The Great Dinosaur Hunt
We were about halfway between Alice Springs and Townsville when the temperature hit 42 degrees.
The sky was masked by a storm of red dust. Fences were clogged by tumbleweeds. The road was rapidly becoming impassable, thanks to a never-ending cavalcade of tornados and road trains.
Difficult conditions, yes. But we weren't about to give up.
We'd left the luxury of coastal resorts far behind, and were back in the outback, where men outnumber women five to one. In short, we'd returned to the Real Australia.
Our mission? To find, and hopefully capture, a dinosaur.
I'm not shitting you here. I read all about it in a brochure.
'Australia's Dinosaur Trail' links the outback towns of Winton, Hughenden and Richmond, according to the brochure.
In just 800 kilometres, you can cover most of Australia's best-known dinosaur territory.
Okay, I was a bit cynical. You see, Winton, Hughenden and Richmond aren't particularly interesting places (although Hughenden is worth visiting for the excellent FJ burger). Perhaps this was just a ploy to attract visitors from, say Cairns? It's only a 15 hour drive away.
But I gave them the benefit of the doubt, because this is the outback, where most people never visit. So who knows? Perhaps dinosaurs still lurk in these parts.
I'd also read somewhere that dinosaurs weren't as fearsome as we were told in school. They had feathers, for instance, and little stumpy wings. So we're really talking about large chickens.
We still didn't find one.
Just outside Winton we spotted an Emu, which my travelling companion tried to snare with a fishing net. Not a great success.
So in short, we travelled thousands of kilometres, and returned to our base empty handed.
If you're travelling in outback Queensland, take Australia's Dinosaur Trail for what it is - hollow claims dreamed up by a 22 year old marketing intern.
Soon, we'll be visiting a dinosaur museum in Canowindra, where I'm promised they have real, stuffed dinosaurs.
The sky was masked by a storm of red dust. Fences were clogged by tumbleweeds. The road was rapidly becoming impassable, thanks to a never-ending cavalcade of tornados and road trains.
Difficult conditions, yes. But we weren't about to give up.
We'd left the luxury of coastal resorts far behind, and were back in the outback, where men outnumber women five to one. In short, we'd returned to the Real Australia.
Our mission? To find, and hopefully capture, a dinosaur.
I'm not shitting you here. I read all about it in a brochure.
'Australia's Dinosaur Trail' links the outback towns of Winton, Hughenden and Richmond, according to the brochure.
In just 800 kilometres, you can cover most of Australia's best-known dinosaur territory.
Okay, I was a bit cynical. You see, Winton, Hughenden and Richmond aren't particularly interesting places (although Hughenden is worth visiting for the excellent FJ burger). Perhaps this was just a ploy to attract visitors from, say Cairns? It's only a 15 hour drive away.
But I gave them the benefit of the doubt, because this is the outback, where most people never visit. So who knows? Perhaps dinosaurs still lurk in these parts.
I'd also read somewhere that dinosaurs weren't as fearsome as we were told in school. They had feathers, for instance, and little stumpy wings. So we're really talking about large chickens.
 |
| An artists impression of our quarry |
We still didn't find one.
Just outside Winton we spotted an Emu, which my travelling companion tried to snare with a fishing net. Not a great success.
So in short, we travelled thousands of kilometres, and returned to our base empty handed.
If you're travelling in outback Queensland, take Australia's Dinosaur Trail for what it is - hollow claims dreamed up by a 22 year old marketing intern.
Soon, we'll be visiting a dinosaur museum in Canowindra, where I'm promised they have real, stuffed dinosaurs.
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