Committed Travellers

We avoided buying a Tambo Teddy, but picked up coffees from Fanny Mae’s Cafe. We refuelled, or partly refuelled, having estimated the fuel tank would take at least $100 worth of fuel, that amount was paid via the credit card machine. The pump cut out at $93 even though our tank was not full. As it was an unstaffed service station we didn’t try again.

Augathella was the first town we came to after 120kms, but had no reason to stop there. Between Augathella and Morven there were two signs stating Fatigue Zone, Take a Break, but there were no rest areas where we could stop until we reached Morven. The road shoulder was grass so we could not risk pulling over, so had to continue driving about 50kms past the fatigue zone signs. We refuelled at Morven and bought a passable cheese toastie for lunch. I haven’t previously noticed these clever corrugated iron statues opposite the public toilets.

We drove on to the caravan park at Mitchell. Instead of just telling us our site number and providing a park map, Craig showed us to our site – except he can’t give clear instructions. He put his left arm out wide, while riding his golf cart onto a site to the left. We thought he wanted us to drive down the road to the left, but we had to turn around to park where he nominated. He told us we were the second van to misunderstand his directions – we thought that suggested he needs to improve the way he gives directions!

After minimal set up we walked over the bridge crossing the Maranoa River. The water is like a slurry of mud.

We had a dip at the Great Artesian Spa where the hot pool was 39°. I needed a snack so ordered the Thai style fish cakes – more like salmon patties with too much potato. The smell of the fish attracted King George – a large cat that lives at the property. He arrived as a kitten after the 2011 floods. I gave him pats but no patties!

Bluey chased a ball for a couple of minutes before picking up prickles in all four paws. I ended up with very fine spikes in my fingers. Tilly seems to avoid the prickles and was keen to walk around the park as often as I was prepared to take her. She tried hiding under the groundsheet so she could pounce on any birds silly enough to be tricked by her disguise.

Our hookup was not complicated by nearby caravans doing the same as many had left before us. We were not late leaving just after 8.30am. We stopped for coffee at the coffee hatch in the Wellshot Hotel at Ilfracombe, 27kms from Longreach. Road closure signs along the Landsborough Hwy reflect the state of some minor roads, but it is a rough ride in some places along the highway.

We stopped briefly a couple of times on our 314kms trip, but didn’t linger as we have travelled this route many times. We don’t recall ever having stayed overnight in Tambo, so chose the caravan park in the centre of the small historic town. While Anita was checking us in, we were directed to a drive through site. Tilly was on the front seat and upset a labrador when she looked out the window. We were moved to another site to avoid any cat/dog issues.

I took Bluey for a walk through the heritage area, and had a long chat with a local woman supervising the historic items in one of the buildings. The large tree behind Blue is on the verge beside the Tambo Shire Hall.

The Royal Carrangarra Hotel conducts a fund raising event each night from 1 April to 31 October, raising money for charity. The unique event is chicken racing!

The grass on the “race track” is kept trim by a resident sheep and goat. Some of the chickens are coloured with food dye and given silly names like “pink bits”. The chickens are motivated to “race” by chasing a remote controlled model car transporting a bucket of chook food. On the test run the car crashed!

Visitors are invited to bid on a chook, the highest bidder becoming the owner of the chosen chook for the race. Anita successfully bid $70 for the yellow chook named Bumble Bee. The bid money is pooled and the owner of the winning chook gets half the kitty, with the other half going to charity. Some nights depending on the crowd a lot of money is raised, encouraged by Ben’s corny chicken jokes. One night the bidding total was over $5,000, but tonight it was closer to $500. Bumble Bee did not win!

Unfortunately the hotel dinners were very ordinary, but the live music was good. The other hotel was very quiet but we wish we had eaten there.

Our Toyota was booked in at Longreach at 8.45am for the 100,00kms service. At 7.45am Toyota called to ask if we could bring the car early, because they had one employee sick and a service cancellation. Fortunately we were up early so could leave straight away and dropped off the car 10 minutes later.

As we walked towards the Merino Bakery for breakfast, a boy fell off his bike making a loud clang. The boy was not hurt but Bluey was frightened, so much so that he trembled for half an hour all through our breakfast. For the rest of the morning he was very clingy and wanted to sit on a lap each time we stopped.

The rain continued on and off throughout the night, leaving muddy patches in the caravan park and parts of town. As we finished breakfast a rainbow appeared and the threat of more rain ended.

We visited almost every shop, had a second coffee, and lunch at the Birdcage Hotel before the car was ready. The Toyota Service Centre is just off the main street so we had planned to spend time loitering.

The work wear shop had a huge selection of jeans on display, followed by an impressive variety of thongs.

Some buildings have retained most of their original architectural features, but the Shire Hall has unattractive aluminium doors and windows. Two earlier shire halls were destroyed by fire.

The undercover car park behind the main street has overtones of aircraft design, mixed with large wagon wheels (or propellors) at each end.

Opposite the Birdcage this fence is covered in bras. The Galah St building occupants include two radio stations. The bra fence helped raise awareness of breast cancer.

Back at our caravan Tilly needed attention so I walked her and let her have time in the critters’ crate. The birds cheekily came close to the crate seemingly aware Tilly was confined. I sat with her and an exhausted Blue, then prepared our car and van for departure tomorrow – lubricated towing fittings, sprayed electrical connections, cleaned the mirrors, put away the critters’ crate and Tilly’s tunnel, and packed away the awning.

We have to keep an eye on flood warnings because several minor roads are already closed due to flooding. The Thompson River at Longreach is steady at 1.38m, and there is a flood warning for the Barcoo River.

As we were loading the critters into the car this morning, our neighbour walked out with Koko, a 4 year old Burmese cat. Neither cat was thrilled to see the other! Tilly has taken to riding in the front passenger footwell, which at least leaves Bluey in peace in the crate.

We decided to have breakfast in Winton, but rejected the ready-made options at the Musical Fence Cafe in the Gregory Hotel. There is lovely green grass in the middle of the main street. The town is getting ready for the 50th anniversary of the Outback Festival, which was first held in 1972. Since this festival is a biennial event, perhaps Winton should be celebrating its 25th anniversary?

The Australian Hotel over the road was serving cooked breakfasts so we settled Bluey under the table. Anita’s coffee was served in an elegant cup. Winton is famous for its dinosaurs as depicted in this mural.

Along the Landsborough Hwy there were several sections of road where shoulder grading and grass trimming was being done. There are no roadhouses or other facilities along this stretch of road, but there are rest stops. The road condition is not great but improvements are being made.

Parts of the Longreach Tourist Park are in various stages of drying mud, but a lot of work has been done installing new electrical and water points, concrete slabs, and gravel access roads and parking areas on each site. Clouds built up this afternoon and light rain started in the evening.

In the afternoon we went to the car wash and washed the car and washed the dog, then back in the van we did a load of washing. All should be clean!

I put Bluey in the critters’ crate to play with Tilly. He jumped back and forth over the tunnel and she kept ducking out of the tunnel to grab him.

We had dinner at Harry’s Restaurant opposite the railway station. Our food was good except Anita’s steak was closer to well-done than her preferred medium. At least the critters enjoyed her leftovers!

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.

I put Tilly out in her crate for some fresh air before we drove to town for breakfast at The Xtra Mile Cafe. We had planned to eat outside but all seats were in the sun. Blue went back in the car which was parked in deep shade across the road. The other problem with alfresco dining in this part of the world is flies! This is the best cafe in Mount Isa but it would not survive in a capital city.

I walked Anita to a nail salon around the corner, then collected Bluey to walk to the phone repair shop for a new screen saver. His idea of a walk these days is that I walk and he gets carried! That job was done in 5 minutes and Bluey was allowed to wait inside the shop with me. When Anita was ready we refuelled taking 102 litres  then drove back to our caravan to do the washing.

Our next outing was to Woolworths for groceries. Woolies is next to The Xtra Mile Cafe so I snuck away for a second coffee and to remotely check on the critters. I can talk to them through the camera, which must be very confusing for them.

After we had unpacked the groceries there was a knock at our door. A couple with two young children are stranded in the park as their 2019 Ford utility has a damaged engine. Their camper trailer needed to be moved to a Ford storage area, so they came looking for someone with a suitable hitch. They wanted to borrow the hitch, but I offered to tow their trailer to town, as that was a lot easier.

We had dinner at the Rodeo Bar & Grill at the Isa Hotel. Anita had tasty beef ribs but I chose a not-so-interesting vegetarian pizza. As we drove home the mine site was illuminated by the sunset with an interesting cloud formation.

Back at the caravan park the almost-full moon was behind similar clouds. We hooked up ready for departure tomorrow morning.

While I was walking Tilly this morning four of these birds were running towards us. She was on a short lead and they finally realised they should change direction.

We left Barkly Homestead at 9.10am and had such a good drive we didn’t stop until Camooweal, just over the Queensland border. We drove 260kms at 100kph on mostly good road, encountering few other vehicles. We listened to an audio book and made our munches last until lunchtime. We were driving eastward so I didn’t want to leave too early as we would have been driving into the sun.

Camooweal is a small shrinking town of around 200 people, about 40% of the population is Aboriginal. There is one service station, one pub with a small caravan park, a post office/general store, police station and nurse-led health facility. The state school has 30 to 40 pupils in two multi-age classes, 95% of whom are Indigenous.

There are several abandoned or run down buildings in town. This mural depicts horses transported overseas during WW2. It is along the fence of an abandoned garage. The horse theme continues with the statue outside the 1923 town hall.

We had booked 2 nights at the Sunset Caravan Park, and when we arrived realised we had stayed here with our small Eco Tourer, two dogs and two cats. At sunset hundreds of flying foxes passed over our caravan park. They roost near the cemetery and in 2019 the flying fox population caused concerns when it grew from 500 to 10,000 (ABC News photo).

Bluey unsuccessfully tried to get Tilly to play a quiet game with him. He was happy regardless.

There was a tailwind as we drove south to the Threeways, which became a crosswind after we turned east onto the Barkly Hwy. It was an easy uneventful drive on quality roads, with our fuel consumption just under 20L/100kms.

We refuelled at Barkly Homestead before finding a powered site where we could set up the satellite dish without any obstruction from trees.

In late August a freak storm brought down trees, damaged vehicles and caused the temporary closure of the caravan park. The ABC News site included a photo of a tree blown over, while there are still tarps on some cabins, and broken branches on several trees.

Clouds formed during the afternoon and there were tiny spits of rain. By early evening there was some thunder and interesting skies, followed by a short period of strong gusts and rain.

Radar images show we were just at the northern edge of the storm.

We had planned to stop overnight at the small town of Elliott on the Stuart Hwy. However, we continued driving as the caravan park looked very run down. Instead we continued to Renner Springs, driving over 500kms from Katherine. The downside of Renner Springs is the only phone/internet service is provided by Optus.

This is another place we stayed at in 2016, but it is a bit more rundown with the shortage of labour. The lake was murky water, but there is a wonderful 17m swimming pool. The peacocks on the nearby roof were making a lot of noise.

We had dinner at the pub with its collection of 800+ hats hanging from the ceiling.

Two truck drivers sitting next to us drive this B-triple between Darwin and Dubbo each week. They drive two-up so don’t have to stop for long breaks. Several other road trains had stopped for a break.

I went for a walk at sunset and this goose ran towards me. I showed empty hands to indicate I had no food, and it hissed at me!

I set up the camera to monitor the temperature in the Bushtracker while we visited the Nitmiluk National Park. We had breakfast at the Nitmiluk Cafe before going for a walk.

I walked up 300+ steps to the lookout, but Anita sensibly stopped halfway. The walk is described as being 900m from the Visitor Centre, but there was no advice about the elevation or nature of the climb.

There was a sign explaining the Kombolgie sandstone is the geological base for the park. Old sediment layers were compressed forming hard sandstone and conglomerate.

The views from the hike up and at the lookout were worth the effort.

Back at our caravan Blue was so excited to see us. We took him with us to the caravan park pool as the usual “No Dogs” was missing. We had the pool to ourselves and he lay in the shade happy to be with us.

Two very large dogs are staying in the park. They have been kept on leads but I limit Tilly’s walks to make sure the dogs don’t see her.

We took Bluey with us on our errands – refuelling, dump site, car wash and Woolworths to buy a cooked chook. Back in the van he sat outside his crate staring at us while we had our lunch. He devoured his bowl of chicken!

We hooked up and packed away our awning ready to leave Katherine tomorrow.