Boulia

Boulia is in the far north west of Queensland, with the closest towns Winton 350 km to the east and Mt Isa 250 km northwards. It took us 2 days of driving to get here, stopping overnight in Longreach. Boulia is surrounded by Mitchell Grass plains, a vast semi-arid region with rich black soil that forms huge cracks when it dries out. As a consequence trees cannot take hold, so there is dense waving grass as far as the eye can see. The area is mainly pastoral, with cattle wandering freely by and over the road, which means that you have to be careful not to collect some beef-on-the-hoof. The flat plains are broken by the occasional 'jump-up', rock formations created when a layer of hard rock protects the softer rock underneath from eroding, leaving  spectacular flat topped hills poking out of the otherwise flat landscape. The drive here was much more interesting than it sounds, the grasslands being quite different to other landscapes we have seen on our Australian travels.

Boulia itself is a bit of a surprise, being a pretty little town of trees and green grass, despite being located near the edge of the Simpson Desert. It is famous for the phenomenon of the Min Min Lights, fuzzy lights that appear with no apparent explanation, and reportedly have even chased people. It probably isn't surprising therefore that the main local attraction is 'The Min Min Light Encounter' a surprisingly classy experience that tells stories of encounters with the Min Min using high-tech wizardry and animatronics. It certainly was an enjoyable experience, we even bought a tea-towel as a momento!