Our 466kms trip today was tiring. We left Mount Isa about 8.30am and arrived at Winton about 6 hours later. The first section along the Barkly Hwy just outside Mount Isa is hilly and windy, the curves slowing us down. We then were caught behind a ute driving at 90kph in places where we could have driven at 100kph. After the ute pulled over we had a better run to Cloncurry.
We had a short stop in Cloncurry, but a woman wanted to talk Bushtrackers with us as she has a new BT and will soon be living in it on the road for two to three years. The road from Cloncurry is the Flinders Hwy, but we turned off to the south east following the Landsborough Hwy through to Winton.
There are two tiny outposts along the Landsborough Hwy – Mckinlay famous as the location where Crocodile Dundee was filmed, and Kynuna with a roadhouse that operates a small caravan park. There are very few occupied buildings in Mckinlay. The small abandoned building stands in stark contrast to the modern mobile phone tower.
On the highway north west of Winton there is an interesting collection of rocky outcrops. A rest area is provided for people to stop and view the scenery on both sides of the road.
We refuelled in Winton – 112 litres at $241! A new caravan park just outside Winton was established by the owner of the Ilfracombe Caravan Park where we have often stayed. Each site is pull through and angled so the door sides of caravans are shaded in the afternoons. There is a concrete slab on each site. Such slabs often have a crack on the corner due to heavy vehicles – this risk has been avoided by each slab being constructed with the corner cut off.
The full moon rose just before the sun set. From our caravan park the moon rose in the east beside the water tower, while the sun set in the west.
Committed Travellers 