Monday 14 December 2015

We Drove A Sunburnt Country Part Two.

“That’s not a Knife, this is a knife!” I am standing in a pub in the middle of no where holding the prop knife that Paul Hogan made famous in the movie Crocodile Dundee. The pub itself is the one used on location as Mick Dundee’s “Outback Tours” local watering hole.
We had departed Mt Isa at a reasonable hour in the morning and had driven hours across open dry flat country with nothing much to see except for plenty of roadkill. I admit outback Queensland is in terrible drought and it is very sad to see the state of the stock, sheep and cattle are in desperate condition.
It was a well earned reprieve to see the oasis of the tiny town of Kynuna, population – 20 and the famous pub. We wet our whistle, had a chat to the locals while taking in the sights of the bar which was adorned with movie memorabilia and before long were back on the road.
I felt it had been rather special to stumble unexpectedly across this iconic hotel, a small piece of Australian film history, especially after living in Darwin for the last eighteen months and having the opportunity to see and explore parts of the amazing wilderness that is Kakadu National Park. While there we had the awesome experience of climbing the plateau to watch the sunset over Arnhem Land, where in Crocodile Dundee Mick is quoted as saying he “owns the land as far as your eyes can see!” That is some statement, you can see a very long way! That’s now two iconic places from the film I have been able to experience.
More dirt, more dead kangaroos, a few rugged outcrops, finally we reached the destination I had been longing to reach, Winton – Dinosaur capitol of the Queensland outback.

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