Now that the weather is cooler we took the opportunity to head west into outback Australia. Winton is about 15 hours drive north/west from Brisbane. We decided to break the trip into three days, travelling via Roma day 1, then Tambo day 2. As usual, we set up the tent and got out our bikes.
Our camp site for the next 5 nights at Matilda Country Tourist Park, Winton, shared with a dinosaur head ?!?
The next morning we got ready to ride.
Sunrise in Winton, if you look carefully you can see a row of Galahs on the powerline.
There are a few places that you can visit on a bike in and around town. In no particular order we visited a used car yard, a real estate ‘fixer-upper’ just out of town and a home made garden wall.
On the way out to Pelican Waterhole (and the remains of the old town)
Willie Mar Chinese Fruit and Vegetable market
Arno’s Wall, next to a nice little park
The nearby Bladensburg National Park can be explored by following the River Gums route. Maps are available at the Winton visitor information centre. The park was originally a sheep station, so a lot of the old buildings still remain.
Bladensburg shearing shed
Bough Shed is a great bush camping ground in the National Park located next to a waterhole on Surprise Creek. Along the way you can visit the ‘holes’: large natural erosion pits, and ‘jump-ups’: mesa style hills.
Surprise Creek waterhole, Bough Shed campground
Other than that it is very flat here.
Skull Hole and claypan
One of the main attractions here is the Age of Dinosaurs Museum. The surrounding district has become a local fossil hot-spot. The museum displays actual fossils, with tours showing how they are recovered and cleaned.
Australian Age of Dinosaur Museum, located on a jump-up overlooking Winton.
Australovenator: 5- 6m long, 300kg carnivorous Australian dinosaur
Fossil cleaning workshop
Australia is big, it even surprises me and I live here.
Outback Australia, Winton.
