and how lucky we were to be caught in what must be Queensland's friendliest outback town!!
After driving from
Brisbane to
Birdsville we called in on ExplorOz member - Ruth and husband, Ian who used to run the Caravan
Park there - for a chat and a coffee.
Having not seen them since our adventure into
the desert with Willem and
Milton in 2004, it was really great to catch up again with this delightful couple (and their chocolate labradors and Beautiful Berman cat).
Onwards then to
Boulia noticing storms on the skyline as we drove the broad dusty highway. We pulled up at the Australian Hotel/Motel and ordered drinks to wash away the dust, only to be told we could go no further north as the road was closed.
So we booked a motel unit for the night and on arrising the next morning were shocked to discover the
Bourke River was overflowing the bridge which we had driven across dry, the evening before. This then meant the southern route out of the town was also closed .
We checked the road to
Winton with the same result also the Donohue Highway - west from
Boulia to just north of
Alice Springs.
So for the next few days we watched as the
Bourke took the overflowing waters from the Georgina and slowly crept up the main street of the town.
Willem rang us each day to check on our progress - or lack thereof!! Thanks Willem. It was great to have mobile contact with the outside world ( not available in
Birdsville but landlines do work ok there).
We took some great photos but had to eventually accept a loan of a digital Pentax from a wonderful lady, called Jan Norton, as our batteries were flat and of course we had left the battery charger at home in
Darwin!!
The meals at the Australian were terrific and the beer cold!
The company including the owners Trevor and Ethan, Shelly the barmaid and Lee the
cook to mention just a few were great.
On our frequent walks to check the river level, the locals all smiled, chatted and made us very welcome.
The local Choice Service Station managers, Doug and Kareena, whose bowzers, fuel tanks and gas
tank were half covered with the brown rising waters kept their humour while pouring coffee and making breakfast, lunch and dinner for any diners (local only).
The road to Mt Isa became driveable by the end of the week but that was only as far as you could get. The Barkley Highway which is the main route to the NT was washed away for about 70 mtrs and has to be entirely rebuilt.
We went to pay our account at the hotel/motel and were pleasantly surprised to be told the accommodation was to be charged at half price!!! You could have knocked us over with feathers!! Thank you so much Trevor and Ethan.
So after 9 days we finally decided we had to bite the bullet and fly out - this meant flying the milk run - 5 stops then into
Brisbane 71/2 hours later. Due to intense heat off the runways and a head wind the little Sahb was quite rocking at times even while still on the runway.
A feed and a couple of hours later we flew in a Virgin jet to
Darwin arriving at 1am Wed . Great to be home.
Our neighbour has generously loaned us his spare Nissan till we can make arrangements to go back and retrieve our own Nissan at the Motel where the owners are looking after it for us.
The saga of the Griffin's Christmas Trip to Qld 2008 continues.....
George and Maureen