We stayed in Surat for one complete day, just so we could have a look around. It was Sunday so not much open, not that there was a lot around anyway. This is a town that has seen busier days, after saying that we found the locals friendly and helpful, the town clean and tidy.
Below are some pictures from an antique car museum, at Glenmorgan, called Montys Garage. It’s right on the main road so you can’t miss it. Unfortunately, it’s closed as it appears the original owner has died, and the estate is in dispute. This is what we heard from a Surat local.
We also decided to drive back to Myall Park Botanical Gardens which we passed yesterday on our way to Surat. Now when you say Botanical Gardens, I think flowers, bees, birds, lots of color. Well this place is not like that. It’s all about trees, Australian trees. With only one volunteer on site, he’s done an excellent job considering how big the place is. You don’t walk around the gardens here, you drive around. Catherine & I don’t really know much about tree species, we found this place to be of limited appeal.
One idea to keep in mind is that you can stay there overnight or longer, they have cabins, camping facilities at a very reasonable cost.
On our way out of the Botanical Gardens we came across a water hole/dam, which to us looked more promising than the Botanical Gardens themselves. Lush and green with wildlife.
Back to our campsite in Surat, Fisherman’s Park. where we enjoyed a nice sunset with a few beers.
Tomorrow onto Carnarvon Gorge.
P.S Sorry for the photos being out of order. I tried to do this on the road, but with an unreliable internet connection it proved to be next to impossible.
With a 5 hour drive ahead if us, we set off from Brisbane at 8.30am, hoping to get to our destination by 2pm Google says allow about 5 hours for the drive. As is usual for us, a few stops along the way happened, with some pleasant surprises.
Our first pit stop was at Toowoomba, where we stretched our legs and swapped driving duties.
Second pit stop was at Tara where we purchased gas and toilet stop in some dodgy old falling apart loos. Swapped drivers where our next stop was Glenmorgan where there was an old car museum. We later found out that the owner had died a year earlier and the family is fighting over the estate. Apparently the museum has been closed for a year, but since it is on the side of the road you can just walk though it.
We then drove past a Botanical garden sign, and since we where running behind time, we pushed on to Surat. We planned on going back the next day to have a look. How can a Botanical garden exist in a place with next to no water? We were curious..
After that we saw some Emu’s on the side of the road, stopped to take some pics, not the easies as the are very shy.
we managed to get to Surat at about 3.30pm, time enough to set up and have a beer or two.
If you have been wondering why nothing has been getting posted here, it’s because of our highly anticipated holiday, 5 weeks in the great Australian outback.
I will make this a multi-part series of our trip, this being part 1.
4AM, Brisbane, getting ready to go.
Day 1
Since we only had 3 days to get to the Big Red Bash the first day was a very early start. The general advice here in Australia is don’t drive at dusk or dawn since there can be Kangaroos, cattle etc wandering around on the roads, especially in the outback. We risked leaving Brisbane at this time as we needed to get to Charleville before dark on day 1, a massive 750Km. I figured the roads should be good condition, and being in a more urban environment we should be ok with the animals. Estimated about 8 hours should do it, plus rest stops.
We got to Charleville just before dark, set up camp then into town for a meal and to have a look around.
Day 2
Early morning rise, quick breaky, and hit the road to Windorah. We certainly weren’t the only ones heading to Birdsville, plenty of caravans, 4wd’s, campers going in the same direction. This became more evident when we got to Windorah where we had to queue up for petrol. Lucky for us, we managed to get into the campsite just before it got filled up.
It is here that we could definitely say we are in the outback of Australia. Off to the local pub for a meal and some beers, the meal was good but $10 a can was a bit steep, so that’s where that idea ended. BYO at the campsite.
Day 3
Our campsite day 3, very cold in the morning
From here it was on to Birdsville, according to Google this could be done in 1 day, about 420Km. As it is also the longest stretch of gravel road we will be driving on, we’re not too sure what to expect.
We also wanted to have a look at the Beetoota hotel, Australia’s most remote pub, but they have been having licensing issues with the local council so we were not sure if they were going to be open, and also what facilities are there for campers. Turned out all was fine, good facilities, they were open and to boot they had a communal BBQ/fire pit, bring your meat and they will cook it for you, also the beers were $5 a can, unbelievable considering how remote the place is. So we stayed the night, lots of people around, great night.
To keep up to date with what’s happening with the hotel have a look at their Facebook page.
Day 4
On to Birdsville, then the Big Red Bash. From Betoota it was only about 200Km of dirt road, so not too long. We were also getting used to driving on gravel roads, our technique was to keep the speed to around 80Kph, let the tyre pressures down about 10 – 15 %, and try to avoid the occasional big rocks that just happens to be in the middle of the road. You had to keep the speed up, otherwise, the corrugations in the road would shake the car to pieces.
We had to get fuel in Birdsville, lucky our car is petrol, no queue, while the diesel boys were out of luck, big queues and the town ran out. Got our tickets to BRB, then onto BRB itself, we managed to get there and set up camp by 3 pm. Time to relax and have another beer, or two. BYO this time.
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It was great to get this far with no mishaps, and we had a great time. The Big Red Bash was a great experience, well organised, friendly people. Even though there was a lot of people around it did not feel crowded, the campsites had plenty of space around them.
I was lucky to get this one. It was very early in the morning, hence the high iso. If I had more time I could have played around with shutter speed and the iso, but birds generally don’t sit around for long.
A bit of a birding walk for me on Sunday morning. It was turning into an uneventful day until I came across these birds. I have been after them for some time and luck would have it that they were sitting in a perfect place for the morning sun.
