Destination Longreach

After 9 days and 1525 klms we arrived in Longreach and no,  we did not opt for the horse and buggy mode of transport!  

For the first time in a very long time we did not have a time frame to adhere to. This was such a strange concept but one we adapted to rather easily!! We found ourselves just dotting our way along slowly, spending our 1st night at Daker Station- Forest Hill , A big thankyou must go out to the owners Kym & Mick for their warm welcome and even warmer dinner(nudge nudge wink wink! )

After we left there we went to Lake Dyer a pleasant 10 minute drive from where we were as Bill was wanting to test the new outboard and boat just to be sure all was ok before we got too far along in our travels - that was done very quickly as it was freezing cold. I think the photo says it all.

The next morning we headed off & started our journey soaking in the countryside and local history of small townships our route took us through & spending  gloriously chilly nights camped by the Condimine & Maranoa Rivers before finally ending up here on the banks of the Thomson River in Longreach.

Man vs Beast ( Bill vs Emu)

Yep you guessed it - It had to happen. We were driving  down a narrow road, bush either side, loud-ish music humming from the stereo of our cruiser, windows wound down, Bill's hair blowing in the breeze (sorry, i got a bit carried away there) anyway Bill's fingers were tapping away happily in tune to the music when i happened to look up and yelled

"Emu ! "

he looked at me & said "what?"
I mean.. Come on, it's one word - how could you not understand?
"Emu!! " i yelled louder
he looked at me and said AGAIN "what?"
well, at this point i am speechless,  what do you say to that..  So i pointed and yelled again

" LOOK, A FLAMIN  BIG EMU "

Now he sees it.

By this time the emu in question was
Level pegging with the car and seriously looking like he was going to dart across in front of us. Bill hit the brakes just as the Emu decided to dart in front if us then ran back and forth criss crossing  in front of us - ' 'ol man emu was confused! Then he took a bound to the side ,wrongly we thought he had gone, Bill sped up but then we saw him right there back beside us was this mad Emu!

The bloody thing had  kept up with the car and was now eye balling Bill through the window & i swear i thought one of them was going to say
"Do you wanna go, i'll give ya a go..."

So now the race was on, Bill sped up, the Emu sped up, Bill slowed down, the Emu slowed down. Finally after nearly the full length of this road  with an Emu running beside us the emu got bored with the little game and ran off thankfully to the side and disappeared back into the bush.
"Phew that was close call with that crazy Emu" Bill said as he turned to me smiling
I looked at him, smiled  and said

"What Emu? ".