Queensland is a state where there is great distance between nothing and maybe something. That might seem like a criticism but I don’t mean it to be. We drove k after k and the land didn’t seem to change. Every now and again we could see an emu even less a cow or a goat. Though there were few sighting we had to keep an eye out for them. We saw makeshift signs telling us to watch out for black cows. Why was that piece of information important? With the shadow of the trees you don’t see them until its almost too late.

The first stop after Yowlah was at Lake Bindegolly. It sounded so nice. A lake of water in a dry land. Being a freshwater lake it supported a diverse range of animals. I had read that thousands of water birds flocked to the inland oasis each year. Some of them can be rare like the freckled duck. Not just water birds but parrots, galahs, cockatoos and honeyeaters and if you have good eyesight you may be able to see some fairy wrens. The lake is part of a national park and boast of lots of lovely walks giving you a chance to see everything.

I was really looking forward to the stop. I could imagine some great photos coming up. I wonder how long we could stay for. We have done that before, planning to stop for one night and stayed longer. Our best was 9 days at Longreach water hole (lovely spot with lots of pelicans. We have been told Longreach water hole is now closed to the general public.)

When we arrived our GPS system told us to go into the camping area by a sandy road. We dropped the car into 4WD and with caution we continued on.  We found a spot not too far from the road but far enough to be well hidden and parked up.

We took a look round us. Not for a good spot but for the water. There was nothing there. No water meant no bird life, maybe even no animal life. As we looked around there didn’t seem to be any other life except us. There was an eerie quiet.

I started to prepare a late lunch and as we were talking about how long it had been since we had been alone in a bush camp a van drove past. By the time lunch was over and we were tiding up 2 more van had passed us. We could just make out the first van through the bushes and we would have to take a walk to see the second two. We were really surprised to see the vans show up. We hadn’t passed a single vehicle all day.

In the early evening we took a walk along the road we came in on and passed our neighbours. We stopped to talk to one lot and found out they were going the same way as we were. It seemed they had spoken to a nice lady in the tourist centre at Cunnamulla as well.

As we walked back to our van we found a mother and child jumping away from it. They stopped for a brief look at us then they were gone.   I did wonder if they had smelt the water we had released from the van after we had washed the dishes.

The next morning while we were having breakfast the vans started to pull out. We were the last one to leave. Nothing unusual about that.