Here goes... onward to Idalia National Park
And so my journey to Arnhem lands continues on, relentlessly.
Having toured the dynamic town of Bollon, without any reason for doing so and with about as many memories, I backtracked along the Balonne Hwy and at about midpoint turned north for Charleville, following the Charleville-Bollon Road. This road was some bitumen and some dirt (about 50:50). The dirt was fine with some areas cut up by caravan pullers, 4 trailer road trains and the like.
A lot of mud and residual water lay everywhere. You soon learned to get off the road when the road trains came, and the bloody caravan pullers who thought that they always had right of way. Talk about a sense of entitlement!
I did not spend time in Charleville since it looked like any other outback town. From here I took the Mitchell Hwy to Auguthella, across to Tambo and eventually reached Blackall, home of the black stump… well a black stump, anyway, except that it looked like a piece of manicured tree trunk to me…
Next stop Idalia National Park. I visited Isisford along the way which is a pretty town with some dinosaur bones etc from the Cretaceous period on show in a quaint outback museum. They do a good pie, as you enter, if you are interested or hungry.
According to a website Idalia NP is a 144,000 hectare park which is about 130km west of Blackall, within Queensland’s Barcoo Region. The park protects extensive mulga woodlands, the headwaters of the Bulloo River and threatened wildlife.
There were quite a number of relatively easy walks that I went on over the few days I was here. Bullock Gorge, Emmet Pocket, Monk’s Tank, Rainbow Gorge, Junction Hole, Wave rock and the old Idalia Hoestead were all interesting in their own ways.
Murphy’s Rockhole was something and there is a true and most remarkable story I will tell you about this place.Coming next, no bullshit!!
I thought that it was a very pleasant place to be. There were only a few other campers over the 3 days I spent here.
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