The Dig Tree Road Trip

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We’re on another Road Trip - this time by car in Robbie, the Ford Ranger.
1500km to the Burke and Wills Dig Tree out near Innaminka in South Australia.

Going via the Bunya Mountains and then the Wellness Way where our Julie can get artesian spa baths most days. 

Raining and foggy coming up over the Toowoomba bypass. No vision at all up the top.

Bunyas are foggy, wet and soggy.

Still managed two 5km hikes but the Lookouts didn’t let us look out very far.

Hiking is on pretty good trails covered in spring leaf litter; waterfalls are running; cat birds are calling like babies crying and whip birds are “whipping”.

Got to help an Ambo who bogged the big land cruiser, and she let me unbog it. But “shhhhh”; don’t tell anyone as she was a bit embarrassed. Our secret 📷.

Big inside fire to dry the boots and warm the cockles.

Off today to Mitchell to warm up in the artesian spa, if the rain lets up.

Day 4 of the Dig Tree Road Trip:

The Bunyas dawned misty and wet again, but the rain slowing to a light drizzle.
The king parrots visited early, with one landing on my back as I bent down to load the car. Cheeky buggers.

The mist cleared as we descended the mountain, and we could see stuff. 

There’s a veritable paradise of Darling Downs farming country right there. How the farmers plough that massive acreage (hectarage?) is beyond me but I’m glad they do. 

The wet weather may be clearing but there is lots of water on and over the road near Dalby. Not deep or risky though.

Loving the town names as we pass through - Yuleba, Dulacca, Wallumbilla (where my great mate, Peter Chettle was school principal in the 80s - RIP Pete). 

The favourite has to be Muckadilla where the pub name is painted on as Mucka Bup. You read it and it doesn’t register. The painter stuffed up, but the owner kept it. Good move. 

Made it to Mitchell mid- arvo so that Julie could soak in the first of several artesian spas. The temperature gauge on this one broke and it is only 34°C. Way too cool for our hottie. Still, a warm spa is better than no spa. 

Next stop is Quilpie for another spa and some boulder opal fossicking. The road west of Charleville may be cut so we’ll go and have a bopeep before going on. They had more than 160mm of rain on Wednesday, so it is seriously wet. 

My new title could be The Rain Maker which is better than my last one. 

It should drain quickly so should be in Quilpie by 2 or 3pm. Or tomorrow 

Day 5 of the Dig Tree Wellness Way Adventure.

Gotta love the west. Called in at a Charleville Garage for diesel and asked whether the road to Quilpie was open after all the rain. The cashier said, “Hey, Doug, “ to another customer and said that he’d know.
Doug rang his wife who works for the council dealing with roads. All good to go. Then he rang his mate in Eromanga to see if we could get past Quilpie. Then a big chat and both on our way.

There’s lots of water on the road but we got into Quilpie okay, with Julie winning the emu count by 3 adults and two chicks to my 2 in the bush that you can just see. 

Julie barely leaves the artesian spa, making 4 trips. Unfortunately, she only has me to talk to so not much fun for her. But her skin is perfect! Etc. 

Found a backyard Thai Takeaway ( in a converted horse float in a backyard)! While waiting, the owner’s hubby gave us the most impressive rundown on opal mining that you could get. He’s just retired and bought a claim and was looking through the day’s opal finds. Showed us the raw and cut opals and how he does it.
Country people are so cool!

Took our Thai Tucker and scrambled our way up Baldy Top to watch the sunset. Beautiful scene!
Love the bush! 

Away early as it’s a big day on the road with Eromanga in dinosaur country the only town for 570km. This is the scary bit - the temperature is rising into the high 30s, and the landscape is seriously “outback.”
 

Mountains are no longer seen - just the flat gibber plains with some mulga bush. It looks harsh and the wallabies are a lot smaller with so little food. Sheep have replaced cattle and emus are everywhere. I scored 9 until Julie caught the best pic yet. 

We even nearly ran over an emu!

The raptors are also everywhere eating roadkill. My favourite is the wedge tail eagle, but I can’t get close for a good pic.

It’s stinking hot when we get into Innamincka just in South Australia. The a/c will get a workout tonight.

We made it into Innaminka at about 3pm on a stinking hot afternoon. And my mood is not good.

After cruising along for 350km, and out in the middle of nowhere, still 100km from Innaminka, Robbie the Ranger decided to pull us up by showing us his warning light. Again. Remember Tasmania in November 2023. It cost a new engine.

This time it was a Powertrain warning light, but I am suspecting that it is the gear box (transmission). There is no internet or phone coverage and it's 41C outside. A car from one of the oil projects came along after a while and I let them go as I am hopeful that the warning light will go out after a rest. 

It did, so on we went, albeit very slowly, into Innaminka. I just decided to go slow, so it didn't go into limp mode. We drove past the turnoff to the famous Dig tree. It is only 14km away but I dare not risk it, getting off the main drag. 

No warning light on as we pulled into the pub. There's only the pub, a trading post and the flying doctor there.

I rang Ford Assist, who rang RACQ, who rang the Thargomindah Tow Trucks, and they decided that they would drive out the 380 km to us, the next day, Sunday, and bring a scanner and see if there was an error code. If it needed towing, then he could load Robbie up, take him 380km to Thargomindah, and then another 400km to Charleville to see what was up. 

We are now 1500km west of home.

Neither of us are happy but Julie handles it better than me. She's calm. I look it, but I'm not!!

Robbie does a few laps around town but there are no warning lights. We might be good to drive back home yet.

The Towie showed up at 11am which was pretty good for the distance he travelled. But no-one told him to bring a scanner! He checked Robbie out and decided that he was good to start the drive back home, via Thargomindah, and he would put the scanner on it there on Monday morning. No stopping at The Dig Tree as it's not on the main road. I'm sooking big time as we drive by the sign (there's always the internet at home).

Day 7 of the Wellness Way Road Trip home. 1500km east.

It’s a long and lonely road from Innamincka to Thargomindah. Outside temperatures are in the 40°C range. It was interesting that we got very excited to see a turn off to Thargo after a few hours of the flat monotones of gibberish plains. And there were toilets. No warning lights.

The Outback is not for the faint- hearted or ill- prepared. Help is a long, long way away. But that is also what makes an Adventure. 

I’m thinking that I haven’t got too many of these long drives left in me, so I’m a bit spooked by the distance and vastness but loving it too (if that makes sense).

Not much in Thargomindah but a glorious sunrise. (Getting up for an early morning wee sometimes has its advantages.)

The Thargo Towie put the scanner on Robbie on Monday morning and there are no error codes so we don't have to load him up and he advises that we should head for Cunnamulla and use our two way and seek help if the warning light comes on. It didn't.

Into Eulo for Julie’s artesian spa mud bath but, when she rings to confirm, she’s been dudded as Channel 7’s “Weekender” is coming, and she is “not needed”. What! She’d be perfect!
Julie can’t do a different time, as the owner has dropped a knife on her foot (the owner’s, not Julie’s) and has to go 400km to Charleville to get it sorted. Interesting life in the Outback. 

But we go to the Eulo Queen Opal Centre and the owner is brilliant. In a wheelchair with both legs missing, he shows us the famous Yowah nuts and boulder opal. Julie spends her mud spa money on some earrings and the owner gives me some rough opal - for the grandkids. Top guy! 

On to Cunnamulla, seeing about 30 emus, some wild pigs, and goats and our best cabin/ room yet. Julie makes up for the lost mud bath with a 3-hour session in the fairly new Cunnamulla Hot Springs, owned by Mornington Peninsula Hot Springs.

I pop in for an hour late in the day and actually enjoy the four different temperatures and have great chats to fellow travellers. The 10°C cold spa is no fun and I last 3 seconds, as opposed to 3 minutes that another guy did. 

We’re running out of spas as we head home, but Julie tells me that there are still two more, with Charlotte Plains next.

It's just off the main road and you need to book online before going in. Turns out that there is a booking facility at the site, using Starlink.

The water is super-hot, and you can just pick a bath and fill it up. Too hot for me but Julie loved it. It's a ripper place in winter and very busy apparently.

The Wellness Way Road Trip is done and dusty. Dusted too.

Charlotte Plains will see us again in Winter. It is well worth the trip if you love a spa.

St George was our last stop, and it was the greenest and prettiest of all of the country outback towns. 

Made it back after 3000km on the road. 

However, just outside Ipswich, as we are fully relaxed after seeing no warnings for 1460km, on it came. Pulled over and rang our Gold Coast Ford dealer but he was unavailable and never called us back. The light was again not showing after a rest period so on we went. Rang Ford along the way but still no answer. Got home and I made another somewhat desperate call to get someone, and the Manager was located. He wasn't sympathetic in any way at all and told us to get a Towie to get Robbie to them. Rang Ford Assist, who again rang RACQ, who came straight away and this time, there was an error code.

Robbie was loaded up and sent for looking at, but there is a 9 day wait, just to diagnose him. 

Like all good adventures, there was some drama, but we are back, safe and sound. 

Julie says the Cunnamulla Artesian Spa Centre was the best of the spas.

The photo gallery is a lot of random pictures not in any special order. If you click on the first one, they will go full screen, and you can see them one by one. There are 40 pics.