Dirranbandi

I thought that all I would write about this place was that it was the home of famous author Robert G Barrett and his famous character Les Norton oh and the land of the croaking frog. Another nice spot by the river where the first night we had a raging campfire and Rob played Tabla by the full moon.

Well that all changed at about midnight when the rain came down hard and we awoke to find that we were well and truly stuck!! Rob said he hadn't given up hope of getting us out so with shovel, branches logs, stones and some bucket loads of gravel we managed metre by metre to inch our way out - 6 hours later we were closer to getting out but still a long way off - wet, cold, muddy and buggered. Determined and showing a steely good temperment Rob kept going. Rob was down to his undies and we had bare feet as the mud was sticking to us like glue.

Hooray the cavalry arrives - two Toyota Landcruisers arrived with some hardy local farmers who had seen us previously and as you can see by the photos and video hauled us out nicely to a hard spot near the entrance.

We decided to stay an extra night after a shattering day. Later on a little camper arrived and pulled up next to us as it was to boggy to go much further. We enjoyed a lovely evening sitting around the campfire with this couple from the mid north coast. We depleted what was left of our alcohol supplies. Thursday morning we got a early start on the road to Hebel leaving behind a trail of mud for about 2kms. We spotted our Nindigully friends stuck in a campsite at Hebel where we stopped for a couple of hours. They eventually got out as well. We ventured on then to Lightning Ridge just in time for the opal festival - a lucky treat. We are off to stay at a friends brothers opal claim and we are going to see first hand what opal mining is all about. Stay tuned to see if we can uncover a black opal or two and to hear some wild local stories............

Nindigully Fireworks

We enjoyed fireworks at Nindigully pub Saturday night - the grand occasion of a 50th birthday party - a few tall bushtales spun here - first it was 3 x 50th's - then it was two 40th's and a 50th. We're till not sure. Then it was busloads of people coming from the Gold Coast and St George but they never arrived!! ? It was a good night had by all and I think the St George Good F'n Port might of done us in so it's another day at our favourtie camp site! We saw someone eat the oversized roadtrain burger last night - it was 5 kg's had 1,080 grams of fat, 9,000 calories and took 1 1/2 hours to cook - they reckon if you can eat this on your own you get a keg of beer. A couple shared one but they didn't even get half way through it. Apparently there is a bigger one and it's 15 kg and feeds 12 people. They have 2 kg steaks here as well. We have met a lovely couple, Len and Annie from Vic. We meet up at happy hour at 4.30pm for our $2 pots and shared a camp fire or two. They arrived the same day as us and are leaving the same day too.

We love Nindigully

We stopped here on Monday and we are still here!!! This is a great camping spot on the Moonie River and the pub here is the oldest in Qld and voted the best pub in Australia. Easy to see why. Steeped with history and memorabilia it really is worth a visit. 9 people live here - 3 houses and a pub. They have fireworks New Years Eve that would put Sydney Harbour Bridge to shame. Around 1,000 people come from far and wide to celebrate. We are staying till Sunday as Saturday night 3 by 50th birthday parties are happening at this pub and they are letting loose fireworks - I figure the country people really know how to party so we decided to stay and check this out. Stay tuned for our next blog on how we partied hard at Nindigully. We will head off to Lightning Ridge on Sunday - that's if we are able tooooooo!!!!!!

By the banks of the Balonne River

We spent two lovely days at Surat on the Balonne River - a great camping site here! Lots of people fishing but we didn't see anyone catch the infamous Murray Cod!

A 10 minute walk into town where we sampled some local beer - it tastes better!!!!

Finally starting to relax - gotta love the nomad lifestyle.

Still the youngest nomads so far.

Day 3

After stopping at Helidon at the bottom of the Toowoomba range for the night we drove through to Dulacca about 55 kms west of Miles. We stayed behind this dodgy pub in the middle of nowhere, including us we increased their friday night crowd to 10 - woo hoooooo.

This morning we have driven through to Roma where we now have decent coverage to update our blog and now we are heading off to a camp site near a river 1km out of Surat.

All the nomads we have met so far are greyer than us and they love a good yarn or two.

FINALLY.........

Heading off from Alberton, Brisbane on July 15 travelling west towards Roma then south to St George and Lightning Ridge. Have work arranged for St George and Lightning Ridge areas.