31 Mar 2019 LONGREACH 2019

Have just got back from my annual visit to Longreach, staying with Simon and Nicole who are flourishing. For the entire flight, the ground was obliterated by clouds. Light rain was falling when I arrived. I have never experienced wet weather in 32 years of travelling to the town. The next day Nicole recorded 28 mm of rain and we heard two claps of thunder. We were all thrilled. I started the day going to the cattle sale, the second in a week after years of inactivity at the yard. We slopped through mire generated by hundreds of bovine hooves and had to beat a hasty retreat, ahead of a mob of steers on their way to being weighed, before we could get anywhere near the action. I counted myself lucky that my shoes hadn’t stuck fast in the mud.  

Poor Pepper, Simon and Nicole’s adorable cattle dog, had a dewclaw removed on the day of my arrival and stayed in the house overnight, while I was there. Yesterday the rain had gone elsewhere to be replaced by a dust storm blown in from New South Wales. The bird feeder in the back yard attracted numerous crested doves, sparrows and a pair of gorgeous red-winged parrots – the relative splendour of the male and female being similar to that of king parrots.