Off on our own

Bye to Mt Isa.  We took a bit of getting going this morning, but were away by 8.30am.  Aiming for another 550km today.

Since we’ve left home we have passed through mountains, grass lands, bushy plains, big red ant nests, rolling red hills, rocky red cliffs, bright green bushes, table mountains, dirt.  Queensland has a huge variety of scenery.

At the Moondarra Dam in Mt Isa, a sign said this was the area that divided the rivers which ran North, into the gulf, and rivers that ran south down to Lake Eyre.  I’m afraid I never realized that rivers to the North of Australia run north…

Windy again today, with a red haze on the horizon.  We stopped in Camooweal for fuel, and used the playground across the road.  It may be about 580km before the next LPG.(our car runs on gas, with a spare petrol tank)  We may need to run on petrol, unless there is LPG at Barkley Homestead! Camooweal was begun in 1884 and there were a few old buildings there.  Not much else, though.

Outside of Camooweal the hills and ant’s nests disappeared and we were back to flat, sunbleached long grass as far as the eye could see.  Road straight and long, with water mirages in the distance.

Missed the crossing from Queensland to Northern Territory.  I must have been looking down – but we noticed the 130km/h sign!  Grant, however, held to his 85 to 90km/h.  Saves about $30 per tank of fuel that way!

Ate lunch at Avon Downs, a rest stop opposite the police station.  That’s all there is at Avon Downs.  It took Nadine 20 minutes to work up the courage to sit on the toilet there.  Some of these rest stops along the highway are pretty foul!  I thought of buying a brush and disinfectant, and good gloves, and cleaning all the stops for the truckies!  But then again….maybe not.  Dominic found one kangaroo foot bone with  skin still attached….pretty gross. He wasn’t allowed to bring that with him.

We stopped between Avon Downs and Barkley Homestead for a photo with an ant hill.  The little red ones gave way for a bit to a few very large ant hills and we wanted to get a shot.  Well, the little tufts of grass between the road and the anthill were amazingly spiky.  Their ends were like needles, and walking between them really hurt, and made my ankles hurt and itch afterwards.  There were some pretty little purple wildflowers though.

Stopped at Barkley Homestead for Petrol.  They had LPG which Grant was very happy about.  Used their lovely clean facilities, and visited the three types of parrots they had out back – one Galah named Bruz, three Indian Red necked parrots (green) and two Red Tailed Black Cockatoos.  Those two had a big sign on the cage warning “these birds bite!”  They looked pretty mean!

Road kill along this road is mainly cows.  Or Hamburgers on legs as we like to call them..  They are pretty big, so I’m not sure what damage they do to whatever hits them.

Our camp for the night at 41 Mile Bore

Tonight we are staying at 41 Mile Bore, a free camp on the side of the road that is made up of red dust and scrubby bushes.  Oh, and more of the needle sharp grass.  It turns out we can drive a fair bit off the highway and it is very private.  Lots of fun setting up a fire and toasting marshmallows.  Nadine discovered the Milky Way and we watched the big red moon rise over the horizon.  It was so bright it has made all the stars fade away!

Vicki