Destination South West Queensland

For our first day, Monday the 25th of June, there was no real hurry to be on the road, so a late departure was the order of the day. 
The reason for the late start is because we are only travelling 152 km. 
I haven't towed the van for several months so the decision was made, that this many kilometres would do nicely for our first days run, just to get us back into the swing of things. 

In early June we started testing all our vans equipment to ensure that everything was working as it should.

Apart from bearings and wheel alignment, the next two most important items were our hot water service and our diesel heater. Both of these will certainly be getting used daily once we leave home with the diesel heater probably being used each morning and evening for at least the next three weeks. I have also added several cups of kerosene, just to pickle the diesel fuel tank to ensure the diesel does not freeze. 
Water tanks were drained and flushed with just two being re-filled for the first several days of travel. The others will be filled before we leave for drier inland areas.

We have been keeping tabs on the daily temperatures for the areas we will be travelling through. For these first three weeks, we are looking at minimum temperatures below five degrees, with some even measuring in the minus degrees. Daily temperatures have been up around the middle to high teens mark. So at least that will be nice.

Tonight we are camping beside the Mann River at Cangai, 61 km west of Grafton. We were surprised when we arrived to find only three other vans here for the evening. But then I suppose the cold weather in June has something to do with so view being camped here.

It's a lovely free camp, even though it's on private property, it is very picturesque with river and mountain views.
In the afternoon you share the site with the cows, who venture down to drink beside the river.

Ros always prepares and packages meals that we place in the vans deep freeze before any trip. These include different types of curries and her special spaghetti bol. These meals are ideal as a back up when its too damn cold to cook outside, its raining and windy or I just don't feel like cooking outside, which of course isn't very often especially when away camping.

So on our first evening, we enjoyed one of those curries along with a lovely bottle of Henschke Henry's Seven Shiraz blend, to celebrate our first night out on the road. The diesel heater purred away in the background and was just enough to take the chill away.

We love camping or should we say glamping, considering that our van is well set up for extended travel with all the latest mod cons. Our lithium battery system and solar panels, power all our accessories from our 12 Volt fridge, washing machine and even satellite TV. Caravan parks visits for us are as rare as hen's teeth.

It was a rather cool morning for our second day on the road, with the outside temperature at just 3.1 degrees at 7am. The fog was so thick that we were just able to make out the trees 20 metres away. 

Lovely hot brewed coffee followed by breakfast was next on the agenda while we waited to see if the fog would lift. It was still thick as pea soup at 8:30 am so we decided to head off anyway and as soon as we had climbed out of the valley we were bathed in sunshine.

Today's drive is just on 300 km, so its not a huge day. We climbed the Gibraltar Range which peaked at 1089 metres above sea level. So glad we spent the money having the torque converter and engine remap done. The auto transmission temperature never climbed beyond 74 degrees for such a long and winding climb.

As soon as we passed by the national parks at the range summit the countryside changed from lovely green to paddocks with nothing but dead grass. The countryside continued like this for the remainder of the day.

Our campsite for tonight was 23 km east of Moree. Another camp beside a river, but this time on the banks of the Gwydir.

Gum Flat Reserve is a camping area, accessed via a dirt road north of the Gwydir Highway. There are two areas here, one 2.4 and 3.1 km  from the highway.
A drop toilet along with a BBQ and shelter, have now been built at the first site, and there is ample room at both sites. There were just three other campers here when we arrived with two more arriving just on sunset.
Another cool evening had us inside quite early, as we had our showers before sitting down to have a few drinks, followed by another of  our pre-made meals.

Overcast skies kept the overnight temperature at 10.4 degrees. Our weather app informs us that there will be a 70% chance of rain today and it got that right. An hour after leaving we came across the rain that continued onto St George. A fuel fill here at $157.9 cpl followed by a visit to the bakery for a pie and sausage roll to help ward off the cold, or was that just an excuse.

Our campsite tonight is in the small town of Bollon, situated 111 km west of St George on the Balonne Highway. Today's drive of 373 km will be the largest number of kilometres for a days drive for this entire holiday. 

This is a lovely camp site beside Wallam Creek with toilets and showers and a walking path into town. A donation is appreciated so please leave something to support the community. We are happy to leave a donation even though we always use our own facilities. The pub serves great meals and the beers are certainly cold.

Our fourth day on the road was a real mixed bag. We left Bollon just after 9am heading further west towards Cunnamulla. A close encounter with an emu who ran across the road in front of us nearly ended in disaster for both of us. I'd forgotten just how bad the roads were in western Queensland. How do road builders who have just re-tared 150 km of road manage to make it with corrugations?

Apart from the road surface we had light nuisance rain fall for the whole journey, then as we approached Cunnamulla we encountered very thick fog with the visibility down to about 400 metres for the last 20 km.

A lunch stop in Eulo before continuing further west to camp in the sand dunes on the shores of Lake Bindegolly National Park. Unfortunately the part of the lake that we could see was bone dry, even though the many creeks we passed by today contained water. Its estimated that nearly 200 species of birds rely on this lake.

We followed a sandy winding track south of the highway and found ourselves a suitable spot to camp for the evening. There were already two other vans here but we continued past them for several hundred metres.

We have been monitoring the road closures around Innamincka and particularly the two roads that head north towards Birdsville. 
After visiting the information centre in Thargomindah and hearing that the road closures were still in place and could be for some foreseeable time we decided on our plan B. Our plan involved heading north towards Quilpie just 193 km away. This road was made up of single lane bitumen with about 30 km of good quality dirt. We camped just east of town in a very large area along a dry creek that joins the Bulloo River south of town.

After setting up camp Ros tried unsuccessfully to light our hot water service. Its been working up to this point. Gas is not the issue with all the stove burners lighting without any problems. I've looked briefly on the internet for possible causes but yet to determine  the best possible way to rectify the problem. These type of problems always happen when your away from civilisation. So we are down to boiling water on the stove and have a sponge bath each night.

Next morning more overcast sky with the hint of rain about so we packed up and headed north towards Windorah. Its many years since we last travelled this section of road and I'm pleased to advise the road surface is a vast improvement on our last trip. It is single lane bitumen with the occasional passing lane thrown into the mix.

Our camp for tonight is just south of Cooper Creek about 12 km from Windorah. We refuelled here at $171.0 cpl and once back at our campsite I fitted our "Stone Stomper" net for when we hit the dirt tomorrow.

The single lane strip of bitumen ran out at 118 km west of Windorah and we stopped for coffee while I aired down our tyres for the Birdsville Development Road.

Road was in good condition and we passed road crews who were grading some of the rougher parts.

Tonight our camp is beside the waterhole at Betoota. Its amazing to find lovely campsites with water views out in the middle of nowhere. A lovely end to the day with a beautiful sunset.

After being closed for many years, the Pub reopens in August for the Betoota and Birdsville races. 

  
Arrived in Birdsville just before lunch on Monday 2nd July and set up camp on the town common just south of town.