Winter Holiday July 2012: BARCALDINE TO LONGREACH

Drove to Longreach on Tuesday morning.    We decided to stay at a free camp Longreach Waterhole which is 4km from Longreach along the Winton Road.    This camp was very full with about 70 vans, motorhomes and tents there. We were lucky to find a spot to park. We were told that there were 90 campers in the previous night.
The first day we spent setting up and going to town to sus things out and get information from the Information Centre.
The second day we went to the Stockmans Hall of Fame and went to the Outback Stockman's Show which was very entertaining and well worth the money.   We were shown trick horses, camels, working dogs and a bullock team, liberally interspersed with stories and jokes. After the show we went to the local pool for a swim in a 25mt indoor heated pool. Trying to get the stiffness out of our muscles.
The third day we returned to the Stockmans Hall of Fame to have a good look around the museum.   It was very informative about the history of explorers, stockmen, women in the bush and with many exhibits and video's that you could watch.   Very good.
On the fourth day we went to the Qantas Founders Museum which had the history of the foundation of Qantas as well as video's that you could watch, old planes, models of vintage planes as well as a Jumbo Jet tour and a 747 wing walk.      We only went to the museum as the others were quite expensive.   We both enjoyed it.     We then went for another swim in the pool.      That night we decided to go to a rodeo that was on at the showground as we had never been to one.     It was very good with bull riders, bucking bronco's, ladies barrel race and childrens race on poddy bulls and the back of sheep.   Very enjoyable.
The fifth day was a rest day with just some shopping and starting to pack up as we were leaving the next morning for Winton.