Bound for the Coast

 From Julia Creek, we continued further east along the Flinders Highway towards Richmond on what we can only describe as the worst road we've ever travelled, with damage on the left-hand side caused by the large B double and triple trucks that use these roads. We rode the centre line wherever possible, providing we could see far enough ahead to escape furrows created on these roads that were never built to handle the weights of these trucks and their loads.

These road conditions continued for another one hundred and fourteen kilometres until we reached Hughenden, where we camped at the free RV park, a large dirt car park the size of two football fields with a dump point and town water. We'd planned to spend two nights here, but one night was enough after walking around town and the swirling wind kicking up dust in the RV park.

The road condition east towards Charters Towers started to improve, making the two hundred and forty-six kilometre drive much more enjoyable. We stopped briefly here to refuel before moving another twenty kilometres east to camp at another free camp beside the Burdekin River at Macrossan Park, where toilets and rubbish bins are available. Again, the area was dirt, but we positioned ourselves near a large area of grass even though it was dry, which would stop us from being covered in dirt from wind and passing traffic. It was busy, which can be put down to having toilets on site, and many permanent campsites looked like they'd been camped for a considerable amount of time.

The old sandstone pylons have been replaced because the weight of the trains carrying refined metals and mineral concentrate to the coast wouldn't be able to take the additional loads.

The remainder of our trip along the Flinders Highway was an enjoyable drive as we headed towards the Bruce Highway. About thirty kilometres west of Townsville at Woodstock, we turned onto a minor road that took us by properties with mango plantations. We saved ourselves from having to travel an extra sixty kilometres.

Since leaving home in early June, the traffic has been minimal for the areas we've been travelling through, so it was a real shock to arrive at the Bruce Highway and be confronted with streams of traffic heading in both directions. The highway remained busy for the next one hundred and fifty-three kilometres until we arrived in Bowen. All the van parks were booked out even though the school holidays were nearly over, so we spent the next four nights at a farm stay twenty kilometres south-west of Bowen at Glen Erin Farmstay for twenty dollars a night where there was bore water available, a dump point and showers and toilets.

We travelled to Airlie Beach and booked into a caravan park on the Shute Harbour Road. It's been eight years since our last visit, and we were blown away by the progress here. There are new marinas and resorts, and the Airlie Beach Hotel has been transformed into mega accommodation. While here, we ventured into Proserpine to pre-poll for the voice referendum.

                                                                    

Airlie Beach and North Queensland were our yearly destinations to escape winter in Canberra while we lived there for over forty years, so we've seen the vast changes in that time.

We are booked into Bushtracker on Wednesday, the eighth of November, for a van service that will include replacing the wheel bearings, so we are currently trying to juggle times and places to stay for the coming month as it's just on one thousand kilometres from Airlie Beach to the factory at Kunda Park on the Sunshine Coast.

So, after leaving Airlie Beach, it was only just over fifty kilometres to our next four-night stopover at Lake Proserpine. The only facilities here are a small kiosk selling essential items, showers, toilets, and rubbish bins. The campground overlooks the lake, and fees are ten dollars per person per night. Unfortunately, during our four days here, we experienced powerful, gusty winds, and as usually happens on our departure day, the winds have eased.

Towards Julia Creek

After three days at Boulia, we headed north towards Mt Isa along the Diamantina Development Road, which had the occasional passing lane; otherwise, it was just single-lane bitumen. Incredibly, we are in the twenty-first century; we still have single-lane bitumen roads. On the way, we passed through Dajarra, a tiny town that looks like it's on its last legs. 

Thank goodness for having air conditioning in the vehicle, with the outside temperature showing 46 degrees.

We fueled up in the Isa and then parked in a side street, and both enjoyed our humongous salad sandwiches at the Buffs Club, where we had eaten before. They were so large that we could have shared just one.

It was then off to the attached bottle shop where Ros could purchase her favourite Stone and Wood Pacific Ale, red wine, and a nice bottle of Whitney Neill gin.

We then headed west to camp at Mary Kathleen, just like we did for my birthday on the eleventh of August. However, fewer people are camping here because we are late in the season, and the daily temperatures are hovering around the forty-degree mark. We are surrounded by the cement pads that were for the carports. 

As we are in no rush and it is Queensland school holidays, we've decided to spend three days here before moving onto Julia Creek.

We had never stayed at the RV stop on the eastern outskirts of town, but upon arriving, we couldn't believe how small the actual waterhole was and why anyone would want to stay here for the allotted four days apart from it being free. We planned to stay for four days, but just two days were enough for us. There are many geese here that everyone is feeding, so having food or a drink outside the van is a real problem without being accosted.

Plenty and Donohue Highways

After leaving Rainbow Valley, we drove north to Alice Springs with a brief stop to refuel, including filling two jerry cans.

Then, it was a further sixty-eight kilometres north along the Stuart Highway before turning east onto the Plenty Highway. Just over sixty kilometres later, we passed by Gemtree, which has a caravan park and a gem fossicking area.

This is our fourth trip across the Plenty and Donohue, and even though there are large sections of dirt, it's still a quicker option to travel into Queensland than taking the bitumen north and across the Barkly Tableland.

It's probably four years since we last crossed this way, and we were surprised to see that the single-lane bitumen was now extended as far as the Aboriginal community at Harts Range, about one hundred and seventy kilometres from the Stuart Highway.

We spent a very peaceful night camped on the outskirts of the Aboriginal community Atitjere (Harts Range), where they allow overnight stays, and the facilities include a sheltered picnic table and rubbish bins.

Our second-day travel saw us heading further east towards the NT/QLD border, with the bitumen continuing a further twenty kilometres until it petered out, and we were forced to stop and reduce our tyre pressures for what lay ahead. It was a further two hundred and sixteen kilometres until we reached Jervois Station after the road conditions consisted of corrugations and rocky outcrops in varying amounts of difficulty for much of this time.

We refuelled at Jervois Station for $3.00 per litre before continuing a further sixty kilometres to camp for the evening on the banks of Arthur Creek, where two other groups were stopped, but they continued on after having a lunch break, so we had the place to ourselves. It was hot at thirty-seven degrees, and the flies were extremely friendly.

I was up at 6:30 checking tyre pressures on our Chev and van before the sun rose, and we were on the road again just after 7:30 am. We passed by Tobermorey Station just shy of the QLD border and gained half an hour because of the different time zones. We didn't stop here for fuel as our two jerry cans were still full, and I emptied these into the Chev when we stopped later that day.

Tonight, we camped on the banks of the Georgina River one hundred and twenty kilometres east of Tobermorey Station. We were the only ones here for the evening, although there were

several campers heading in both directions but not stopping. We had planned to cook our dinner over our fire pit, but with the wind and super dry grass surrounding our campsite, we chose to cook on our gas stove.

Another early morning pumping up tyres for the remaining one hundred and eighteen-kilometre sealed trip into Bouila without the dirt and dust of the previous two days. 

We booked into the Bouila Caravan Park with a nightly fee of $20 for power and water, and it was a lovely feeling having green grass under our feet after the past five days in the dirt and dust and with unlimited amounts of water, Ros was able to complete seven loads of washing in our vans four-kilo washing machine.

Rainbow Valley

It's taken us nearly twenty years to return to Rainbow Valley.

This time, we came with our drone, which gave us a fantastic perspective over our last visit.

Rainbow Valley is located in the James Range, seventy-four kilometres southeast of Alice Springs. Access is along a twenty-two-kilometre sandy and corrugated road east of the Stuart Highway. Our van tyres were reduced to twenty-eight psi, and our Chev tyres were reduced from sixty-five to forty psi to give us a smoother ride. 

It's not unusual to see camels in desert areas, but we were surprised to see them so close to the road; 

There are two campsites, and we are in the bush campsite with ten bays more suitable for caravans. The main camp is closer to the claypan and sandstone cliffs, but the five sites there are much smaller and more suited to camper trailers and tents.

On our first evening, we cooked a marinated beef brisket that we bought from home. Firstly, it was cooked in the camp oven with heat beads, finished over the fire and served with a Thai-style salad and crispy onion.

Fly nets are necessary, and the annoying little buggers only disappear once the sun sets, so eating our dinner under the stars and in front of the fire was lovely.

While the cliffs behind the claypan are impressive during the day, they come into their own once the sun sets. This is when the colours of the sandstone indeed come alive.

The West MacDonnell Ranges

 We were heading out to spend the next five days camped at the Finke River, one hundred and thirty kilometres west of Alice Springs.

The Finke two-mile campsite has no facilities, and you can camp close to the river, on river rocks or further back under towering ghost gum trees.

It is also a mecca for groups of walkers much younger than we are who are completing parts of the two-hundred-and-thirty-kilometre Larapinta Trail. While we've been here, there have been three four-wheel drives based here and towing trailers to support the walkers with food and their accommodation in the form of both tents and swags. Each afternoon, when the walkers arrive back at base, they wander down to the river to cool off, remove the day's grime and sweat before they are fed and then off early to bed for the following day's walk.

There are more gorges in the West Macs than on the Eastern side, such as Simpson Gap, Standley Chasm, Elery Creek Big Hole, Serpentine Gorge, Ormiston Gorge and Redbank Gorge.

On our drive back into Alice Springs, we agreed that we couldn't spend another night in the cramped and dusty National Road Transport Museum Campground.

So we booked a powered site in the Alice Springs Tourist Park. It was our first powered site in just over three months. We were here to stock up and stayed for two days before heading off.