It was an easy day in Longreach. Rich and I just pottered about around camp. We filled our water tanks, did some washing, read books, talked to our families, wrote some blog posts, and generally had a relaxing morning.

Katie and the kids set off to do the second part of their tour at the Qantas Founders Musuem by visiting the museum and then doing a tour of the Airpark. The Airpark has actual Qantas planes from throughout the years and the tour talks about each one and the significant place it holds in Qantas history. You even get to go inside some of the planes.

Late in the afternoon Rich and I got dressed up and walked down to reception to wait for a bus to collect us for our Outback Experience.

There were 12 or so people already waiting when we arrived at reception and we quickly discovered they were all going on the same tour. The bus duly arrived and we were driven out to the river after picking up more people along the way.

The first part of the tour was a cruise on the Thomson River. We boarded the Thomson Belle, a diesel driven paddle boat and cruised up river. As we cruised the captain pointed out places of interest along the banks such as the Longreach Watersports Club. The club is home to rowing and water ski sports and has a lovely area along the bank with shade shelters, BBQ’s and lovely green lawns.

We learnt that the river we were cruising on is kept at a reasonably full level due to the weir upstream. As we cruised back the sun was setting and it made for a gorgeous trip back to the wharf.

Once back at camp we were directed to a large outdoor area circled by metal chairs. We were each given a cushion to sit on and after finding a spot to sit a lady came out to address the crowd. She was a bush poet and recited a few old favourites as well as some of her own works.

This was followed by a camp oven beef stew with mash and a piece of bread and dessert of a slice of apple pie and cream. The stew was delicious.

After dinner we were asked to move on down to the riverbank, taking our cushions with us to watch a movie presentation. The story was of Captain Starlight, an infamous local cattle duffer who stole over 1,000 head of cattle and drove them to Adelaide to sell. He was eventually arrested and tried however the sympathetic jury found him not guilty much to the judges disgust. Local people were in awe of the feat of driving the cattle all that way and their sympathies were with the outlaw.

After the movie finished we were directed back to the main area for a supper of camp oven damper smothered in golden syrup and a tin cup of billy tea. The damper was very good and the billy tea excellent.

Then it was time to get back on the bus and be delivered back to our van park. What a lovely night it was.

If I had any complaints about the evening it would be that they tried too hard to be Aussies (probably to impress overseas visitors) and it came across as a little bogan. I don’t know many people who speak that way nowadays and think they could tone it down a little. That ocker way of talking is not common any more.