22.6.2009

It’s great when you find a little spot out of the way that is both beautiful

and free. While we were in Barn Hill our ‘next door neighbours’ told us of

Longreach Waters, a larger inland lake just 12km out of the little town of

Elliot. Apparently it is not well known to tourists and provides great free

camping alongside a lake full of birds and mussels.

Well we are here now – have stayed one night and will probably stay another

1 or 2. It is a really nice spot and the only downside is that the water is

a bit muddy and not that great to swim in – although it’s probably only been

25 or 26 degrees C for the last few days so no one is too worried.

We saw lots of mussel shells on the bank near where we camped so Sam and I

went exploring to try and snaffle a bit of local sea-food. We wandered up to

waist deep in sludge for a little while and managed to find some snail like

creatures, but couldn’t locate the mussels. A bit of local knowledge would

be handy about now, but we haven’t seen any aboriginal folks down here. The

cook was doing up lemon chicken for dinner so we decided that as appetizing

as the snails may have been we would settle for chicken…

We did drop up to meet our ‘neighbours’ yesterday – some people camped about

a km up the lake, but upon getting closer realized they were doing it ‘el

naturel’… We didn’t want to terrify the kids so we turned back and left it

at that… and I told Ellie to put away the binoculars!

The pelicans are funny birds… I’m no ornithologist but it has been

intriguing watching them. They move up the river like a flotilla and duck

for food as a unit. Amusing to see 50 pelican all do ‘heads down bums up’ in

unison!

To get to Longreach Waters turn right just before the cattle grid as you

enter Elliot and drive 12kms west until you hit the lake. If you aren’t

going here then just keep driving because Elliot is not inspirational at

all…