Day 1 sees us travel along the Warrego to Jackson for coffee at the old school hut. By chance the Jackson CWA are celebrating Scone Day and we are invited in for scones and coffee. Given the local population is small it’s no surprise that Marg gets to meet old neighbours and cousins. It’s fortuitous that we meet on the same day that they celebrate Marg’s mums 40 years in CWA along with other local women. Currawongs are calling at the front door of the hall, we call them holiday birds, it’s the first time we’ve seen them at Jackson.
Onto Mitchell, we set up camp at the Caravan Park and have dinner at the Berkeley Lodge Bar and Bistro. Huge meal, typical of country towns. It’s a cool night but a fire at the campsite is welcoming then to bed.
We leave Mitchell and travel to Tregole National Park, home of the largest stand of Ooline trees, remnants of a cooler and wetter past, a rainforest species that survives in this now far drier climate.
We head back into Morven and have hot muffins out of our travel buddy oven on the banks of a small billabong. It’s a little luxury that fits into our canopy and powered by 12 volts. The red winged parrots, little friar birds and smaller honeyeaters are great to see.
From Morven we head north. A lot of land clearing has occurred along this stretch which has destroyed many hectares of woodlands, perhaps increased the grassland but likely destroyed a great deal more native habitat home for many species. We stop for lunch at Tambo. Small wetland near the Barcoo River, plenty of water birds. Nesting swan, pelicans, little black and pied cormorants. North of Tambo we pass great expanses of ptilotus sp, likely leucocoma a very pretty mauve coloured flower, it’s a conical shaped fluffy looking ball.
We make camp at Lara Station near a wetland. There are many Caravaners here but it’s quiet and it has great facilities.. Plenty of birds day and night, heard many frogmouths and occasional boobook owl. A swim in the thermal pool is wonderful . As always there are interesting travellers to chat to and learn from. We test our new Snow Peak fire pit, it works well.
