Longreach

 09/07/2012
  At last we have arrived at Longreach, where we had planned to be at the end of May. Instead, we have dealt with the most expensive toothache ever and clocked several thousand kilometres we didn’t intend, but hey…. we have seen lots more of Australia.
 Barcaldine to Longreach is just over 100K along kangaroo alley. Unfortunately all the kangaroos were dead. It is no exaggeration to say there was a corpse on or beside the road every 200m The whole trip is through open savannah and not one live kangaroo did we see. Mind you, they may have been looking for shelter as we were running into an almighty storm. We were going to free camp just outside Longreach but as we ran into this severe weather we decided discretion was the better option and sought refuge in a caravan park.
 Many others have done the same as thunder, lightning and torrential rain have made travelling and free camping very risky.
  We battened down the hatches and then spent an hour or so mopping up water which had found it’s way into the van, through window seals and air vents. Nothing serious, just an embuggerance!

 10/07/2012
 Every ones priority this morning was mopping up and drying out after 60mm of rain last night. The whole campsite is a quagmire!
 Our main reason for coming to Longreach is to visit the famous Stockmans Hall of Fame and Heritage Centre, a tribute to the outback people of Australia. It is without doubt the most interesting museum we have seen in Australia and definitely the best value for money   (we got pensioners rates  $22!)
 We spent nearly all day in this superb building learning about the early pioneers, explorers and Aboriginal stock workers. The whole thing is very well laid out on 4 levels with videos, guides and interpretive displays. We learnt some more about Campdrafting which is purely Australian, now we need to see a rodeo, Aussie style. There was a display on the flying doctor, how it began and what the service covers today, but no mention of Skippy! The whole day has been fascinating and we didn’t miss any sunshine as the weather is still bloody miserable.

 11/07/2012
  Longreach is not only famous for it’s Stockmans Hall of Fame it is also home to the Qantas Airline Museum. Qantas was founded at Winton, just up the road (180k) but moved to Longreach in 1922 which now houses the museum exhibition. We are not really into planes and stuff, sitting in one for 20 odd hours tends to take away the interest slightly, so we didn’t go to the museum. Obviously lots of people are interested, which explains one of the reasons why this caravan park is so busy.
 The van park is a bit like a transit camp with people staying  just one or two nights before moving on after doing their thing at the museums. Consequently after the deluge the other night and showers ever since the place is like a swamp.
 We spent our day looking around the town and shopping.
 We are starting to move south tomorrow.