Camooweal Billabong - a little haven

My first ever damper cooked on the fire - apricot, cranberry, sultana and almong - YUM!!

Charlie attempting to catch our dinner of red claw

Three men in a boat to nowhere!!

Our waterside acreage

Mmmm a seafood dinner but you have to be able to see the food first!!

Me doing the washing - don't think I would have liked to be a pioneer woman

Kerryn, Jane, Belinda and Di - the human birdlife!!

One too many maybe Di??

Louey, John, Charlie and Kev - "The boys"!!!

Campfire entertainment - thanks Louey



Sunset over the billabong

Well here we are in Camooweal and for those of you who are saying "where the bloody hell is Camooweal" its on the Queensland and Northern Territory border.  We are free camping at the Camooweal billabongs and its an idealic spot.  We have been here since last Friday and will probably stay for a few more days.  Camooweal is one of those outback towns that if you blinked you would miss but it is an old drovers town with a population now of only 310 although on the fourth weekend of August they have their festival and the town swells with all the old drovers (many of them over 80) coming to town - they have a ball and entertainment and sounds great - we shall have to come back for that one day.  We had a visit to the Drovers Camp where we learnt all about the history of the area, the stock routes etc. by a very knowledgeable lady and Charlie even had a ride on a stuffed bull.

We've met some lovely people Di and Kev and had some great times.  Last Saturday we went to a movie night at one of the other groups and it was quite funny to see two rows of camp chairs around the TV - we were in the back stalls because we got there a bit late!!!  The movie was Charlie and Boots starring Paul Hogan and Shane Richardson - typically Australian but quite good.  We heard about the white owl which took a fancy to one of the group (Wayne) and everytime he was sat outside the owl would swoop down on him.

We have had some great campfires and I cooked my first every damper - it was suggested we have damper and of course I opened my mouth saying "I know how to cook damper" and so it was over to me!!  I didn't say "I COULD cook damper" did I??  Anyway after a furtive phone call to my Earth Mother friend Lyn in Adelaide I produced a lovely damper or was it just that we had all had a lot of red wine and didn't know any different?  I like to believe the damper was magnificent!!!  Louey produced his guitar and we had some campfire entertainment although some of the words didn't quite match the tunes and as the night progressed they got raunchier and raunchier!!  We also played a version of campfire "Spicks and Specks" and of course Charlie won!!!

The birdlife here is absolutely amazing - graceful brolgas, herons, kites, ducks etc.  The human kind as you can see by the above photos are pretty amazing as well!!!

Yesterday Charlie and I made a visit back to Mt. Isa and bought a generator and some solar panels so we are now completely self sufficient because we really enjoy the bush camping as opposed to caravan parks.  Kev is helping Charlie with all the electrical stuff which is great.

Tonight we are going to cook a lamb roast on the fire and another damper and roast some chestnuts on the fire as well.  Gee its a really hard life but someone has to do it and its our turn!!

Anyway that's all for now from Camooweal - Adieu from The Wandering 2s.