April 16th: We decided to walk the 5km Acacia Ridge trail, albeit at the hottest time of the day! Doug the licensee at Arkaroola Village took us to the start of the trail in our Prado, driving it back to the village for us whilst we took to the ridge and walked back to the village. The walk was uphill with a gentle gradient till we reached the ridge top with spectacular views from the top! It took us about 2 1/4 hours and it was plenty long enough for us! We were revived with a tonic and bitters at the village and are spending a quiet afternoon in the van with windows open and fan going. We will have Barramundi and Chips at the Village tonight and head to Farina tomorrow night followed by 2 nights at Coward Springs over Easter.
24th June 2026: had a relaxing start to the day then decided to go on the afternoon tour of Fairview Station in a large bus-like 4 WD, led by a guy who has a good driver but didn’t seem to know a whole lot about the place. There were only 4 of us on the tour, and I volunteered to open the gates we had to go through. This involved getting out and into the vehicle without an extra stepping stool and opening a variety of fastenings on a number of gates , only one being a padlock! Fortunately I could do it! The Station is 1,000,000 acres and home to 10,000 to 20,000 cattle Brahmans and a type of Red beef breed. At each muster, the cattle are first spotted by helicopter. They are never able to round up more than 70% of the herd at one time. They don’t use cattle dogs because they bite the cattle’s leg or nibble their ear and then that particular animal can’t be sold once it has bite masks. The cattle mainly go to cattle sales in Mareeba, with a few sold locally. We didn’t see much wild...




Hi Suzanne and Nic Read with considerable interest of your early travel days. Glad you saw emus crossing the highway. We saw a flock? off to the side of the highway after Hay but just the once. Loved the photos and especially those of the Acacia trail but wondered if you should have gone out in the heat of the day. Your photos capture the dry vast Australian landscapes. Great to hear you are both travelling well and with all the extra precautions such as new chains. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteThanks Geoff. We’ve reached Curtin Springs, around 100km from Uluru as I write. Seen some more emus, which I have skilfully avoided of course. The outback is never boring to me and much more heavily wooded with hardy coolabahs, acacias and lots more. Seen a few little eagles though bird life less than I expected. I suspect many have gone to where the action is, among the floodwaters descending towards Lake Eyre from Queensland.
DeleteWonderful photos Suzanne and Nic.
ReplyDelete