We had an earlier start this morning, as we had another long day of travel ahead. We left the caravan park at Julia Creek, with pretty much all the other guests standing and watch us leave. Matt reckons it was the most interesting thing to happen in the town for the week! Our next stop was morning tea at Cloncurry and fuelling up and a spare belt for the air con on Bridget was also sourced. The scenery also changed from the golden fields of grass with cattle, to winding roads, through rocky, red mountains, covered in greenery. We really like these mountains and the drive was a refreshing change from the flat plains that we had been driving through for the last day or so.
We drove through Mount Isa, but did stop briefly at the Super Cheap Auto for a replacement phone charger, as ours was broken. We continued on past the chimney stacks and mines that is Mount Isa, and slowly the mountains became hills, and the hills became golden grassy plains, that were very flat and seemed to disappear on the horizon.Whistling Kites could be seen floating and circling the skies, looking for prey, and I spied a Bustard hiding behind a hedge of tall weeds.
Occasionally a creek would have water, and small birds could be seen swooping up and around through the trees, while some dams had Cormorants, Pelicans and Egrets, floating or swimming in the green murky waters.
We stopped at Camooweal for lunch, and just as we were leaving the tiny town, a police blitz pulled us in, and Matt had a breath test, license check and then the Spanish inquisition about Bridget! Back on the road for the last stretch, Matt led the trio across the border into the Northern Territory and if you blinked, you wouldn't have noticed, but we gained half an hour! We drove past a cattle muster, with the Drover's on horseback. There seemed to be some stubborn cattle at the rear, not moving and the young Drover's signalled to Matt to sound the horn, maybe to try and get them moving, and Matt happily obliged. Whilst the navigator rebuked me for tooting a mob of 600 cattle, i said if the blokes indicated me to toot, then they must know what they are doing, and the impending stampede will be behind us, and on their heads . The afternoon sun was hot and blinding, and we were glad to finally reach the Barkly Homestead, our final destination for the day. Last year we had stopped here to stay overnight, and got to stay for free, as they had a 6am blasting of horns to try and stop the bats from roosting in their trees. This time, the bats are thankfully gone and you can smell the difference, though it seems the Galahs have moved in. We sat in the shade of a large tree to cool down, and rest from the long day of being in a hot bus. yes i replaced the A/C belt, but it barely works when it's working well, it only really dehumidifies. We enjoyed dinner at the pub, with a musician singing for entertainment. his entertainment mainly... We have estimated we are approximately half way there. A lovely evening together, finished up with the stroll back to the Clippers, under the Milky Way.
on a side note we came across this sign quite a lot in western QLD
apparently there are 3m tall car eating bovines roaming wild in the outback, we saw plenty of cows but none eating cars, yet...
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