25-28 April 2002

On Friday morning we packed up and drove to Injune via Dalby, Chinchilla and Miles.  We stopped to change drivers and check out the tourist information centre at Chinchilla. We had an awful café meal for lunch in Miles. We stopped in Roma to do some shopping and bought beer and scotch for our next hosts, who were friends of Susan Feez (the friend who was minding our house while we were travelling).  We arrived at Glentulloch homestead on dark.  This was bad timing, as we missed the signpost.

Annabelle Chandler came down from the gate to collect us. John and Marie Chandler kindly offered us the comfort of the house during our stay, which Ruby and Clare enthusiastically accepted on our behalf.  We were treated that night to a delicious neck roast on the bone. Roo and Clare shared a double bed in a room of their own.  Suz and I enjoyed the same comfort.

The following day we went on a tour of the bores on the property with Ruth Chandler. One of us rode in the cabin of the 4WD Toyota ute with Keith, opening and closing the gates, and the others rode on the back of the ute.

Later that morning we had a lovely picnic with Annabelle and Keith Chandler on the slopes of Mount Hutton, after which we scaled the mountain on a treacherous path where frequent rock-falls occurred.  Poor Ruby had the nail on her pinkie smashed by a falling rock.  We crossed to the other side of the mountain to watch the eagles soar, and arrived back at the homestead on dusk.

The following day Keith took us for a flight in his six-seater Cessna aeroplane over Carnarvon Gorge and surrounds.  This was a real thrill, not withstanding me becoming rather air sick and vomiting intermittently into a paper bag carried on board for that purpose.  I’ve never been in a small aircraft before.  The view of the landscape below was amazing.

That afternoon I cooked up a big Indian dinner with our lovely beef.  The curry was rather too mild, but I wanted to make sure that John could stomach it.  Before dinner, Keith took us into Injune to watch the camp draft and have a beer or two at the Injune pub.  We returned home to much curry, conversation, and good company generally.

The next morning, Ruby and I went with Keith and two station-hands while they shot two beasts that had cancer-eye and slaughtered them for the purpose of dingo baiting.  There was some discussion as to whether this was an appropriate spectacle for Ruby, but she coped well.  It took two shots to bring the first beast down, and its heart was still pumping when the jugular vein was opened up.  Curiously, the flesh was still quivering as it was diced and thrown into the back of the truck.

After this gruesome business, we took leave of our generous hosts, packed and drove to Carnarvon Gorge.