18 July - McKindlay - Walkabout Hotel Campground to camp between Lark Quarry and Winton.

Well we actually achieved out ETD - rolling out the gate at 8.05. Showered, packed, pics, fuel and out on the road. 

Sunrise from the campground, looking towards some buildings and tanks.

Galahs everywhere, Bird on a wire in action.

There was a constant flurry for position

Their pink and grey was highlighted in the early morning sunshine

A popular tree nearby.

And another one.

Birds on a wire, in the sunrise.

And a road train passes by along the road.

The front of the Pub

and again.

The bar used in the Crocodile Dundee movie. In a shed out the back of the Pub.

Originally built in 1900, it was the Federal Hotel

Mc Kindlay has a bit going on, so the sign says.

Passed by the Blue Heeler Pub at Kynuna.

A typical outback pub.

A jump up along the way.

Arrived at Winton about 10.30am for fuel and farewell to Jadon who is heading for Longreach today. 

Winton is the home of home of the Crack Up Sisters, who MC'd the Big Red Bash.

Out to Lark Quarry - a much better road than we anticipated so the 100kms out to see the only known Dinosaur Stampede in the world, was quicker than we anticipated and we were able to catch the 1.00 tour. 

Our guide and the video/information session that started the tour.

The tour consisted of a bit of a chat and video of the history of the place and how these footprints of a dinosaur stampede came to be. In the 60s one of the station owners who liked opal hunting accidentally discovered what he thought were chicken footprints. It turned out that a whole layer of a 'jump up' contained a layer of rock that contained hundreds of prints of three dinosaurs. The smallest - chicken sized - coelurosaur, a middle sized emu sized - ornithod and thirdly a horse sized predator - who came and attacked bunches of the two smaller sized critters who scattered and ran away thus causing the only known Dinosaur Stampede in the world. 

You can see the outline of the big predator print

All of these footprints are stamped INTO the rock, depending on the photo however, they sometimes look raised.

and again, these prints look raised to me, but they were definitely not.

At Lark Quarry nothing was done for 10 years after initial find, then a female expert Mary Wade started work to clear the trackways - the labour was army cadets and volunteers. They moved 60 tons of rock to unearth the "trackways" one of the volunteers was a 70 year old named Malcolm Lark was one of the hardest workers - he was honoured by naming the Quarry after him. 

They have built a huge structure over the trackways to protect them. It is now known as the Dinosaur Stampede National Monument. 

Really hard to get your head around the fact that this happened 95million years ago - when the climate here was more like Victoria. How they've come up with the story of the attack. 

Listening and looking intently, Stef and Dad.

The 'Trackways' a layer of rock that miraculously captured the footprints of a dinosaur stampede. The island in the back, has not been removed, there are more than likely more prints underneath.

This one is the predator, that chased all the other dinosaurs, creating the stampede

The small chicken sized Coelurosaur.

And the medium sized ornithod.

The big prints are the predator, lot of the other marks are the prints of the other two. VERY HARD to photograph.

Hard to believe this all happened 95 million years ago!

They have built a huge structure over the trackways to protect them. It is now known as the Dinosaur Stampede National Monument. 

The structure now, built to protect the "Trackways" from the elements.

We went for a short walk around the building, had some good views.

Spinifex grass in the foreground

We had lunch at one of the shelters at Lark Quarry - and headed back towards Winton. Meg sensibly suggested a camp off the Lark Quarry road closer to Winton. This was excellent. We were camped by 4.00, with time to sit and drink and nibble and watch for satellites. 

Our Camp tonight.

Sunsetting.

The all important Toilet Tent.

A hole in the ground, with a loo seat over the top. (a group design from previous trips, and made a reality by Stef) There are toilet tent rules,  burn the loo paper, cover whatever you do with a thin layer of dirt. (don't fill the hole too quickly)

Time for some drone flying. Steve watching progress on the phone

Now looking up to see where exactly the drone is.

Here is comes, ready for landing on the table.

Sun is almost gone.

Drinks and nibbles, with the last of colour in the East.

Someone was playing with my camera...a nice shot.

We had wood to burn and the fire was brilliant. Michael then whipped up some nachos which were great. 

The nachos were a bit of combined effort, Michael, Meg, me, contributions from Steve and advice from others.

Meg getting a little OCD about chip placement

The sauce we whipped up.

The challenge now was to get the flimsy tray into the Webber to bake. We did and they were really, really good.

Dad took this shot of Milani silhouetted above their roof top tent.

No set ETD tomorrow. A great night to end our time together - tomorrow Steve and Carmel turn northwards again and head for Mt Isa and rest of their trip. The rest of us head for Longreach, Dad and I will tootle on. The Dundek's are looking at Hall of Fame/Qantas museum and meeting up with J. Sarah and Michael aren't sure yet, they may do Longreach or head for Charleville. Only time will tell.