STUCK IN THE MUD and DINOSAURS

10^th June, 2015

We've headed east once more and check into the Discovery Caravan Park in Cloncurry for the night. This caravan park also has accommodation for workers at the nearby mines and a canteen which serves breakfast and evening meals. Tourists like us can also take advantage of the buffet style meals that are served so we treat ourselves to dinner that night with the workmen. The other advantage of staying at the park is that we can also use the washing machines and dryers - all provided free complete with washing powder. Anything that looked remotely like needing a wash was quickly gathered up and deposited in a washing machine. In the morning we were on the road again - fully restocked with groceries, water, gas and squeaky clean. By lunchtime we are pulling into the small country town of Julia Creek and one kilometre east of the town is a freecamp beside a billabong that is run by the local council. The water in the billabong is supplied by a local farmer from his bore. There is a volunteer host on site who registers everyone in and checks to make sure all rigs are fully self-contained. RV's are allowed to camp a maximum of four nights. We decide to stay for two nights and find a spot looking out over the water.

Our campsite at Julia Creek

All was going along nicely until the second night of our stay. Julia Creek (and surrounding areas) have been in drought conditions for over three years, so when the pitter patter of rain on the roof woke us up in the middle of the night we were pleased for the farmers and after closing a few hatches and open windows went straight back to slumberland. Around 6am we were aroused from our slumber by the revving of engines. We'll try to paint a picture for you of the camping area. There is a billabong around which a tarred road runs. Camp spots are beside the tarred road on black soil. When it rains on black soil the dirt becomes like super glue and sticks to tyres, shoes, mats, feet, hooves …. you get the idea. If you try to drive your vehicle on the rain soaked soil, the result is a build up of mud on your tyres and if you try to move you just sit still in one spot and spin your wheels. Four wheel drive is no match for rain sodden black soil. We took a peek outside. The camp area was a hive of activity. Vehicles were doing their darnedest to tow their caravans out of the mud and onto the tar. In most cases this was only a matter of a metre or two away but they weren't going anywhere fast. Luckily our camp host had a powerful ute that he towed his fifth wheeler with. He gradually worked his way around the billabong and with a snatch rope pulled any vehicles with caravans attached that wanted to leave up onto the tar. He also pulled vehicles up onto the tar that had been unhitched from their vans. There was no way that they were going to get back to their vans to hook up. We took one look at the mayhem and decided that we would stay put and wait for the ground to dry out. The estimate for drying out was approx three days. Sounded good to us and along with about six other campers we settled in to watch the grass grow and the soil to harden. The following photos are some that we took after the rain stopped. 

We're OK as long as we stay put. 
The tyre marks in the mud are from the guy camped beside us who had to be towed out.

Our jockey wheel seems to have that sinking feeling

Cars on the  tar after being dragged out of the mud

This guy solved the problem of getting to his car by spreading out his mats

A visitor during the rain was this brolga

After the fourth night of being camped the ground had dried out nicely and we planned to leave the following day. It was then that Wok noticed a slight problem with our suspension in the van. The van had been listing to port but we had mistakenly assumed it was because we had sunk in the black soil a little bit on that side. How wrong we were! The rear spring on the port side was broken. Obviously the spring had broken somewhere between Cloncurry and Julia Creek and we hadn't noticed. Did we fail to mention that the highway between these two towns (along with many of the outback Queensland roads) is a minefield of culverts and floodways! Along with bouncing all over the road you have to contend with dodging all the kangaroo roadkill. Anyway – Wok got the chance to try out his over-the-top jack that was supplied with the van

Wow!  I actually get to use this magnificent jack ... hope it works!

and crawled under to disassemble the spring

If this wrench doesn't work, I have my handy dandy tomahawk ready!

and assess the situation.

Hmmm!  Yep!  Gonna need a new spring!

Our host was sympathetic and said we could stay as long as we needed. By this time we had already stayed four nights and as it was the weekend nothing was open. Oh well – more time to enjoy the nightly happy hour and wonderful sunsets.

Sunset at Julia Creek

On Monday morning Wok moseyed into town and found a mechanic who could help. 'No problems mate. I'll order it in. It just has to come from Townsville on the transport.' Of course it does ... and Townsville is only a paltry 640 klms away. We cross our fingers and toes! Wonder of wonders - the spring arrived overnight and amazingly was the right part! By that afternoon Wok had the new spring installed and we were ready to hit the road. Our two night stopover at Julia Creek ended up being a seven night layover but we found helpful and caring country folk who are really doing it tough. Hopefully the years of drought are coming to an end and there are good seasons to come. If any of you are passing through Julia Creek – take a break and stop at the Information Centre. They have a live 'dunart' – feeding times are 10am and 3pm!

It feels good to be on the road again and as we near the town of Richmond there are lots of signs about dinosaurs. Yes – we are in dinosaur country again! The information centre/museum in Richmond was pretty easy to find. One could hardly miss the reproduction of a Kronosaurus out front

My!  What a big mouth you have Mr Kronosaurus!

and the plaque informs us that the skeleton discovered in 1926 was snaffled up by our American friends and is now on display at Harvard University.

In 1989 a station owner was searching for fossils along a creek bed and discovered what proved to be the complete skeleton of a Kronosaurus. So we now have our own Kronosaurus to show off and it is on display at the museum in Richmond.

Kronosaurus skeleton on display at Richmond

There are lots of fossils on exhibit at the museum and we really liked this little guy called Minmi.

Minmi - Richmond Museum

Minmi was a herbivore and grew to the size of a large wombat.

Minmi possibly looked like this - isn't he cute?

The museum was very interesting with lots of fossils on exhibit and a working archaeological laboratory where you can see the fossils being prepared for display.

Don't look now Wok but there is a plesiosaur eyeing you off!  Luckily he is not a carnivore.

Really, really, really large ammonites!

We spent quite some time wandering around the displays and it was afternoon by the time we got away. Two days later we arrived in Longreach where we grocery shopped and topped up with fuel. Then it was on to the caravan park at Ilfracombe (about 25 klms east of Longreach) where we did our washing and filled up our tanks with water before heading south to Oma Waterhole for some rest and relaxation. We're not sure if 'fishing' comes under the heading of rest and relaxation but Wok was really pleased when he caught this eel-tailed catfish. Yummmm! These are really nice tasting fish.

Who's a pretty fish then  ....  ?

Guess a couple of weeks here won't be too hard to take …..