Sunday 13th August

Left Alice at 1000 this morning after a last minute dash to the supermarket to get Pat’s breakfast juice which we had forgotten to put on our list!

There are three of us now, with Jan & Graeme, heading north out of Alice on a beautiful sunny morning. We pass the marker for the highest point on the Alice to Darwin Road and then cross the Tropic of Capricorn.    We note the speed limit change to 130 kph and feel quite pedestrian at our sedate 70 ish!  The Plenty Highway is off to the right and having made the turn off the Stuart Highway it is time to find a spot for morning tea.

The countryside is beautiful with the Strangeway Ranges to our south we have time to appreciate it as there is very little traffic.    This part of the road is sealed and we soon get to Gemtree, a small station outpost that has a caravan park and, more importantly a cafe where we can get some lunch.

The old station building is a substantial construction of timber and is a bit the worse for wear and it is hard to imagine what is was like to live in a place like this.

  

There is an interesting water feature which was being used by a small flock of white plumed honeyeaters as a source of drinking water.

       

Shortly after Gemtree but further than we expected we run out of bitumen and settle down at reasonably comfortable 60kph over the corrugations that, at least so far, are not too bad.

It seems that there aren’t too many places suitable for night stops before the QLD border but we find a place beside the road which may well be the best we can do for tonight.    After a lengthy discussion we decide that this is probably our best option, so it’s time for a cup of tea and light the fire.

The stars are magnificent tonight and moving away from the fire rewards you with a hemisphere of stars, unbelievably mind blowing.

Monday 14th August

Brad and Denise were actually ready to leave first today! A first!   So a reasonably prompt start was made, the track is not brilliant but we made fairly good progress, some parts are quite fast, meaning down to 40kph!  

Morning tea is taken by a range called the Black Hills, known locally as the Sleeping Women but it’s not clear which angle or under what substance influence this observation was made!

        

The road doesn’t improve much and the lady at Jervois Station informs us that we have had the best bit and the next 230ks to the QLD border are pretty bad.     She told us that she had lived on the station for 37 years and that they run cattle on the station, which comprises 1,000,000 acres!

She is right about the road and after another 30 or so ks we stop for lunch, the longest break on the trip so far, basically I don’t think we were too keen to get back on that road.   

Press on we must and the anthills seem to get larger and larger until we really had to take a photograph of one.

    We move on because we didn’t want to meet the ants that made this mound!!

Mistletoe hangs from many of the trees along this part of the road.

We found a suitable place to camp overnight which was off the road. Time for a cup of tea – whilst we’re drinking a helicopter flew down low over us and we gave a wave – they were probably checking us out as we were very likely on their property.  Out here on these massive cattle stations they use helicopters to muster the cattle so they were also probably locating herds to get moving in the morning. We had heard the rumble of a cattle truck, three lengths long, which of course created a huge cloud of dust as it went along the road.

Map update ………………………………

Tuesday 15th August

Started with a quick climb up the hill behind our campsite.

     

The road conditions don’t get any better and we’re averaging much the same speed as yesterday.     We stop and talk to four motor cyclists who are travelling in the opposite direction, they reckon that it’s more comfortable riding a bike on these roads than driving a car – I have my doubts but then I have never ridden a bike on such roads!

Morning tea is taken on a limestone outcrop which affords beautiful views over flat topped hills called mesas.

  

Our next stop is Tobermorey Station, which is 4 ks from the QLD border, manger and his wife have been here five years and are thoroughly enjoying themselves, they manage this property of 1.5 million acres.    She told us that she drives to Mt Isa to do her shopping, a 560 k round trip!     They have good underground water here and the camping area had lovely green grass a real oasis.    A reminder that we are in channel country is the levee that surrounds the property.

  

Leaving Tobermorey behind we cross the border into QLD a very innocuous border, considering that it is a fairly well used route into the state.

      We think Min Min light is what we would call the Willow-the-Wisp but we haven’t seen any yet!

After the border we do come across several stretches of sealed surface which are a welcome relief from the noise and vibration of the corrugations.   However, these don’t last long and we’re back on the dirt quite soon.

Having put our clocks on another 30 mins for QLD time we need to find a campsite for tonight and the Georgina River bank provides a three parts decent spot.    It’s a nice sunset , not spectacular but there are some nice silhouettes.

Then it’s satellite counting time and tonight we got into double figures.

Arrived in Boulia this morning after a short run in from our camp site.

We need fuel, water and provisions for the next leg of the trip.

We have internet and I want to get this blog off so the photos of Boulia will be in the next blog.