The Great Outback Bike Ride

So here we are in Bourke, having just completed Stage 4 of the Great Outback Bike Ride! The last week has gone quickly, but it seems we've packed a lot in and been to some interesting places. The temperature has been dropping, and dropping... the frost on the ground this morning (and on tents, swags and the table!) confirmed what we all knew - it was a cooooold night!

Leaving Quilpie on the Queens Birthday public holiday, we headed for the pub. That is, the pub with no town! Toompine was a former Cobb & Co staging point, and was quite a busy hub in its day! Now, it's population 2, as well as camels, goats, sheep, llamas, a pig, pups and a cocky! We ate a fantastic meal in the pub, and slept 'school camp' style, swagging it on the floor in the big hall next to the pub. Toompine was also the location for our inaugral outback golf challenge, playing on the recently made golf course - the greens are more like reds, and there's not much (any?) grass around!

From Toompine, it was a pretty long day on the bikes to Yowah. It was late in the afternoon when we arrived there, and cooling down quickly. It was a great surprise to find the artesian baths, in open-air bathrooms! The sky spread out above as you lay soaking in a soothing hot artesian bath... bliss! A bath and the roaring fire made it a cosy night, although chilly! There was no pub in Yowah, which was the original opal mining town, but the next night at Eulo made up for this fact.

Camping behind the Eulo Queen Hotel was luxurious - luscious green grass and majestic trees! The town of Eulo has a few interesting characteristics making it unique... there's a date winery, just out of town are the mud baths (but they didn't look very inviting when we were there!) and the town used to hold the World Lizard Racing Championships! We had a great night in the pub with the publican, Ken, dishing out a couple of great stories about the hey-day of the lizard races, and the tragic and untimely death of the champion racing cockroach, Destructo, from Sydney.

From Eulo, we headed on to Cunnamulla, where we were greeted by Mike who runs the Outback Masters Games every second year. Cunnamulla is on the Warrego River, and the town is known for the 'Cunnamulla Fella' who sits on his swag in the middle of town.

This was our last night in Queensland... From Cunnamulla, it was time to cross the border, but only just! Barringun is a border town and used to have the gates for passing traffic and stock. These days, there's the brightly decorated Bush Tucker Inn, and across the road the Tattersalls Hotel, with Australia's oldest publican, Mary Crawley, who is 84 years of age and sharp as a tack! We had a great night chatting to Mary (and her son Paddy) and spending time in the 1870's building.

After a long day's ride to Barringun, it was a quick spin down the road to Enngonia, population 90-100. Still a tiny town, but a little bigger than up the road! We had a fantastic night here at the pub with Pam, the publican, and then later a bit of a pool match between our guys and a couple of local shearers! The funny thing about outback pubs is that the locals will always jump in and help out if something needs doing. If someone's waiting to buy a drink and the publican's busy, then there's bound to be a local who jumps behind the counter and pulls a beer for you. Here, the phone rang and one of the shearers, Sarge, reached over to pick it up. Except that it was his wife calling, wondering if he was at the pub... couldn't talk his way out of that one, now, could he!

We've just had dinner and have been entertained by a bush poet and yarn spinner, and tomorrow we'll have a look around Bourke and get things ready for the final leg of this trip and we head on towards Griffith...

If the previous stage was the stage of entertainment, then this was the 'friendly' stage. Lots of people to talk to about lots of things, particularly people in the pubs and camping grounds.

From Longreach, it was a hop, skip and a jump across to Ilfracombe, a tiny little town between Longreach and Barcaldine. It's not that far from the 'city', but definitely has it's own friendly town atmosphere and town pride. On entering Ilfracombe, we cycled along the outdoor museum - the 'machinery mile' - with vehicles and machinery from eras long past. The Wellshot Hotel was a great little spot to spend the afternoon, and the historic Langenbaker House was interesting and well worth a visit. The caravan park here was one of the most friendly, with a rampaging happy hour where little old men and women pulled out some of the dirtiest jokes you'd hear...

From Ilfracombe, we scooted across to Isisford, which lies on the banks of the Barcoo River, where we camped amongst the trees and grass (and motorhomes!). A highlight here certainly was the Clancy's Overflow Hotel, where we were entertained by publican Margaret and 8-year-old Rebecca, whom the guys had heard on the School of the Air in Longreach the previous day! With a stool to reach the till and the counter, Rebecca pulled a mean beer and certainly didn't take any nonsense from anyone - made for an entertaining evening! Throw into the mix a little joey (called Jenny) slung in a calico pouch and later hopped around in search of her bottle, and a menagerie of baby budgies and other creatures!

Russleigh Station was a memorable stay. We were warmly welcomed by Jo and Buster (who I think were a little puzzled at what these blokes called a 'holiday'!). In the afternoon, the weather started to change and the clouds rolled in... then the rain began. We were nervously anticipating whether or not the bus would need to be moved (as we were camped by the creek) but the rain only turned out to be a shower. Being on the station made us realise how precious the rain is, and how much the farmers are at the mercy of the weather... stuff you always hear, but always brings it home to see it again first hand. Buster had some intruiging stories about the Over the Horizon top secret radar detector down the road at Stonehenge...

But when we got to Stonehenge, there was not indication whatsoever that there was a highly secret radar surveillance around town! You would never have guessed that just out of town is a compound which requires ASIO check to enter, with millions of dollars of computers and temperature controlled bunkers and radars and towers... Stonehenge is a tiny little town, with a very friendly pub who put on a great meal for us that night.

From Stonehenge down to Jundah, another friendly town with another friendly pub! And then Windorah, which was - you guessed it - a friendly town with a pretty cosy pub. Windorah is supposedly QLD's wealthiest postcode, according to census analysis data. You'd never guess by looking at the town, as it's a quiet little outback town.

Some spectacular bush camps followed, along with the onset of winter... And now we're in Quilpie, a big town by our standards! Ready to leave tomorrow to set out for Stage 4: Quilpie to Bourke.

With some new riders on board, it looks like the next stage will be a blast! in a week we'll be over the border...

This has been the stage of entertainment! Almost every night has been something different. In Hughenden, it was the country singing postie who entertained us at the caravan park along with putting on a bit of a barbie. In Stamford, we were joined for dinner by the local school principal for a lovely evening. In Winton, we were treated to one of the top bush poets and yarnspinners, and there was another bush poet in Longreach.

Leaving Hughenden, we headed down the track for a little place called Stamford. We knew there was a roadhouse there but that was about all. It's not often that you meet the entire population of a town, but we did (two or three times over!), it's not that hard when there's only 4 people living there. Plus 3 dogs! There is a tiny school of 11 students from surrounding stations, and the principal was a young woman, Kate, who came to join us for tea that night. A little tiny place with a lot of character!

Next night was Corfield, and we weren't sure whether the pub would open or not after rumours of their irregular trading hours (i.e. when they felt like opening, they opened). We were in luck though, as we arrived at lunchtime on Sunday and the pub was opening 5pm-9pm. Camping was in a yard next door alongside the tennis court. That was about all there was to Corfield, beside the racecourse - which is the town's big event each year with a prizemoney of $47,000.

Winton (or 'Winin') is home to the musical fence and the Matilda Centre. It's a cosy little town, with a couple of nice pubs and a great atmosphere. We were treated to hear bush poet Milton Taylor, one of the best, as he entertained a full house at the caravan park that night. He really put on a show and had everyone in stitches. We had a great lunch at the Tattersalls Hotel and a look around the Matilda Centre which had lots of interesting displays and collections.

From Winton, we had planned to take 2 days to get to Longreach. It was going to be a pretty long day, just over 100km to get to our camping spot at Morella, which used to be a rail siding. Getting there in the heat of the afternoon, however, with the sun scorching down and very little shade, we decided to chuck the bikes (and riders!) in the bus and head into Longreach a day early.

Longreach is a town pretty geared up for tourists, and there were countless campervans (besides all the hundreds of Winnebagos we'd seen the previous few days!) around the town. Longreach is home to the Qantas museum (being its birthplace), and also the Stockman's Hall of Fame. We had plenty of time to look around and check out the shops, a few of the guys visited the Barber, and we had a meal in the RSL one night.

We've just started Stage 3 of the ride, from Longreach to Quilpie, and have been to Ilfracombe and Isisford, and will spend tonight at Russleigh Station. We'll give a bit more of an update of Stage 3 when we get to Quilpie, so in the meantime, stay tuned...