Days 21 & 22 (Tuesday & Wednesday)

Hi All !!
Have gotten a little behind again as Jessica spent these 2 nights finally writing her blog. It was a major effort but she is now up to date and I'm behind. We have had no phone service since leaving Longreach on Thursday morning.

Longreach : We drove to Longreach on Tuesday morning and did a morning tour through LSODE -Longreach School of Distance Education or School of the Air as many may know it.This time we were lucky, unlike past trips, it was school term and everyone was working!! We viewed year 1 and 5 classes on air/on line and there was a Yr 4 mini-school in operation at the base for the week. Very interesting. Not only does the yr4 child come in(maybe 10) but mum and home tutor, if one, must attend and therefore all the siblings so it is a major operation. With 50+ to feed its all hands on deck and the parent group must notify local shops ahead of time in order to be able to purchase enough bread, meat etc.
Amanda and Tracey - you won't believe which book they chose for last years Book Week - see photos.
In the evening we attended Banjo's Outback Theatre, all 9 of us. On arrival I heard another lady say " oh my gosh what have we spent our money on?" and I must agree I wondered myself, but commented to her that our $84 couldn't be too badly spent as we were getting a meal unlike Capricorn Caves which cost $55 for a one hr tour! As it turned out we had a great night of old fashioned everything!! - shearing shed,dogs, lambs, dinner,hospitality, bush poetry and ballad music. Very personal.See photos of Jessica getting into the act.
Wednesday: we walked to the Stockman's Hall of Fame and spent the whole day there, as we did last time we were here. This is a wonderful display and tribute to Outback life beginning with Gondwana, Aboriginal life, early discoveries of The Great South Land, then moved onto exploration and the opening of Australia and the outback, and outback life.We also saw an outdoor display of Droving basics including horses, mules, sheep, dogs and equipment.
Another 2 busy days.Jessica enjoys it all and keeps us on the hop in each centre.