How Green Is My Outback
For those of you who are not aware, we have had a lot of rain across Queensland through the latter part of 2020. Not drought breaking rain, but enough to transform the Queensland outback from shades of ochre, brown and gold, to ochre, green and yellow.
I took dozens of photos of the landscape as we drove towards the South Australian border. These photos are not particularly noteworthy, other than the fact that we were driving through outback Queensland, and it was green.
We stopped in Thargomindah to replenish our supplies, to check the road to Innaminka in South Australia, and apply for a permit to cross the border. Why did we want to go to Innaminka? Because it’s a super cool name, what other reason did we need? 😊
While applying for the permit, we were told that the main route to Innaminka was closed due to road works. There was a station road detour in place that would take us across Cooper Creek. This would not normally be a problem, but, because of the rain, the Cooper was flowing. We asked around and got varying accounts of how deep the water was and how fast it was flowing. But with comments ranging from “Nah mate, wouldn’t tow a van over that.” And “I just called my boyfriend and he said he’d do it.” We thought it best just to go have a look-see and if it was doable, we’d do it. If not? Well, Innaminka wasn’t going anywhere.
But, before Innaminka we had to drive through the tiny town of Noccundra. Now, according to the 2016 Australian census, Noccundra has a population of 11, one occupied building, that being a pub, and …well that’s it. So of course, we decided to stay there for a couple of nights. We discovered three of the eleven residents live in the Noccundra pub, but I’m not sure where the other eight live.
We free camped across the road from the pub, on the banks of the Wilson River. It was a great little spot and we shared it with another four caravans/campers, not that we could see them, and about a gazillion insects, which was probably why we couldn’t see the other vans. 😊
We took the kayaks out a couple of times and explored the river and apart from the insects it was a lovely peaceful place to stay. I feel I should point out here that I’m not exaggerating about the insects. The flies worked the 7am to 7pm shift and the mosquitoes clocked on at precisely 7.01pm and off again at 6.59 am. I’m not sure if it is always like that, or if they were just making the most of the rain as well.
Now this is not a word of a lie, though sadly I don’t have photographic proof, but I got up before dawn on our last morning at Noccundra to take some sunrise shots. Knowing what to expect I wore jeans, boots, a long-sleeved shirt, a hat with mozzie net over it, and one glove. I needed one free hand to operate my camera. Within fifteen seconds of stepping outside, my bare hand turned black as it was attacked a mass of biting little f…… flying things.
PS
It was at Noccundra that we first realised that Chunky Bum, our delightful home on wheels, was most definitely not insect proof.
