Tuesday - 24th July

We had a quiet morning today; in the afternoon we donned helmets and toured the Longreach Power Museum. It’s set in a decommissioned powerhouse, lined with huge generators and engines, switches and dials, giant motor parts and all the paraphernalia of power generation.  Next door was a house full of memorabilia of past social eras and the flight control centre from the Longreach airport replaced in 1978.  We were picked up at 4:30 and taken to the banks of the Thomson River for our cruise on the paddle wheeler "The Thomson Belle".  We paddled upriver for a few kilometres to an excellent commentary from the skipper before turning round and heading back into the sunset.  When we came ashore we sat round the camp fire and were regaled by songs, stories and jokes before we were served a meal of beef stew, followed by apple pie and custard finishing off with billy tea and damper with golden syrup.  A very enjoyable night.