Jericho

Back to the travel diary......

Our next stop on our trip was Jericho. I actually  wrote quite a bit over the days that we stayed there.  I must have been starting to get into this diary writing thing.  Evan has a diary entry for Jericho too.

The first night that we stayed at Jericho we camped at the showgrounds.  It was okay, but not that nice.  The caretaker of the showgrounds suggested that we try camping at the river Jordan.  Yes that's right, Jericho is situated on the river Jordan.

Dawn at the River Jordan, Jericho Qld

Don't you love Aussie humour?  I'm not sure which one was named first, but it just follows that if you have a town and a river they would be matched in that way.

We did enjoy our night at the showgrounds, the caretaker had a horse called Tru Blue that he let Sarah ride.  She loved it.

The following day, we checked out another river as a possible camping spot while we were visiting Barlcaldine.  We didn't like it as much as Redbank on the river Jordan, so we returned to Jericho for the night.  Barcaldine was the birth place of the Australian Labor Party and we visited the tree of knowledge.  The tree is now quite dead, from an alleged poisoning so I'm not so sure what that says about knowledge or the Australian Labor Party.

On April 20 it was Sarah's birthday and I wrote this in my diary:

We are writing a fictional account about our travels. We are on a quest and each place that we visit on our actual journey forms part of the fictional journey.
For example, yesterday we visited Barcaldine. It is the home of the tree of knowledge, named because the shearers had a meeting under the tree in the 1800's and set off the shearer's strike.  It was the catalyst for the formation of the Labor party.

The original tree still stands, but is now dead.
In our story, our quest takes us to 'Banky' to discover the secrets hidden by the tree of knowledge.  Only we are too late because our enemies have beaten us to the tree and killed it. Its knowledge  will forever remained locked and never be revealed to us.  We are forced back to Jericho for a second night to plan where our quest should continue from here.

We all started writing our own versions of this story.  I am yet to find any of them, but I know that they are (ironically) hidden in the house somewhere.  I would like to sit down one day and write the actual fictional adventure.  I just need to find my original writings, wherever they maybe.

I remember celebrating Sarah's birthday with a campfire cooked dinner.  Part way through the meal the local constabulary came down to see what we were up to.  They were happy that we were a family and meant no harm.  I think some wild parties have been held in that location from time to time.  We also enjoyed yabbying (this time for blue clawed ones) in the river and did quite well catching a few.

The next day in Jericho, we went to the drive in theatre, the smallest drive in theatre ever, I think.  We saw Flicker and A Night at the Museum.

On Sunday, we packed up camp and planned on traveling to Longreach.  We had heard about a campsite on the Thompson River that allowed you up to 4 nights free camping.  We stopped at Barcaldine on the way for shopping and a historic walk.  Unfortunately we decided that we didn't like the Thompson River campsite.  There were too many motorhomes, (remember we were tent camping) too much gravel and not enough shade.  We didn't like the Longreach campgrounds either. There was no grass, no shade, and was really expensive.  We back tracked to Ilfracombe caravan park.
Ilfracombe will be the subject of the next blog.

Evan wrote about Jericho by the river Jordan -drive in theatre:

Tonight we went to the drive in theatre and watched Flicka and night at the museum.

Flicka was about a girl who wanted a wild black horse. And her dad wouldn't let her have the horse. But every night she sneaked out at night and trained her, and named her Flicka.  She lost Flicka and the movie showed how she got her back.

And .... night at the museum was about a man getting a new job which was night guard at the museum.  At night all the animals and statues came to life because of the tablet. One night something went wrong and he saved the animals and statues.