Rubyvale to Longreach

Leaving Rubyvale early in the morning we headed west through towns I had never heard of before.  Places like Alpha and Jericho.  Jericho is on the Jordan Creek by the way.

We found our cycling friends again and stopped for a chat.  Megan’s Ride is the charity. Find it on Facebook .

Lots of long straight roads again and one car which kept in front of us for quite a while.

We stopped at Alpha for coffee and scones and sat at tables on the footpath outside the bakery and the cute little craft shop next door.

Alpha is known as the town of murals and we chatted to a lady at the information centre situated in the old railway station.  She directed us to the museum at the rear, which was full of dusty relics, but extremely interesting.  This looks like an old telephone system.

And this looks like the coal range we had in Havelock Street when I was a little girl.  Mind you, after 60 years I might be remembering the wrong thing.

This mural was painted by a man from Victoria, but it got damaged in the floods last year, so he came back and repainted it.

Leaving Alpha we found more long straight roads.

We saw our first emus grazing near the railway line at Jericho.  They are a bit hard to spot and we drove over the bumpy grass, but couldn’t get close enough for a good shot.

Into Barcaldine to see the Tree of Knowledge. Quite an amazing story. Read about it here. 

This is the main street of Barcaldine.  We had lunch at one of the hotels and found out that half a rump is not just a small steak, it means half of a whole rump and is about double the size of a normal steak.

Still in Barcaldine.

Then on the road again to stop at the Wellshot hotel. They don't serve coffee, but were happy for us to have a look.

On to Longreach where we are staying at the Discovery Holiday Park.  We felt the need to stretch our legs.  We were still feeling the effects of our rather large lunch so walked into town along this walkway.  The really good thing is all the information boards which tell us a bit of the history and what to look for.

We walked past the railway station at Longreach.

 And found ourselves at the Tropic of Capricorn.

We walked down the main street of Longreach and had a look in some of the shops, before  returning along the backstreets to our unit.
The main street of Longreach.

Tomorrow I will tell you about our visit to the Hall of Fame.
Bye for now....