Day 84: Sun 31 Jul - Lake Bindegolly to Free Camp near Enngonia, 321km; total towed: 9 086km

8 (feels like 5) - 19, a bit of cloud cover this morning, something we've not seen for a long time, it's not raining (currently) so all good

It was a little warmer than it has been so easier to get up. After walks and breakfast, we were on the road at 8:15am. First stop was Eulo. We were looking forward to having coffee and muffins at the general store and café as they were both great last visit, but we missed out as it does not open on a Sunday. Not to worry, we have our own technology, so drove to some hard standing on the outskirts of town and brewed-up. Had a little wander around Eulo but we'd seen it all before less than 12 months ago. 

Onwards to Cunnamulla to see the Fella, and to resupply our fuel, water, lunch and then dump. For lunch, we visited the same café as we did last year. Wendy had the same as last year, a camel burger, but Greg decided on a big brekky as he couldn't get over the hump last time. The last time we were here, on 11 May 2022, it was the beginning of a La Nina rain event and our van park booking was not honoured so we had to hightail it back to Charleville. There is still a lot of water laying about in the paddocks and on the side of the road but that is from a more recent rain event. With all the essentials on board again we headed South out of town towards our next free camp. 

We skipped the first free camp we had planned to stop at as it was too early. It was about 2:45pm when we reached the 'Pull in Off Road with 4G' free camp about 3km South of Enngonia. Again we are on our pat malone. There is a lot of red dirt, and with rain predicted (1-2mm), maybe the majority of grey nomads decided to give it a miss and opted for hard standing somewhere. We'll just enjoy the solitude and silence.

After setup, we had a brew then Greg did his exercises & stretches whilst Wendy put the drone up again. Sometimes we are unable to put it up as there is an airstrip/airport nearby such was the case at Quilpie and many other places we've stayed. It didn't even give us the option of applying for authorisation, it just said, "take-off not possible". We didn't even try at Longreach nor Blackall.

As we had 4G, Wendy decided to upload pictures to the blog from last night and start on this one. Although we only have 2 bars we managed to load all the pics we wanted, albeit very slowly. We have noticed in our travels that many of these smaller outback towns have 5G; when we were at Longreach, Telstra reception was shocking because they were upgrading to 5G, so we we used our Optus modem. Perhaps that's why the reception at Karumba was also bad?

Dinner was left over veggies from last night, with Greg's leftover sausage and bacon (lunch) re-fried with some onion. Wendy did her veggies in the pan with the meat, whilst Greg warmed his in the microwave. Nice and simple, and tasty.  

Some more tracks, perhaps a feral cat

Wendy's Walk scenery

Lake Bindegolly

Sun trying to peek through the clouds

Paroo River at Eulo

Mornos stop

In 1968, lizard racing took centre stage in the Eulo racing calendar. 

We presume this is the champion frilly lizard named "Woodenhead"

"Kenny" - Eulo's Diprotodon, a wombat-like creature from 30 000 years ago

Drive scenery with different cloud formations

Warrego River at Cunnamulla

Cunnamulla Fella

Murals in a laneway at Cunnamulla

Club Boutique Hotel, Cunnamulla

Paroo Shire Council Civic Centre

In 2020, this clocktower was looking a tad worse for wear, great to see it has been resurrected

Drive scenery

This was a very large herd of cattle

Oh no! We are now in cockroach territory

Drone shots of us in the  'Pull in Off Road with 4G' free camp just south of Enngonia

Some of the water being dammed

Enngonia is the smudge at the top-centre 

Day 83: Sat 30 Jul - Quilpie to Lake Bindegolly Bush Camp, 226km; total towed: 8 765km

5 (feels like 1) – 24 deg C, a few clouds about, but otherwise sunny with a rather stiff ENE

Although it was not the coldest morning we have encountered on this trip, we only got out of bed just before 7am, a little sleep-in for us! Whilst Greg went for a walk, Wendy arose at a more sedate pace, had a coffee, then started the pack-up procedure. We left the free camp just before 9am only to stop again in Quilpie at the grocery store, fuel station and finally the dump point and potable water tap. Those tasks complete, we were on the road, another new one for us, about 9:40am. We really enjoyed the scenery today, so stark, but changing all the time. Some of it reminded us of the goldfields of WA.

We pulled over for mornos at a gravel pit about 30km south of Quilpie just over the Bulloo River and south of the Wikicamps listed Tarynya Hole. We were the only ones there and only one other traveller, another caravanner, passed by on the road. We followed them all the way to Toompine where they turned off. The Toompine Pub was known as a pub without a town, but now it appears to be no pub and still no town.

Onwards we travelled and instead of turning right to Thargomindah (we were there for two nights only 12 months ago), we turned left. We found the Lake Bindegolly Bush Camp, set up shop just before 1pm, had lunch then a little rest. We then went for a walk out onto the dried mud flats surrounding the lake’s edge. It was amazing to see the numbers of different footprints in the now dried mud. Some looked like elephants but were probably camel, while others looked like emu, or were they Bindegolasaurus? We had fun making up the various possibilities.  

We returned to the van to give the drone a fly, a good way to confirm that we were the only ones in the whole camping area, which is about two km long. It’s still blows us away that we can sit out here alone, in the middle of nowhere, while Wendy prepares dinner with all the modern conveniences. We enjoyed our own happy hour admiring the cloud formation that appear to be the result of a front coming over from the West. Another camper arrived just as we were sitting down to dinner.

After dinner we intended to do a bit of stargazing as the temp outside wasn’t too bad. However, there was a reason the temps were higher; cloud cover, so there goes the stargazing. Which is a real pity as there was going to be a meteorite shower happening tonight starting about 11pm. There’s another opportunity in August so we’re hoping for better luck then. 

Another fantastic day in the great Australian outdoors. Where else would you want to be?

Skips on Greg's morning walk

Mornos stop

Drive scenery

It's not lettuce, unfortunately, we could make a fortune

An old telephone line to somewhere

Elephant, but probably camel, footprints

The Three-toed dinosaur footprints, perhaps "Bindegolasaurus", but probably emu

Edge of Lake Bindegolly

Some pretty flowers

Unusual cloud formation

Us from near the Lake's edge

Drone shot 

Us on our lonesome at Bindegolly Bush Camp

Google Maps screen shot