8/9/31 Meeting Metal Men: Ilfracombe to Cloncurry.

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I must say it was very nice to start the day with no ice on the tent and no need to don a puffer jacket. Maybe that contributed to our earliest getaway yet: 0800!

Although this is a travelling trip and the aim is to cross State borders as quickly as possible, we haven't been able to stop ourselves from checking out each tiny town and exclaiming over what has (and hasn't) changed in the last 25 years. So here we go: come for a trip up the highway with us.

In no time at all we were in Longreach and meeting our first metal man outside the Stockman's Hall of Fame. We met like this a long time ago. He didn't remember me.

Across the road from the Stockman was the 747 in the QANTAS museum. We hung on the fence and dreamed of having the time to spend a day there.

Right up the road from Longreach was Winton, which has taken ownership of the Waltzing Matilda theme, which runs up and down the entire main street.

Metal man in epic pioneering pose, with mimic.


 
 
And here we met the second metal man, who was very jolly.

But he caught someone else's sheep, got found out, jumped in a waterhole, and drowned. Jolly silly metal man.
 

The next metal man was exploring in McKinlay. Roger gave him a hand.



McKinlay also claims the dubious honour of having the smallest library in Queensland. It was closed, so we couldn't go in and count the books.


From there it was a short zip up the highway to Cloncurry, where we indulged in a nostalgic wander around town.

Home for the night: Oasis Caravan Park, Cloncurry.


Before we went to bed we checked all the border conditions and made sure our passes were schmick before fronting up to the NT border tomorrow.


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