Day 11 - Tuesday 23 September - Winton to Longreach

Had a pretty good night's sleep last night. Woke up about five past six and debated for about thirty seconds whether or not I should get up for the sunrise. In the end decided I would, and it was quite pretty.

Horse watching the sunrise on a farm next to Winton

Sunrise over Winton

Why did the brolgas cross the road?

Brolga on Elderslie Street

Breakfast was pretty decent, but I restrained myself from eating too much of it.

After breakfast we headed south-west to the Dinosaur Stampede National Monument. Had a little walk around the place before going in for the 10am "tour". It's actually just a big shed protecting a large bed of dinosaur footprints. Very very cool thing to see.

Dinosaur Stampede National Monument

Walking around the site at the Dinosaur Stampede National Monument

Countryside at the Dinosaur Stampede National Monument

Hillside at the Dinosaur Stampede National Monument

The group walking around the Dinosaur Stampede National Monument

Spinifex at the Dinosaur Stampede National Monument
Photo by Mum

Dinosaur Stampede National Monument

Dinosaur stampede tracks

Then back into town for lunch (it's an hour and half drive each way out to the stampede).

Elderslie Street in Winton

Banjo Patterson statue in Winton

After lunch went to the Age of Dinosaurs museum. This is a "working" museum where they not only have some super cool original dinosaur bones, but also people working to extract the bones from the rock. Our guide, Kathrine, was super enthusiastic about the work going on there (and life in general actually).

Countryside outside the Fossil Preparation Laboratory

Fossilised conifer branch

Kathrine explaining the process of cataloguing and storing fossils

Fern imprint on sandstone fossil

Ammonite fossils

Vertebrae fossils

Preparing fossils

Kathrine demonstrating extracting fossils

Preparing fossils

Kathrine demonstrating reconstructing fossil bones

Cliffs on the walk between the fossil preparation laboratory and the museum

View on the walk between the fossil preparation laboratory and the museum

Dinosaur model outside the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum

Dinosaur skeleton at the Age of Dinosaurs museum

Skeleton of Banjo at the Age of Dinosaurs museum

Kathrine showing the scale of a dinosaur leg

Skeleton of Matilda at the Age of Dinosaurs museum

Me and the dinosaur at the Age of Dinosaurs museum

Then onto Longreach. On the way we had another round of Bobs and Dollys, which we won rather convincingly. Also saw lots of emus.

Emus off the Landsborough Highway

Water tower and Longreach Council building

John and Penny outside the Albert Park Motor Inn in Longreach

Kangaroos next to the Albert Park Motor Inn

Arrived at the motel in Longreach, raced to get our laundry put on, then went across the road to see the PLANES!! I might have squeed a lot. Seeing the planes was my main reason for even coming on this trip.