving at 1700.

Used the Camp 4 book and found a nice spot on the edge of the Burke River where we stayed for the night. Got a fire going and cooked toast.

There is not a lot of wild life to be seen but saw our first brolga’s south of Bedourie with about two hundred on the plains around a dam. Saw three emu’s and lots of budgies flying very fast as if they are in a hurry to get somewhere.