#BadBetty On Tour - Days 7 & 8

Yesterday I got to sit on a bull - yep, NO BULL - I really truly did!

I even have documentary evidence and it let mum pat it too - he liked us! I got to sit on the bull, get my picture taken with a very nice Border Collie and even sit in the Flying Doctor display at the Stockmans Hall of Fame exhibition!

My mum says I have to send a very special thank you to Marina for organizing us to get free entry into the exhibition - thank you, thank you, thank you - otherwise we would have only been able to watch from the outside since dad wouldn't have paid..... (are you seeing a thread here?)

The show was awesome too - we got to see a sheep get shorn, a Kelpie round up the sheep and my super new Border Collie friend dragged my other bull friend in by a lead - talk about AWESOME! I wish I could do something like that - she was a SUPER DOG!

I decided that I didn't really fancy seeing Dinosaur fossils up in Winton (and my dad is so much of a cheapskate that he wouldn't have paid for us to go into see stuff anyway) so we decided to start the trek towards Birdsville today down the Thomson Development road from Longreach, through Stonehenge (and how super was that little spot - free hot showers, and a lovely little spot to stop) and now we are camped 1km on the other side of Jundah overnight next to the Thomson River - what an amazing site! We are typing this blog under the stars next to the campfire - just an amazing spot! We hear that there are Yellowbelly in the river but so far we haven't seen anyone catch anything - hopefully one of our neighbours here will before we head off for Windorah in the morning to fill back up and then start the road to Birdsville!

The trip today was slow going but amazing to see how the landscape changed - so incredibly flat that at times  you weren't even sure what you were seeing in the distance and to be honest, no real idea of exactly how far away it was that you were looking - it just kept going and going. Its sheep country out here and no wonder the properties are so big - the land is pretty unforgiving and you need a fair bit of land to find enough to feed the livestock but we did see Emu's again - we haven't seen them since Charleville - it was odd, they were everywhere and then all of a sudden they just stopped and we didn't see anymore again until today but we are heading south west again and the landscape is getting redder so it might be more suited to them.

We will see if there are any interesting pics tomorrow to share and if not, no doubt there will be feedback on our trip out to Birdsville.

Thanks again for joining us on this journey and feel free to comment or provide feedback!

Love #BadBetty Mk II, Lyne & Simon

I already shared with you all that I like to save a dollar, I really hate paying other people to do things for me and it seems no matter how careful I am to communicate with a service provider what I want, I am rarely satisfied with the end result.

This means for me that being on the road is being prepared for a breakdown and carrying a full contingency of tools and parts, within reason of course. Often when one seeks a quote for mechanical or building work there is an endless parade of opinions, conflicting information and outright bullshit to sort through - for this reason I love the Internet as there are no secrets anymore - one can find out how to do or make anything, and one is only hindered by one's own ability to comprehend and do. I will pretty much have a go at anything , especially if it's going to save me money.

I have enough tools on board the Bad Betty Bus (BBB) to strip down and rebuild the motor if required and could fix or patch most issues outside of catastrophic failure, I am even carrying a full engine gasket kit, welder and grinder that I can run from the onboard generator. Hopefully our trip will be free of mechanical issues, but if not, I feel prepared.

As we travel I listen to the various sounds the 4.2l diesel engine makes & I know them all - I know when something is not right - this is my baby and I can't bear to hear her in pain.

Engines are beautiful things and should be respected, treat them well and they will give you many years of faithful service. I constantly watch the engine temperature both oil and water, they each tell you different things, BBB tends to run hotter when climbing and sometimes it looks flat to me but BBB knows better - she can see a hill a mile away. Unfortunately my three girls don't have the respect for mechanical things that I do, they don't understand when their cars are in pain, screaming for basic maintenance or an oil change, is that to much to ask of them?

Free camping requires a whole new definition for the phrase "I need to sort my shit out" - you literally do when using a portable camping toilet. These things can fill up quickly - like rain in the outback you are soon stranded by a rising flood.

I don't ever want to hear someone tell me that their shit doesn't stink, bullshit, it sure does.

A certain person I am travelling with whinges and whines about the God awful smell coming from the 20 litre reservoir of secure plastic holding the last three days of deposits. What can I say? My deposits smell like roses, sugar and spice and the other persons deposits smell like snips and snails and puppy dog tails - I am comfortable with my short term savings plan.