Trip to the Boulia Camel races

[legman]

the family that travelled with us have a patrol.
i will post the rest of the photos soon have been busy with work

 

[legman]

left Isa for Boulia, can never get enough of the country out here

 

[legman]

had our first misshap of the trip.....

luckily just a tyre

Unfortunately my spare was flat ( item 26 of things i forgot to check before leaving)
but we were lucky, the next grey nomad to come along was eager to use his $800 compressor set up, so with little delay we were on our way again

 

[legman]

locals out to greet us as we entered Boulia

managed not to kill any

 

[legman]

our home for 5 days

 

[legman]

we were all looking forward to joining in on the festivities and seeing the Camel races but mother nature had other ideas.

every night it poured for hours and in the morning we would be on an island.

camels can only run on a dry track so raceing was off while the rain persisted.

did not stop the kids having fun

 

[legman]

big kids too

 

[legman]

and then there was the Camel Tagging

camel tagging is you get put in the ring with a young camel, you have to place a piece of gaffer tape on to the beast run back to the fence and then retrieve it.
the winner is the one who does this in the quickest time.

the catch is these are wild caught camels , never seen a human, and camels can kick at right angles with any of their 4 legs.

good spectator sport.

 

[legman]

and the dog jumping was good too

 

[legman]

my wife had fun taking photos

the night before we had to leave was the first dry night

 

[legman]

so we said good bye to the camels and went on our way to Blackall our one stop before home.

the highlight was passing through the chanel country, the best scenery of the trip, in my opinion.

 

[legman]

 

[legman]

a pic of my mates rig from the front this time

 

[legman]

a couple of the last pics we took of our 3 weeks away.

i would recomend the trip to anyone, go in winter you wont regret it,

"gods own country" i am thinking of retireing out there.

may have to visit in summer though check out how hot it gets

 

[legman]

By the way the Subie handled everthing i threw at it stock. Dust, rocks, sand and mud while towing a tonne of trailer behind, and did it with ease(if a little thirsty at times). If i were to do it again i would just add a bullbar for piece of mind. got nervous a few times with large kangas near the edges of the road at dusk or early dawn.

 

[mr turbo]

Thanks for the update & pics legman

There are some really good pics in that lot too :biggrin:

The pics your wife took of the sun rays are magic :ebiggrin:

I have to say, also, that the camel tagging looks quite interesting indeed, thats for sure

Regards
Mr Turbo

 

[Tweaksta]

Brilliant trip report Legman!

I've been wanting to get out that way for a while. Might be getting too hot now (and for the next few months). Might aim for March/April next year.

Some awesome photos too. Spectacular scenery.

ps: you mentioned the Foz getting a tad thirsty at times......it still woulda done better than the Patrol - didn't it?

 

[legman]

ps: you mentioned the Foz getting a tad thirsty at times......it still woulda done better than the Patrol - didn't it?

over all we did better, my mates patrol has long range tanks so we were always stopping for becuse the subie was empty, but most of the time i was putting in $70-$80 and poor Bob was paying $100+.

there were just those odd occasions ( driving into strong headwinds ) you could just about watch the needle go down

 

[Hillcountry]

really enjoyed following along.
thanks!

 

[mr turbo]

^^Me too

I'm really enjoying the updates as they're posted up

Keep them coming mate

Regards
Mr Turbo