Considering we had a massive trip to get through today we were not just a little naughty in being tardy getting away. Some mornings are just harder to wake up than others I guess. So after finally packing everything away and getting ready we rolled out the gate at around 9.30 only to be faced with a half hour wait to get fuel before getting on the road. And just up the road was this sign waiting for us to finally start heading West towards Queensland.
This seriously has to rate up there with the most boring stretch of road ever travelled. Unlike the Stuart Highway the vegetation doesn't really change much until you are almost at the border and there are some unbelievably straight stretches of road that when you finally get to a curve it's like a breath of fresh air. So these were about the most exciting things to photograph along the way. That said - for me the drive was far from boring - tiring maybe - as the wind was very unpredictable and the constant crosswinds meant concentration had to be high all the way.
After just under 200km of this excitement we stopped in at Barkly Homestead to refuel and have a bit of lunch. If nothing else Shane gave the guy at the counter a laugh with the explanation of his t-shirt. The story goes that some years ago while on a roadtrip with Lakeisha and myself and a then quite young Kitty, we were still trying to get Shane into the habit of closing the car door when he got out - not being used to having a young dog in the car that could at any moment jump out. Shane also has a "medical condition" he refers to as having no hips - which equates to the fact that I constantly have to remind him to pull up any elasticised pants he might wear that have a habit of succumbing to gravity - especially as he is alighting from a vehicle. And so as the days wore on, the chant of "Pants" from me and "Door" from Lakeisha in the back seat with Kitty could be heard every time he got out of the car. "Pants Door" has become the traditional comment from thereon and last Christmas as a bit of a joke Lakeisha bought him this t-shirt. The full explanation apparently gave the cashier quite a laugh.
Barkly Homestead was doing very good business with many campers pulling in to the grounds, lots of people purchasing food and drinks and with fuel at $2.02 per litre and no more fuel for a further 260km they could pretty much charge what they liked as it is your only option. It is a nice spot for a stopover though and I am always taken by the magnificence of the Bougainvillea of various colours that grow so spectacularly throughout the Northern Territory.
A little further down the road this beast was making his way across the road as we approached. There have been many cattle carcasses along the way on this stretch, most of them older kills, but I don't think your car would drive away from hitting this fella!
Shane managed to capture the tail end of this willy willy that blew up a funnel of red dust on the opposite side of the road and then threw it across the road slamming it into this car and van in front of us. Mother nature really does have quite a sense of humour at times.
The colour of the soil along this stretch also changed quite a bit from the deepest red to an almost yellowy colour.
And for many miles it was just this - nothing!
Somewhere just short of the border there was a cattle yard in the middle of nowhere and the entire yard and fences were populated by cockatoos - I don't think I've ever seen so many cockies in one spot.
You just have to click on the photo below to see the full picture and get an idea just how many there were. By the way - you do realise you can click on all the photos to enlarge them hopefully????
Finally at the border - albeit an underwhelming experience - and into Queensland.
And by this time given it was 4.30pm Queensland time I was very happy to see that our destination of Camooweal was only 13km ahead.
We had stayed at the caravan park behind the pub on our last trip and so opted to get a site there again this time but as we drove up the main street we could see that there were already more campers there than we had anticipated. The instructions at the office were drive through and if you can find a powered site come back and pay. I've always considered that we are lucky and we do often get lucky breaks with things - thankfully once again we were lucky in that we managed to get the last site available. I for one was particularly thankful because more driving wasn't really something I was keen for.
Having set up everything and organised dinner, a few loads of washing dog blankets and clothes were on the schedule. It certainly pays to keep up with it otherwise you can spend a whole day catching up. That done it was a very pleasant evening to sit outside with a nice glass of wine and listen to the camp settling down for the night.
447km
Total - 7,435 km
Top today 26°c - expecting overnight 9°c
No comments:
Post a Comment