Quilpie via Adavale

After a brief stop at Blackall, we headed towards Quilpie. This road goes through Adavale, 220 km south of Blackall.

It's one of those roads I've always wanted to take and planned to do so last year, but for reasons beyond our control, we couldn't go.

The Adavale road conditions, posted at Blackall for 'caution', made us wonder if there might have been damage from the recent rains, so we were unsure of what we might encounter.

The first 15 km are paved with bitumen, while the rest of the road is dirt. Our progress was halted about 5 km outside Blackall, where cattle were being fed while walking along the sides of the road.

We were accompanied by Glenda and Steve in their Bushtracker. Once we reached the dirt, we could see that the graders had been working on the road, and we did, in fact, come across the grader a further 20 km down the road.
 
The road conditions continued to be better than we had expected, and we maintained a comfortable speed of 70 km/h for the first 120 km.  

One or two of the creeks we passed by still held water from the recent rains, and this spot would have made a lovely campsite.

The road conditions changed just over 100 km north of Adavale and started to turn stony as we passed through a series of hills.

The rest of the journey into Adavale involved a rough, baked clay-like surface that was quite uneven in spots. It was also a relief to see wildflowers growing beside the road after recent rains.

Our plan was to spend the evening camped in Adavale after lunch at the pub, which consisted of a cold beer and a steak sandwich. 

The publican suggested we camp along Blackwater Creek, but neither of the areas we checked out was very appealing, so we carried on for another 100 km to camp just outside Quilpie.
 
We have camped at Lake Houdraman before, but back then, camping was free, and there were no facilities. Now it's known as 'The Lake,' and it costs $15 per night, regardless of whether you use your own facilities or theirs. There are also six powered sites near the office.
 
We decided to camp right on the lake’s edge and just use our own facilities, as we always do.