It really hit me that we were going home when we came to the edge of the Gregory River – the boundary of the Riversleigh fossil fields.

This was my last glimpse of the lush, green oasis by the Gulf rivers.

It was also exciting the slip through the water like that. And the water was relatively deep too.

Half way back to Mt Isa, we passed by the gates of this station. It reminded me of Mr Thornton in North and South.

We glimpsed a couple of cowboys mustering cattle in the dusty yards, but I was most curious about whether the station was founded by a Mr Thornton or not. It would be rather exciting if a Mancurian industrialist did turn pastoralist in the Australian outback. It would be quite a story, anyway.

And that is the end of my journey to the Gulf. I’ll be back soon with a post about somewhere much closer to home.