Last night – Thursday night – we went to the Dark Sky Serenade at the Age of Dinosaurs museum, our last night of opera festivities.
Not for them though. All of the opera peeps are now heading towards Longreach while MBW and I are heading towards Darwin.
Now firstly I need to get something off my chest. As luck would have it, I was seated behind a guy with an unusually large head.
Abnormally large.
While that was useful for blocking out the setting sun that was in my eyes, he kinda got in the way of my vision of the stage and the performers.
Which was a shame. But not the end of the world, right?
Well … as luck would also have it, his device of choice for taking photos was an iPad.
A full sized iPad … which he constantly held up above his head to try to figure out how to point and position it so that he could take multiple photos.
Anyhow, being the opera buff that I am, the experience was an auditory one, not necessarily a visual one. And I could still hear perfectly, even though I couldn’t see much.
It was a spectacular experience. The dark hauntingness (is that a word?) of the desert, with the amazing sounds of world famous opera singers, backed by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) was astonishing.
Surreal.
Now I have to confess that I don’t know much opera, and I don’t have a great deal of it on my Spotify playlist. Plus they kept singing it in Italian, with no subtitles, which really just made it difficult to follow along.
The conductor – some guy who could have been Tom Gleeson’s doppelgänger (with a sense of humour to match) – was the Head of Artistic Something-Or-Other from Opera West Australia. He tended to get a bit too excited about operas in 6/8 time and quivering quavers for my liking. But then he probably doesn’t understand amateur radio.
And he did dumb down the plot of one particular piece that they performed.
“Boy falls in love with girl. Girl dies. Boy cries.”
The final piece that they performed was Puccini’s Nessun Dorma, which I’m sure that you will recognise, even if you are as much of an uneducated Philistine as I am.
It was performed by some guy – a tenor – who apparently is world famous, even though I confess that I’ve never heard of him.
There were people there who (apparently) came out on a charter flight, plus people on bus tours, and of course all of the giants of Opera Queensland were there hobnobbing with the Minister for Whatever and the Arts. Probably 500 people in all.
Jason Two-Dads was there again, and he sang a couple of pieces.
Of course they all got a standing ovation at the end, so they graciously and spontaneously performed “something that was written around here”, namely Waltzing Matilda.
And we were all invited to sing along. So …
… technically, I can honestly say that I have sung Waltzing Matilda, accompanied by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and backed up by some world-famous opera singers … and at the end of that performance, the audience erupted into wild and rapturous applause.
Beat that!
It was a great night. Beautiful music, and beautiful voices, all performed in a stunning desert environment.
We were home by 8.00pm, caffeinated by 8.30pm, and in bed by 10.00pm.
I think I mentioned yesterday that I have finished the Tattooist, and now I am looking for something else to read. And having trouble finding something that I can get into. I’m thinking that I might try Faye Kellerman, but happy to hear your suggestions.
I currently enjoy Lee Child (Jack Reacher) and Nelson DeMille (John Covey). But I’m happy to try something new. Leave me a comment with suggestions. The best suggestion wins 🙂
I feel bad that I am being lazy sleeping in until 7.30 or later each morning, but I have an excuse.
I’m sure that you all know that we were in Winton the last few days, and Winton is waaaay over there where the sun sets. Yes, in the west.
But while we are much further west, we are still in the same timezone as home. Home’s sunrise is currently 6.21am (in the east of Queensland), while Winton’s sunrise is 6.53 (in the west of Queensland). That’s more than 30 minutes later!
That’s my excuse, anyway.
It was a cool start to the day again today. Our neighbours – who we have spoken to, but not exchanged names with – come from Townsville and were walking around this morning dressed as though they were ready to commence an assault on Mt Everest.
Personally, while I acknowledge that it was cool, I didn’t think that it was THAT cold, so we settled for our regular shorts and T-shirts.
Toast and coffee for breakfast this morning. (Can you tell that I’m running out of content for the blog?)
MBW tidied the house, while I went out to capture a tiger or two to put in Elsie’s tank. She only took $125 worth this morning, and it concerns me that I can say “only” and “$125” in the same sentence.
We rolled out of the Winton Wanderers CP around 9.00am and headed west to Kynuna. A road that we have never travelled before.
Never.
Today we are travelling towards Julia Creek. We will be travelling the road towards Cloncurry (north west) and turning off just before Kynuna, to the north.
Good roads, fast, smooth, and wide.
And every-so-often you see an unusual land formation that breaks the monotony.
I continue to be astonished by the variety of levels of helpfulness that you see in other road users. One minute we were sitting behind a van, when the driver calls us on the CB radio and offers to slow down and pull over so that we could pass.
20 minutes later we were sitting behind another numpty who was doing 25km/h under the speed limit, wandering all over his lane, hogging the centre line, blocking all forward view of oncoming traffic, providing no clue whether it was safe to pass, and was entirely and completely unhelpful.
Seriously, you can understand how accidents happen.
We had previously picked up the local tourist guide for the area, and it gave us several compelling reasons why Kynuna is not a place to “just drive through”, but a place to stop and visit, and enjoy.
So we drove past the turnoff and kept going a further 5km or so to Kynuna to stop and visit. And enjoy.
They lied.
Kynuna has a population of 20, and I’m certain that we didn’t see a single, solitary one of them. Not one.
So we turned around, drove the 5km back to the turnoff to Julia Creek, and kept on going.
They are seriously lacking in imagination out in these parts. Guess what the Kynuna to Julia Creek road is called?
Kynuna-Julia Creek Road.
Guess what the Winton to Richmond road is called?
Winton-Richmond Road.
And if they include the word “Developmental” into the road name – eg Winton-Richmond Developmental Road, that is generally code for “unsealed road, drive at your peril”.
The road from Kynuna to JC (aka the Kynuna-JC Road) was a single lane, sealed road that was smooth and fast, and I needed to set the cruise control so that my speed didn’t keep creeping up to 110km/h.
We did need to slow down or stop a couple of times, and they were because of road trains coming the other way9 (there simply wasn’t enough space on the road for us AND a road train), or because of these cattle grids that were really rough and threatened to either cause your suspension to bottom out, or to cause you to become airborne.
We rolled into Julia Creek (population 511) around 12.30pm, and went looking for the Visitor Information Centre. We are planning to stop at a free RV park just outside town, but we needed to get a permit first.
Free to stay here, but a permit is required. And you cannot drop anything on the ground. No grey water, nothing.
I said to the lady at the Visitor Information Centre that I had always wanted to visit Julia Creek. Her response probably summed up everything you need to know about Julia Creek and the level of excitement that you can expect here.
“Why?”
Well, that is a very good question, and I’ll have to give some though to why I have always wanted to visit JC.
So we got our permit and decided to have a pub lunch for a change. 2 x Parmys with salad and chips, followed by a walk through town.
We went for a quick walk up one side of the main street and back the other, and that was about it. I saw a guy getting a gas bottle filled at the local hardware store, and asked how much … because I also have an empty bottle on the van.
Remember Augathella?
$49.95 for a 9kg gas bottle. $24.95 at home.
Sigh 🙁
Maybe I can wait until we get to Mt Isa?
We found the RV park, found a spot by the water and have had a bit of a rest waiting for sunset to arrive.
We have a few feathered friends turned up to say hello. Ducks and chickens, although one of the chickens has been crowing, which means two things:
- He’s not a chicken, and
- He has no idea what time it is.
That’s about it. I think that we are all caught up now.
Tonight we stay here in the Julia Creek RV park, and tomorrow we travel through Cloncurry (population 3,167) and stay at the Mary Kathleen Abandoned township.
Well, that’s the plan, anyway. And you know what they say about a plan …
A plan is only good until the first punch is thrown. Hopefully there will be no punching tonight!
One final thing: I know that you have all been worried sick that I have forgotten to give you the answer on a cup of Winton (smelly) water being allowed to decant all night in the fridge. Is it the best water you’ve ever tasted, or was the lady at the shop having a go at us?
Well, we tried it. It wasn’t smelly any longer and it was nice water. Not necessarily the best water that I’ve ever tasted, but not the worst either.
Cold, wet and refreshing.
What more can I say?
Ciao
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