Winton

Dana and an inquisitive friendly visitor

 We arrived in Winton on Monday and it was 28 degrees,  we free camped in the carpark of the Winton Hotel - Jo the landlady, was very generous in allowing us to do so and we had free access to showers and toilets.  We spent a very pleasant evening with her, her husband Kevin and staff having a meal there.

Our outlook was over farmland as you can see and the neighbours were pretty friendly as well.  The dogs are certainly geting some experiences and seem to be settling into their side well - as it is now hot and dusty there is no water for swimming. We had a 250km drive to Winton along a very straight boring road and the only interruptions was the constant roadkill - every few metres was a 'roo carcas or a fresh one - rather depressing really.

Misty and Jake with their friends

Footprints in the street

We are also still in the heart of dinosaur country and they have a novel way of keeping their bins in one place, most businesses have these bin covers and their are huge footprints all over.  It is also the home of Banjo Patterson and Australia's best export - Waltzing Matilda.

Banjo Patterson and the words to Waltzing matilda.

The Matilda Centre is a wonderful museum a testament to a song and its writer.Not only that it is a testament to life in the Winton Shire from the pioneers, especially the women who worked trying to keep the stations going and raise a family often of 7-10 children - and we moan today.....

There are also many other things to look at including Arno's wall which was built by Arno, a German immigrant and instead of having a museum he has put everything into concrete in a long wall arund his old house - a hoarder, I think.  There is literally everything from machinery, toilets, kitchen sinks, old motor bikes, you think of it is there.

Tuesday evening we went to the caravan park and listened to two lady bush poets, 'friends' they were but boy were they good, theyn told bush stories, sang songs and recited poetry, some of which was very risque,  but we 'g.n's' loved it - a laugh a minute.

So Weds morning we bade farewell to Jo and her team from the Winton and headed 184kms s/west to Longreach.