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It was Thursday and we booked into Longreach's huge Discovery Caravan Park, this one had all the latest facilities.

But not a lot of grass - though, we reckon growing grass in Longreach would be a challenge.

The park is within walking distance of the Qantas museum, the Stockman's Hall of Fame and back the other way, into town.

The Caravan Park's "Wool Shed" was open each afternoon for happy hour and was licensed and served good meals.

With a bung fridge we made use of it most nights.

This is kangaroo country - as is evidenced by the bull bars on the local police cars.

As there was a Toyoto dealer in Longreach, the mighty Togo was booked in to see if something could be done about the horrific fuel usage.

They found a plug that hadn't been tightened at the last service and which had exhaust burns along its side.

That was tightened, then they found the Oxygen sensor was bung and another needed to be fitted.

Of course, this was not available so it had to be ordered and flown in and wouldn't be available until Monday morning,

 looked like another 4 night stop over.

Looking East along Longreach's main street.

Looking West along Longreach's main street.

One shop in Longreach, that is a real tourist attraction, is Kinnon and Co

Inside Kinnon and Co.

I can just imagine Muvva Duck and Aunty Kay in here....

The coffee shop out the back of Kinnon and Co

With a few extra days to kill, we decided to play 'tourist' and booked a night cruise on the Thomson Belle - an old Paddle Wheeler.

The Thomson Belle was built in 1987, and was initially used on the Maroochy River on Qld's Sunshine Coast.

It was found sitting on blocks behind the Yandina ginger factory in 1999, was refurbished and brought up to Longreach

The Thomson Belle, on the Thomson River.

The Longreach Council have weired the Thomson downstream from the town, and from this backup of water the town's

supply of drinking water is provided. The 'lake' formed by the weir is also used by

recreation fishermen/women and boaties.

After cruising up the river for about an hour and a half, with refreshments and nibblies served on board, the boat returned to where the bus was parked and everyone was treated to a bush tucker meal over the camp fire, accompanied by bush songs and bush yarns.

Digger, you would have loved it!!

We also did the Qantas Museum - which takes at least 4 hours to go through thoroughly.

The Qantas museum has a Boeing 747-200 and a Boeing 707 (still airworthy) on display, both of which are open for inspection.

Tours are held of the aircraft and you can see how all the controls work, check out the cargo sections, flight deck,

engines, undercarriage, etc - all very interesting.

Just over the road from Qantas is the Stockman's Hall of Fame.

The entrance to the Hall of Fame.

Part of the interior.

On Monday we checked back with the Toyota Dealer to have the Oxygen sensor fitted, only to find it hadn't arrived

and no-one knew where it was, it had become lost in transit.

So, our only option, break camp, and once again, head east and hit the road to Barcaldine,

a dead straight run of only 108 Klms

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