Sunday - 22nd July

We decided to stay another day and Jude did some housekeeping while I bludged around.  Later in the morning we drove up to Longreach and visited the Stockman’s Hall of Fame.  This was a huge display of early and more recent pioneering life in the outback including information about Judy’s Great-Great-Uncle, Alfred Canning of Caning Stock Route fame.  Later we went to the QANTAS Outback Founders Museum.  We booked the full package but only had time to tour the museum.  We go back tomorrow for the rest. Back to Ilfracombe for another great happy hour.

Monday - 23rd July

Packed up and left Ilfracombe and headed up the road to Gunnadoo Caravan Park in Longreach.  We are located in the new section which is quite large with excellent facilities but just a bit bare until some trees grow.  After some shopping and sightseeing in town we headed out to the airport for today’s highlight, a tour of the Boeing 747 on display at Longreach.  We had booked for the wing walk and got a few extras over the normal tour, including sitting in the cockpit, (you are really a long way up in the pilot’s seat), a tour down in the bowels of the aircraft including the computer/navigation bays, the huge cargo holds and the unpressurised area at the rear of the plane, plus a walk, tethered to a safety line out on the wing.  It was terrific.  We toured the town and some of the shops and noticed that they whip their babies up here.  Happy hour was back at camp with some fellow vanners.