We set off again to the west, stopping for morning tea at one of the infrequent rest areas along this road.
Soon after morning tea, we came to Cawnpore Lookout, a must visit feature. There was a loop road up to and down from the lookout so I took the Motley up. The other people there thought I was mad to take so much motorhome up such a steep hill. The view was spectacular and we took lots of photos.
I did have a problem. The car park exit road was so rough and steep that I had to go back down the up road but the car park was so small that there wasn't room to turn around. I had to back the trailer right up to the edge of the hill, disconnect it, shuffle the Motley round to face the other way, reconnect the trailer and drive down the up road. All this with the assistance of a motorhomer from Forestville in Sydney and an audience of incredulous bystanders. All through this, Jean was beside herself with worry but I had a lot of fun getting into trouble and then extricating myself again.
We lunched at the only other rest area along this road and pulled in to Boulia in time for afternoon tea. We set up in the back corner of the caravan park and planned to stay a couple of nights so that we can take in the Min Min Encounter, the town's new tourist attraction.
We went to the Min Min Encounter. The lady on the desk had experienced some trouble with the computer system which had locked some patrons in the exhibit in the dark during the previous cycle. She kept checking on us but we had no trouble.
The display is unusual as all the stories about the Min Min lights are told by mannequins with moving mouths. Their accents are consistently outback Queensland and their stories are typically anecdotal but the message is that they believe that the lights are phenomena from the supernatural and that they are dangerous. For balance, one of the characters takes the skeptical view that they are natural phenomena.
The lights are seen on rare occasions at night out in the country round here. They are large moving blobs of light which seem to move in a purposeful way towards people but veering off at the last minute from survivors. There is a suggestion that some who see the lights disappear.
The last stage of the display is in a theatre which simulates a coach trip through the countryside at night. The seats are on a rotating platform and the scenery is a full circle cyclorama with rock, hills and so on lit from behind. The climax is in total darkness with a bright light straight ahead and a breath of (ghostly) wind. Altogether a good effort to make something entertaining out of a local myth.
We drove the length and breadth of Boulia without finding anything else to stop for and spent the afternoon vegging out in the Motley.