OUTBACK ROCKS!!! Part 1

Since leaving Rocky almost three-weeks ago, we have covered over 5000km through Queensland (QLD) into the veritable “bushlands” of Western Queensland and then into the Northern Territories (NT). A time-zone difference of 30 minutes occurred as we crossed into NT and lo and behold my whole (albeit very tenuous) notion of a global time-difference from OZ to the US became clearly obsolete. I now call when I think it’s convenient for me (between the hours of 12-14 my time, my day, my space—happens also to be our “usual” lunch-breaks during out day-time drives.

We have driven through so many areas and seen so many different things, I’ve not even known how to begin putting together a comprehensive blog that may capture the highlights without leaving out some of the best stories and the funniest laughs Laurie and I have shared as we trek through OZ.

From Rocky, we headed to Carnavron National Park where we overnight hiked and were witness to some beautiful aboriginal art (art gallery), fabulous vegetation, wild-life and a night at a most wonderful spiritual site: Big Bend.

Art Gallery:

The gorge:

Super-tall trees

Tropical Vegetation

Famous gum-trees:

Me hugging a tree!!!…(awww…)

Joeys hanging outta Mama-roos:
Upclose

In the wild!!!

A rare sighting of a blue-winged Kookaburra (Kingfisher)

Big Bend: where we got soaked in some afternoon showers but managed nonetheless to camp and not catch pneumonia.




From Carnavron, we headed to Emerald (you guessed it! They harvest emeralds, and zircon, sapphires, rubys around these parts) where we visited a sapphire mine (and I bought some)!!! Then, I had the great idea of taking a 300Km Northern detour to see some dinausaur finds and some really, really cool and well preserved marine reptile and dinausaur fossils. These creatures lived over 50-100 million years ago!! Can you even wrap your mind around that kinda time-frame??? How many zeros is that???

Sunset over lake Maraboon (Emerald)

Richmond—home of the largest intact marine-reptile fossil: Minmin

Muttaburrasaurus: over 100 million years old

Kronosaurus (alive 114-98 million years ago):

Minmin (paravertebra):

Even though our Eastern Queensland trip involved a whole lot of long drives through long, long stretches of desert highways, Laurie and I were thrilled that we were able to see such a constant changing landscapes as I tried to relate the passing-scenery with areas that I was familiar with in America (long, long drives through the mid-west—not too terribly exciting but still something to be experienced. From Emerald on, Laurie let me start helping with the “drive” on the “left”!!!)…dragging him to hole-in-the-wall towns across the lands with archeological museums; he claims to have enjoyed all of it—he swears. So, I just believe him and hope that I am able to contribute a little to the exploration and discovery of these parts of Queensland.

We gotta keep on truckin’!!! Still 6 weeks to go!!