We arrived in Emerald at around 4:00. ‘Emerald City’, as I loving thought of it, was about a four and a half hour trip North on the Capricorn Highway. Freeways as we think of them in the ‘States don’t really exist out here. If you want to travel anywhere it’s a simple two lane road rather than two lanes in each direction divided by a median. (Imagine taking 91 all the way from Hudson to Willoughby instead of taking 271.) The impetus for the trip was that we had an elders’ school to attend. But since we were going to be travelling all that way, Peter and Carolyn had decided to drive a further four hours out West to a city called “Longreach” where they had once lived.
The first stop on the trip, however, was Emerald to stay with Malcolm and Janet, two friends of the Condoleons. Janet was dealing with early onset Alzheimers and Malcolm was a fossicking enthusiast. Fossicking (or noodling) basically means prospecting or panning for opals, of which there are many near Emerald. About 45 minutes away are The Gemfields, and many people pan there to see what they can find. This is a recreational activity for most without any intent of striking it rich or making money. Though Malcolm himself owned a piece of land and had found an abundance of gems on it, anything he made was mainly just pocket money.
After dinner, Malcolm brought out his fossicking kit and showed me several of the opals he had found. There were many different colors and most of these were small, being about the size of a raisin. Malcolm was kind enough to allow me to pick out two sapphires as souvenirs to keep.
The next morning after a breakfast of eggs and bacon, we went to Woolies to pick up a few things before driving on to Longreach. I ducked into a News Xpress to kill a few minutes while my friends stocked up on groceries and to my delight happened to find the exact bracelet I had been looking for before leaving Ohio. I also saw Turkish Delight at the check out counter, but decided that would be better to try in Istanbul (not Constantinople) on a moonlit night.
There wasn’t a lot to see on the drive from Emerald to Longreach, but we did see a few interesting things including a couple road trains, trivia boards, and a wedge tailed eagle. I didn’t get a good picture of a road train, but it’s a semi truck pulling not one, but several trailers. As a way to help drivers stay awake, the Queensland government has placed staggered trivia signs along the route. A questions would be posed, several hints given at intervals, and finally the answer. And finally we got a good look at a wedge-tailed eagle eating some carrion on the road. They are very impressive birds, being only very slightly smaller than a Bald Eagle, and the largest raptor in Australia.
We finally arrived at Longreach by mid afternoon. Billed as “The Gateway to the Outback”, it was home to the Stockman’s Hall of Fame, The Qantas Museum, and one of the many scattered ‘Schools of the Air’ designed to provided education to children in remote places. About an hour away was a place called Winton and the Dinosaur Museum. But for today we would simply get checked into our hotel rooms and hop over to get pictures at the Qantas airport/museum across the street.
The Albert Park Motor Inn was a friendly enough place with free milk available at the front counter. It was a one story setup and our rooms were right at the front facing the street. My room had two beds, high speed internet, air conditioning and the usual amenities one might expect, in addition to a car radio mounted into the night stand. The room was quite comfortable, however there was also a can of bug spray conspicuously placed on top of the dresser, which was not assuring. Later that evening I learned why, when many tiny flies somehow made their way in drawn to the light. As is customary with all places I’ve stayed in here, there was a complimentary gecko provided to patrol the walls and ceiling as well.
We took a quick spin into the downtown area of Longreach, as the Condoleons wanted to see some of the old places. There wasn’t alot here, but at one point we happened to pass a kangaroo hopping casually down the sidewalk. Apparently this is a common occurrence and neither the locals, nor the ‘roo seemed bothered about being in close proximity.
Peter and I went across the street after returning to the hotel to take some pictures of the full sized jumbo jet that was parked in front of the Qantas Museum, It was sheltered by a flat metallic roof similar to what one might find covering gas pumps at a petrol station. Unfortunately some work was being done on that portion of the museum and so we could only shove our noses and cameras up against a chain link fence and imagine what standing next to it or inside it would be like. It was impressive nonetheless, but as the thought of going into the jet and wandering around was the only real draw to the museum, we decided that a few pictures would be enough.
Unfortunately by this point that the flies had found us.
When I say flies, I mean scores of them, all swarming in an focused attempt to land on eyeballs or lips or climb into ears, nostrils, or mouth. Peter didn’t seem to mind them, but I had to keep whipping my button down shirt around my head as though it were a horse’s tail. It was ridiculous. And this assault would last the whole trip.
We walked back to the hotel and had a look at the pool if only to wonder if perhaps the flies would leave us alone if we submerged ourselves. As pools go, it was fairly standard, except that the shape was extremely irregular and almost resembled the shape of a motorbike if a five year old had tried to make one out of gingerbread. Next to the pool were the rusted remains of an old Holden with a plastic pelican at the wheel, keeping with the Aussie tradition of old cars being used as decor.
The flies were still very interested in us, so we retreated to our own rooms. I journaled a little and looked through the Hotel guidebook, which warned that it was entirely possible for various animals to be on the premises, so to be careful not forget that they are wild and not tame creatures. This included kanagaroos and emus among other things, but we never saw any. I was then delighted to discover that Seinfeld was on, and watched back-to-back episodes before going to bed. This I did mainly so that I could discourage the Lucerne flies, who were apparently multiplying in number the longer the light stayed on, but also because Friends came on and it was painful to watch. The laugh track actually made already stale jokes feel even more lifeless somehow. But, hey, the flies seemed to be enjoying it!
The bathroom windows around here have a bad habit of being open to the outside with large glass slats instead of solid screens. As a consequence I had to bludgeon a flying cockroach to death with a towel before cranking the aircon and going to bed.
That was fun watching you hit yourself in the head trying to get rid of the flies….