2 days of driving on narrow straight roads

A bike ride from Quilpie to Lake Houdraman

Not exactly a part of Australia's national highways....

Bruce interrupted a flock of galahs...

Hege relaxes with a book at our campsite

Chris alongside a classic example of the Australian Rivergum

Settling in for the evening

Lake Houdraman.

The road out of Quilpie

Maranoa River - the view from our campsite at sunset

Starting with this and progressively the trees disappeared....

We rode our bikes the 6km from Quilpie to Lake Houdraman to make sure it was accessible for Bruce.... looks good! And some exercise as well...

The following day we drove Bruce out to Lake Houdraman... the land is so dry and flat - but after rain this red dust turns to mud and even into a shallow lake itself!

Absolutely fantastic to see these parrots in the middle of such a dry and arid land...

We struck camp alongside Lake Houdraman.

We enjoyed a blazing campfire well into the evening... it was a truly unforgettable experience to be "camping" in the outback.

Chris spoke with a bloke on the radio who had been at the same spot about 3 weeks earlier.... when he was here the Lake was barely 30 metres wide and about 2 feet deep. Following 50mm of rain 4 days earlier the lake expanded to about 500 metres wide and about 2 km long!

After a great week at Quilpie and our excursion to Birdsville we hit the road and head for Mitchell, about 420km East.

Just 5km West of Mitchell we find a nice spot to camp for the evening. Hege has become quite a bird watcher - today we spotted a Bustard (not bastard), Kookaburras, a Darter, an Emu and the somewhat rare Major Mitchell Cockatoo....