Winton, on the edge of the Outback.

Recently I decided to drive around Australia.  I will exclude Tasmania and Western Australia on this journey but I will get to the rest.  There is a great deal of things I have not seen in this massive country so it was time to go and see some of them.  

My car is great, it gets me to where I want to be in comfort, yet it has never left the state.  I have also never driven a car with Qbilly plates on it outside of this, my adopted state so I had some things to do.  And seeing as I know Winton quite well, I decided day one would be to get there.  So I had a comfortable start to my adventure.

Winton is on the edge of the outback, well some say it is the outback but who am I to judge?  Out here the water is pumped up (often under natural pressure) from the great Artesian Basin and is rich in Sulphur, smells like that little creek in Madang where they filmed Robinson Crusoe.  It is tasty water, just a little stinky... give it time to settle.

Along the way, these windmills provide water for communities and livestock. This windmill was photographed at a little town called Prairie about halfway to Winton from the coast.

The land out here is flat, can often be very dry and can also get very wet.  During times of rain, the road is often underwater and can mean small towns like Prairie and Winton can be isolated for days and days, sometimes weeks and months.  But at this time of year, the roads are in fantastic condition.  It was however, impressive to see just how much water was hanging around at this time of year, it was an excellent wet season just gone and the landscape is so much greener for the better.

My journey to Winton was un-eventful, everything went according to plan and the town was abuzz with the Grey Nomads who head this way every July to see blue skies and warm sunshine.  And with the extra water and flowers in the region, there were some pretty birds around the place.  Like I have said in previous blogs, I went to PNG a bushwalker and returned a bird-nerd.

A White Plumed Honeyeater.

A Yellow Throated Miner

And a Black Faced Woodswallow.