This Sunday's Gazza Tours featured a ute drive out to Peak Hill Station, about 150 km northwest of Meeka. More about that amazing place in a minute, but on the way we stopped at the entrance to Monara Station for the obligatory photo of their Spongebob Squarepants mailbox and had a look at 25 Mile Well, which is where the Afghan camel trains used to stop and water up. You can still draw water from the well there; it's now a road train stopover.
About 70 km out of town we came across the Meeka main roads patrol & SES guarding one of the big floodways - the flooding had washed out a thigh-deep rut in the road, and to keep the road open the road crew had to stand by to direct traffic through. So I got to meet Kylie & Marty (the road crew) and Meeka's only SES member, Splinter. They'd all heard of me and said, "You're the lady with the red bus!" Yep, that's me. "Go hop in for a swim!" said Splinter, and Marty took us over to check out the hole. We all stood around in the water just chatting & joking while Kylie directed the odd road train through.
On both sides of the highway for miles it now looks like a Louisiana swamp - water as far as you can see. It's beautiful. Major Mitchell cockatoos (they look like galahs), eagles and all kinds of parrots & budgies are swooping through the trees and catching insects. The land is weirdly green, you can practically see the grass bursting up from the red soil.
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| The Spongebob mailbox, 40 km out of town |
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| The old camel well, still working |
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Try pronouncing that after a couple of Valium
(HSD means "homestead" - that sign marks the start of their driveway) |
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| Road patrol guarding the floodway |
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| Kylie, Splinter and Marty - "Owyergoin eh?" |
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| Gary and Marty check out the hole |
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| Just standing around in the flood, chatting |
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First turn off to Peak Hill - road closed but we decide
to give it a go anyway |
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