Day 158
Sunday
4 June 2017
Elliot – Tennant Creek – Barkly Homestead - Camooweal
Road trains are noisy especially when you are trying to
sleep. They can be heard coming from a fair distance away, like the squealing
steel tracks giving away a trains position, the road funnels their sound out
into the beyond. I woke a number of times, heart pounding, hearing the
deafening sound and thinking the truck would come careening through our bedroom
window. It never did and eventually my brain shut the noise out, then the wind
started, which was a little easier to sleep with, crawl under the doona and
dampen the sounds
The light of the new day was strong and bright. I opened the
blind and it streamed in causing us to avert our eyes until the dazzling
sensation faded, then we could just enjoy the serenity.
7.30am and Paul was up and ready to get moving, me, as
always, in no hurry to move. Though eventually I did knowing I can’t delay the
inevitable. Dressed, breakfast, a look at the map and some decisions made and
then it was things stowed and on our way at 8.15am.
We had a two-hour drive ahead of us, passing so many
travellers heading north. A flock of green and yellow budgies took flight as we
travelled the road, unfortunately some of them didn’t get over the roof of the
camper and fell away. We had two bush turkeys also try to become Christmas
dinner, before we slowed to give them a fighting chance and they took it.
I passed the time away with my weights and singing along to
the Ipod and at 10.20am we made it the Tennant Creek BP. After filling up,
taking a toilet break and checking everything over, we turned the van around
and headed back north on the highway for 25km to the Threeways turn off where
we began our journey east on the Barkly Highway.
I did some checking on the Geowiki app for possible places
to stay and found some lakes in Camooweal, just inside the Queensland border,
that sounded like a go. With a destination sorted we followed the road, noting
that the roads here in the NT have been the best we have travelled on so far
Two hours of driving saw us pull up at Barkly Homestead, a very busy place, seeing it is the first fuel stop after leaving the Stuart Hwy and from entering the NT from QLD. We put fuel in the van, the pulled over to have lunch, our usual salad rolls. My phone began to ping, signalling net coverage, so I did a quick flick through everything before being satisfied that I wasn’t missing anything of importance. I sent a message home to let the folks know we were alive and where we were heading.
Paul checked on the car and rearranged one of the tie-down
straps and then we started up the van and continued our journey for the
afternoon. I set the GPS with our lakes destination, two and a half hours of
driving and the crossing of a time zone all ahead of us.
Time disappeared as we drove along the highway. It was a
boring stretch of cattle country. Long, wide paddocks of fodder laid beyond the
roadsides as far as you could see, the road dead straight for a change with an
ever so slight incline. The cross winds however were a bugger, increasing the
fuel consumption dramatically. We had heard of two female, German tourists
being flown to Mount Isa hospital after a roll over on this road last week and
it wasn’t long before we came across their hippy camper on the side of the
road, a little crumpled but upright and emergency tape around the perimeter.
At 4pm, QLD time, we crossed the border. We have now set
foot in all mainland Australian states during this trip. Our free campsite was
just 12km inside the border and thankfully it wasn’t too busy. We found a shady
place to park and set ourselves up for the night. Paul spoke to Gary in the
caravan who suggested putting in the yabby nets as there was a feed to be had,
so after getting settled wed did just that before having a quick conversation
with Gary and his wife Gail, from Bundaberg and Jake, a guy from the Gold
Coast, travelling around on a scooter with a tent.
In need of some exercise we walked into the town site of
Camooweal to see what it had to offer. There wasn’t a great deal but the walk
did us good anyway. We could see the pub was alive with revellers and surprise,
many in cowboy hats, so we braved the gauntlet of loud boys, who were obviously
in desperate need of female companionship and entered the pub. We ordered a
drink and sat on the balcony overlooking the main strip, still receiving the
unwanted attention of the well liquoured up, it was like they didn’t even see
Paul. I was glad we were seated away from them and could enjoy our drinks
before making for the exit. There had been a rodeo on in town this weekend and
they had been enjoying their end of festivities since lunchtime and no doubt it
would continue on well into the night.
Once back at the camp, Paul checked the pots, only one
little one had crawled in. We did a walk around the receding lakes, that were
now more like rain puddles and then returned to the van to get dinner started,
barramundi and salad. I continued to
bounce around the van, trying desperately to keep the steps up, as we have been
a bit slack these past few days.
We ate our dinner, then tried to do the dishes, but the pump
had stopped again, so out came the jerry can of water, kettle filled and heated
on the stove, something to look at in Mount Isa.
We worked out our plans for the next few days and a rough
idea of a time frame for our travels in Queensland before deciding it was time
to go to bed. It was still only early, 7.45pm so we read for a while and then
it was lights out.
No comments:
Post a Comment