21 June 2016 – 174 997
Stampeding Dinosaurs!!! Run!!
Alarm to wake us at 6am.
Heading to Lark Quarry Conservation Park this morning – 110km from
Winton, half bitumen and half dirt; unfortunately the bitumen half was having
roadwork done on the low points during the “dry” season when the recent rains
came through, the road was open only to 4WD as the high clearance was needed to
get through the detours on the road work sections.
The location was beautiful with a great mix
of soil colours with red mesa rising from the surrounding floodplains. The track way shows footprints of one theropod (horse sized meat eater) and many many coelurosaurs (chicken sized meat eaters) and ornithopods (emu sized plant eaters) who apparently stampeded away from the approaching predator. This site is the only evidence in the world of a dinosaur stampede, with more than 3000 footprints – it is pretty amazing to look at this where it actually happened!
http://www.dinosaurtrackways.com.au/
We also did a short walk around the surrounding countryside and looked up close at the spinifex – I had been looking at these beautiful green soft looking mounds as we drove out from Winton – up close these are actually quite spiny and anything but soft, despite their appearance. I tackled the drive back to Winton – this was my first experience of this type of driving; quite corrugated in some spots and very soft mud in others – our Prado has had its mud Christening.
Alarm to wake us at 6am.
Heading to Lark Quarry Conservation Park this morning – 110km from
Winton, half bitumen and half dirt; unfortunately the bitumen half was having
roadwork done on the low points during the “dry” season when the recent rains
came through, the road was open only to 4WD as the high clearance was needed to
get through the detours on the road work sections. 
The location was beautiful with a great mix
of soil colours with red mesa rising from the surrounding floodplains. The track way shows footprints of one theropod (horse sized meat eater) and many many coelurosaurs (chicken sized meat eaters) and ornithopods (emu sized plant eaters) who apparently stampeded away from the approaching predator. This site is the only evidence in the world of a dinosaur stampede, with more than 3000 footprints – it is pretty amazing to look at this where it actually happened! http://www.dinosaurtrackways.com.au/
We also did a short walk around the surrounding countryside and looked up close at the spinifex – I had been looking at these beautiful green soft looking mounds as we drove out from Winton – up close these are actually quite spiny and anything but soft, despite their appearance. I tackled the drive back to Winton – this was my first experience of this type of driving; quite corrugated in some spots and very soft mud in others – our Prado has had its mud Christening.  |
| Mesa |
 |
| Spinifex Mounds |
After lunch, we had a walk around the town centre of Winton before heading out to the Musical Fence. This is a tuned fence that can be played as a stringed musical instrument; there are also a number of “drum sets” made of a great variety of items, mainly metal, but some plastic. Hayden had a lot of fun making a lot of noise!! http://www.experiencewinton.com.au/places-to-see/-/asset_publisher/123iOYcLufeV/content/musical-fence
Unfortunately the Age of Dinosaurs Museum was still cut off due to the
recent rain – maybe tomorrow??
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