Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Exploring Quilpie (Natural Sciences Loop)


Tuesday 5 April 2016 – 167 304 - 39°C

This morning Drew taught Hayden how to siphon.  We then packed up and said farewell to Evening Star – a great caravan park!  Craig drew us a map of a shortcut from Evening Star to the Quilpie Road and suggestions of things to do in Quilpie.  

Our first stop in Quilpie was the local Visitor Information Centre.  They had lovely picnic tables inlaid with images made from cut opal, they also provided good brochures on the local trees and birds.  Hayden voted at a local photo competition and we had a look through the military museum.  In the street, there were several cattle silhouettes and some great 3D corrugated iron animal sculptures at the visitor centre.  

We are staying at the Channel Country Tourist Park – we all coped surprisingly well with the heat of setting up in the middle of the day. http://www.channelcountrytouristpark.com/ After lunch, we set off to see the sights of Quilpie!  



Stop one, St Finbarr’s Catholic Church – this has a beautiful altar, lectern and baptismal font all made of opal – absolutely gorgeous!  



Stop two, Quilpie Airport – there was a large information panel on Amy Johnson’s unscheduled landing at Quilpie.  She was scheduled to land at Charleville, which on her map was shown as the end of the railway line, however the railway line did in fact continue through to Quilpie.  


Stop three, Baldy Top – this was hot, steep and had truly millions of flies; however, the distance we could see was amazing.  

Stop four, Quilpie Council Fossicking Fields – we found some pretty and interesting rocks with slivers of opal within them.  After thirty minutes, we could not stand the flies any longer and left.  

Stop five, Lake Houdraman – this was a beautiful, peaceful and isolated camping spot.  

Drew and Hayden then went for a swim at the local pool, which surprisingly had free entry.  After dinner, we had a soak in the Artesian Spa in the caravan park.  This was very relaxing, looking up at the amazing number of stars and my body felt much better for it.


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