Sunday April 4, 2010 - to Longreach

As we left Mt Isa the road was windy as we made our way through the hills that surround the town. There were even passing lanes as we went up the hills. Had not seen passing lanes since entering the outback. Soon the road straightened out and the speed went up to 110km/hr. We still saw lots of ant hills in places.

After we started heading south east toward Longreach the ant hills disappeared. The land became very flat with pastureland for cattle and sheep. It seemed like miles and miles of nothing then on the horizon you would see some flat top hills. Some would have sharp edges and others were rounded more. They broke up the monotony of the drive.

We went through the town of Winton where we stopped for gas. This the town know for the home of Waltzing Matilda and the birthplace of Qantas. This is also a region known for its dinosaur fossils. For a small town it sure had great claims to fame. Lots of the shops were open on this Easter Sunday. We did not know all this when we stopped for gas. That was too bad.

On our trip today we saw one live kangaroo on the road. There were lots of dead ones. I think I passed over a brown snake as it wiggled its way across the road. Later we saw 2 Emus as well. There were los of birds playing chicken on the road. They would wait until the last second to take off as the car approached. It was very annoying. We had washed a lot of the insects off the front of the car during the rain but today we picked up many more. One grasshopper got caught under the edge of the hood. Its leg waved in the wind for the whole trip.

Arriving in Longreach, we found everything closed up for Easter Sunday.