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I forgot to mention last weekend that three of the girls won prizes at the local cat show!!  They were running a colouring competition so the girls decided to enter!  Jasmine won 1st prize   Jessica won 2nd Prize and Gabrielle also won 2nd prize in her age group!   Chantel and Chana both got certificates of recognition!!!  I know pride is not a good thing .... but we are very proud parents .  1st prize was a small cat on a stand and 2nd prizes were a silver medallion!!

First #1:
Suzanna took her first steps!  She was so excited she could hardly do it! (She will be 10 months on Sunday!)









First #2:
Chana can ride her bike without trainer wheels!!  She was/is so proud of herself!

After leaving Prairie,  we traveled on to Hughenden - the heart of dinosaur country.  We visited the dinosaur museum and were disappointed that there was no creation side of the story.  "500 million years ago there was nothing!  X million years later (nothing) exploded!!"  Well even my 5 year old knows that if you have nothing to begin with then it can't explode!  I guess if people keep hearing this lie often enough they will believe it - sad to say. For those of you reading here and don't know the first verse of the Bible, it says, "In the beginning GOD created the heavens and the earth."  So how many beginnings are there?

OK, back to our travels .... after the museum we stopped at the playground for another bite to eat and saw the most adorable puppies.  Unfortunately they were bull mastif x bull arab so would be way to big for us!

We then drove down a developmental road (that is a road that is not a main road, but it was sealed) to Corfield.  It was amazing to see the flat, wide open space with Spinifex grass as far as the eye could see.  


The long straight road leading from Hughenden to Winton

Corfield consisted of a pub (that was sometimes open), a well maintained tennis court, public toilets and a free camp spot with trampoline, swings and slide.  We loved Corfield with it's just miles and miles of nothingness!!



Campsite (and no-one used the toilet to the right of the picture!)


The view from the door!

Next morning the girls enjoyed playing on the tramp and the swings and we even had a game of tennis as there were rackets and balls there for anyone to use.  As we were packing down we saw a microlight fly over, then it turn around and landed on road and taxied to a stop outside the pub!!  Didn't get a photo unfortunately.

Not much interesting on the road today.  We stopped the night at Crawford Creek.  It was cool and overcast and we missed the brilliant stars!  There we no flood lights or lights in the toilets so it was very dark!  We heard a little rain in the night but it didn't sound to much. 

We woke to more light rain and Jasmine (who'd been out to the toilets first) asking for something to clean her feet off with!  She muttered something about mud so she got a wet wipe and cleaned herself up - she'd gone out in her usual bare feet!  Next up, was me (Sarah) I used my jandals and stepped out into the MUD!   We noticed that most of the other campers had gone and it was only 7.15am!  All that was left was three campervans and us!  And there we stayed all day!!!!!  Stuck in the caravan all day!!!!!!  Two of the campervans tried to get out and got bogged!  One in the entrance and one blocking our exit!  A passing 4WD stopped and winched the one in the entrance out. 

We spent the day piggy backing one or another of the little ones to the toilets through the squelchy squelchy mud!  So glad we had our gumboots!!  The girls did so well stuck together in such a confined space all day!

Next day dawned fine and clear - yay for the sun!!!!  The first motorhome easily got out of the mud around mid morning, with the next one slipping and slithering out soon after.  When we tried we couldn't even get started!!!  The problem --- a rock under the back wheel!!!  Some other drivers gave us a push over the rock and we just flew out with no further ado!



Packing up in the mud!  Note the bog in front of the door - and Mike's gumboots!!

The road from here was a kangaroo graveyard - we've never seen so much road kill!

We drove to Longreach Water Hole where we discovered had been a lot wetter here!  Nice big camping area but lots of campers too due to the now canceled-due-to-rain Statewide Rodeo.  We stayed in Longreach for three nights.

We visited the Stockman's Hall of Fame which traced the history of early Australia and included a demonstration of rounding up sheep with dogs and horse!  This was the girls favourite part!  They got to pat all the animal's (excluding the sheep) and Suzanna even kissed the horse!  Next day we caught up with laundry and the local laundromat.


Longreach Water Hole camp spot


Stockman's Hall of Fame

Need to go now and organize food for our hungry brood!  Will have to do a part 3 later!

We are heading off tomorrow (or the next day if we are not organized enough!).  We've had some stuff come up in Gympie that we have to deal with.  We are not sure what route we will take but we plan to have some fun on the way.  Pray for some fine weather for us please!

Until we get back on the grid have a great time!