Winton to ‘Halfway to Boulia’

We left buying our meat until the morning we left Winton. The butchers opened at 7:30am & we were there at 8, much to the dismay of the butcher who had clearly already planned his morning, & we his customers had the gall to disrupt his plans. He asked if we might come back for our order in a few hours time. “Sorry” says we, “We’re leaving town directly”. He clearly wanted to help but was equally clearly anxious about his plans being disrupted. Catch 22. Customer service won out but it was a battle for him all the way. He was trying to rush & in so doing creating ever more hold ups for himself & becoming ever more anxious. By the time we left with cryovaced order we were exhausted too. We did feel a little sorry for him, but bill-shock helped to relieve any guilt we felt about this. Steak which 2 weeks earlier had cost $24.99 a kilo in Blackall was $32.99 a kilo here, plus an extra dollar for every one of the 10 cryovac bags (previous butchers have not charged extra for these). Overall the cost for our fortnight’s worth of meat was almost 25% higher than previous outback butchers! Veggies from the green grocer were priced similarly, (although were far better kept & with greater selection than we have become accustomed to). Freight costs west of Blackall must rise dramatically, either that or advantage was being taken of the passing Birdsville race crowds.

Going west from Winton is the Kennedy Developmental road. Approximately 300kms to Boulia with the only town along the way being Middleton. Town is rather an overstatement. It consists of the old Middleton hotel run by Lester (“Yehmmate”) & his wife, supported by their helicopter musterer son. It is possibly the most remote hotel in Queensland where customers must travel at least 150kms from any direction to get a cold beer. We met Lester & his son several years ago when passing through, (but unsurprisingly he didn’t remember us!) 🙂 The place hadn’t changed. Lester is a real outback character, a former drover, who’s language initially seems restricted to “Yehmmate” said in a hard to reproduce laconic manner, & with the ability for it to mean just about anything you can imagine. He listens well though, & if you are respectful he’ll share a little more of himself. If you are more than a bitumen road tourist, & have reached his pub via more remote routes this seems to garner respect & a fuller conversation occurs. This is when you know he listened to what had previously been said, particularly when the detailed directions to where we wanted to go were forthcoming. Some days later we met other campers who confirmed that once Lester knew thet had travelled down an old stock route from Kynuna he became quite animated . Anyway he put us on to what we wanted, an ‘unofficial’ camp spot in the Lillyvale Hills, a short distance from the better known Cawnpore lookout, as well as directions to the Old Cork homestead & on to the Diamantina National Park.

The road from Winton is a mainly single lane bitumen affair, with occasional wider parts to allow for overtaking. The ’spin merchants’ at Queensland roads seemed to have taken lessons in positive re-framing. Rather than signs advising of narrow road ahead, there were signs at the point where the road narrowed advising, for example, ‘Overtaking Opportunity in 29kms ahead’. We rather liked that.
Mirages & shimmering horizons combined to confound us as to what lay ahead. We played guessing games – What was on the road ahead, a car, a caravan, a motorhome, a tree, a bush, a roadtrain, a cow ……….. or what? We saw all of these but the distance to the horizon often had us guessing for a while. Sometimes it appeared that the road & sky were merging & that we were driving off the edge of the world.

When guessing games had had their time, we attempted poetry……. well that’s a bit too grand – rhymes are probably more accurate. Here’s an example of our low brow travelling culture. (Feel free to applaud at the end). 🙂

“Seventy kay an hour
Is very very fast,
Excepting when it’s slow.
And you want to make it last.

No matter what, you’ll get there,
The same as all the rest,
But will have seen the country
At it’s very best.

There were others, but you’ll probably appreciate us not sharing them with you.

The Cawnpore lookout is a lookout with plenty of ‘Wow factor’, well known amongst the grey nomad travellers. ………… Well the camp not far away & hidden from the road is better. Most will stop to take photos & to appreciate the beauty of the Lillyvale hills before continuing on to Boulia or Winton, but to be able to call those hills home for the night & to wake to the view of the sun rising across the mesas added an extra ‘wow’ to stunning. Judge for yourselves in the photos………… how lucky were we?