Winton to Emerald
For this I thank Marilyn for her description
Sunday 21 April
Herman had decided that we would possibly need to go to Jericho or Barcaldine in order to make the train I was booked on at 12.13pm on Monday. Well Jericho had no accommodation for me so we opted for Barcaldine. I booked into the Country Motor Inn and C&H booked into the caravan park where they had stayed before meeting me in Longreach.
We arrived in Barcaldine around lunchtime and after I checked into the motel we headed into the main street as Carol wanted to go to the Shakespeare Hotel which she had visited the week before.
We had a lovely lunch and decided we’d come back for dinner as they had roast pork! This hotel has only recently been taken over by a lovely lady who I think has come back ’ home’. She looked closer to my age and is slowly refurbishing the hotel to take it back to its original décor.
The Tree of Knowledge and railway station was across the road and so after lunch we had a walk around there and Carol did the guided tour both on foot and with Herman driving when he’d had enough walking! It is quite a lovely town and the areas we saw were well maintained. Carol said if you get away from the areas we covered it was rather run down.
We had dinner on the balcony of the Shakespeare Hotel and while we were there the Spirit of the Outback pulled into the station on its way to Longreach. As this was the train I was catching back to Brisbane the next day I headed over to talk to the driver and staff to ensure it was indeed picking me up in Jericho!
Monday 22 April
We left Barcaldine around 9-9.30am and headed to Jericho. This is a very sad town which had a hotel with accommodation which was closed and up for sale. The café was also closed and up for sale. The old railway station is now the PO, tourist office, Medicare etc. The lady also has a coffee machine so we spent a little time there. Went for a walk which had paintings on fences etc. It was just so sad to see a town which had so little going for it. I suspect Covid could have been the reason.
The Spirit of the Outback arrived about 10mins late and I boarded. I had a sleeper which was tiny but had all I needed https://www.queenslandrailtravel.com.au/Pages/Spirit-of-the-Outback-Virtual-Tour.aspx) Lunch was at 12.30pm and I was seated with 3 other ladies who had got on the train in Longreach and Barcaldine. One was going to Rocky but the other two to Brisbane. The only others in the dining car and with sleepers were from an Over ‘50s tour (about 15-20).
C&H followed the train to Alpha and so I saw Carol briefly and then we were on our way’
The reason we followed the train to Alpha, Marilyn had left some important items in our car which we thought she would need well before we were to see her back in Sydney, at first, I did not think we would catch up with the train as we were towing the van without exceeding the speed limit, but we easily over took the train even arriving in Alpha well before the train (without exceeding the speed limit). We were lucky to be able to give the items to Marilyn only because there were other people catching the train at Alpha, as it is not a place the train stops unless there is a need.
After exploring Alpha, which did not take long, we continued on our way to Emerald, leaving the outback and heading for the Great Divide.
Leaving the flatlands behind us it was not long before we were again ahead of the train, soon we came across the turn off to a lookout (Drummond Range Lookout) that had a turning circle which would allow us to take the van up, from here we could see the rail line and the road ahead of us, I thought of waiting for the train to take a photo for Marilyn but I knew by then we were too far ahead and it was getting late with quite a few Kms to go to Emerald so I just took some photos without waiting for the train.
I did not have anything booked in Emerald so we headed for the first caravan park we could find, it happened to be the Emerald Tourist Park, a small independent park, not too far from the business centre of town but in a quiet area. Many of the prime sites were taken but we were able to secure a good site for three nights leaving on Anzac Day
A quiet night for the first night where Carol could catch up with what was happening with her work.
In the morning, a trip to the tourist centre to gather some more information, then we decided to explore Fairbairn Dam which was completed in 1972 and the storage it formed, Lake Maraboon (Maraboon is a local Aboriginal name for, ”where the black ducks fly”), holds 1,301,000 ML of water. This gave us the opportunity to observe some of the bird life including a grey Heron which I was able to photograph, (I missed the hawks and the egret as they were a little too far away).
Leaving the dam, we returned to Anakie and through to Sapphire and Rubyvale true small towns in the Gem Belt, living in the hope of the next big gem find, these towns looked to me to be poor, but looks can be deceiving.
While there we did visit a sapphire miner who had some beautiful and expensive stones for sale their prices though reflected retail city process not wholesale, needless to say we did not purchase any. Again, returning to town we were too late for the sunflowers.
Though late in the afternoon using the information we received earlier in the day followed the art trail or at least the start of it.
The following day we continued to explore the art of Emerald including some of the older buildings, before heading to the botanic gardens for not only the gardens but also for the bird-life
Unfortunately, by now my sciatica forced me to rest my back as there was still much to explore.
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