Day 52: Turning point – we head south (23/07/12)

A chilly 12 degrees greeted us this morning as we prepared to pack up for our next stage. It sounds silly to say that a 12 degree morning is chilly, but we were starting to get used to the warm weather, I think. Anyhow, we had our “far” sights set on Cloncurry, but would see as the day progressed how far we would get. There were several free camps before Cloncurry, as well as one or two paid camps.

Once we got under way, we first went to the highly recommended petrol stop in the industrial estate to pick up the cheapest petrol we had tanked since Cairns. Then on up the road to Normanton, retreating from the furthest point on our trip. Through Normanton we went, driving down the Burke Developmental Road through country that was endlessly flat and became ever more sparse as the kilometres wound by.

Road trains were an important part of our journey today.

It was a surprise when the first bit of single-lane highway popped up – a quick check of the map showed that we would have bits right through to the Burke and Wills Roadhouse. The road train traffic was heavier, but the expected confrontation with one of these monsters on a single lane stretch did not materialise. Joke did a stretch of driving, but was happy to hand the tiller back to me, because the highway, single lane or dual was not in a very good state. But, she did survive a few road trains passing the other way, so that was another notch in her belt. (Note the outback-ish mode of expression that is creeping into this blog. Joke says that my speech is becoming more nasal by the day too... Waar je mee omgaat, wordt je besmet, ay? as Dutch Queenslanders would say).

The country kept changing. Especially on the grassland sections, the big wide flat country looked very impressive.

Where we were going.....

.....where we stopped for morning tea....

....where we had come from

Then, suddenly you would drive into a set of outcrops, rise over a hill or two, and come down on the other side into a new landscape with a different character. Very intriguing.

Suddenly there were enormous numbers of termite mounds in the fields. It was like a megalopolis of termites!

But intrigue takes effort, and effort saps energy, and when the Burke and Wills Roadhouse turned up and offered us petrol, we said “Blow it! Let’s stay here!” So we did (stay there, not blow it, I mean) and got ourselves hot showers and clean toilets for $12. Nice place to stay, especially when the last road train had pulled up, had dinner, and left again. Only thing was that there was a pong which was more than just the strange bore water smell we had already come across. Joke was convinced it was “eau de dead cow”, but as neither of us were willing to investigate in the scrub upwind, we just tried to ignore it.

The campground at the Burke and Wills Roadhouse

The road train that delivered the fuel. It was on its way to Karumba where we tanked petrol for $1.51 a litre. At Burke and Wills Roadhouse, 300 kms closer to source, we paid $1.67 a litre.

Road train

The petrol carrier - the full 52 metres, I reckon

Lots of stock road trains came past. Not so bad when they stopped in the evening, but it must have been hard on the cattle when they stopped in the heat of the day.

Another view of road trains