Issue 3 Oct 2017
Brodie’s next 15,000 klm
On th e road again
The Journey to the 17/10/2017
Our journey so far, the blue line is mainly covered in this issue, while the green is in previous issues. Fuel costs have varied from $1.28 to $1.56 with about $1.35 being the most common. Due to the heat we have only free camped twice, and paid an average of $35p/n for caravan parks with pool and power.
175 klm to Winton Qld. After a late night we actually slept in, so it was around 9.30 when we bid goodbye to our new Victorian friends and headed north towards Winton. Its only 175klm to Winton and we passed a fair few Rv’s heading south (is there a message somewhere?) but we saw no wildlife and very little roadkill .. a huge difference to further south. Just outside Winton was the turn off to the “Australian Dinosaur Trail” display, when we discovered it was going to cost over $100 to visit it we gave it a miss, I find that stuff interesting but much prefer mechanical stuff. Just at the edge of town was the Matilda Country Tourist Park, it was the only park in Winton with a pool so it was a no brainer. We set up quickly and jumped on the bikes, it was a mild 37.4 degrees and rode the 1.5k into town. It was unusual to see construction cranes in a small country town and here we could see two dominating the skyline, as we round the corner we discovered they were building the new Walzing Matilda centre (the old one burnt down) Wow! what a Taj Mahal that is going to be. We visited a community museum which encompassed most of the history including a small dinosaur display and the usual small town memorabilia ..lunch was next in the local pub and then back to pool at the park. There was 4 young kids in the pool and the youngest immediately adopted me and regaled me with her adventures ..... she could talk underwater. It seems they were from Port Macquarie and doing the same route as us except the opposite direction. The funniest thing she said was. ‘WE STARTED AS FREE CAMPERS BUT IT WAS SO HOT WE TURNED IN TO POOL CAMPERS” Just like us LOL. We had a ride round the town and came across the “Musical Fence” a 5 wire fence cleverly connected to reverberation panels in the shade shelter so you could play tunes on the fence
Cloncurry or Mt Isa It was so hot last night that Jan agreed to having the aircon running all night, I think it was still in the 40's around 8pm ... way too hot for these two black ducks, even though we had spent a good part of the afternoon in the pool it was still uncomfortable once you stepped outside. 6.30am saw us up and showered and ready to go, it was only 32 degrees. Fuel was only $1.32 a litre although I was a bit concerned as the computer had decided we had used 27 litres per hundred, fortunately just a glitch. That being said the computer was showing up to 18litres as we were travelling towards Cloncurry, I was quite worried till we stopped to fly the drone and nearly got blown over by the head winds and they just kept blowing.. The landscape started off with typical wide open plains and then these mesa appeared it was like a cowboy film and then back to flat and featureless until we approached Cloncurry and it changed to small hills and rocky outcrops. Along the way we stopped at the small village of McKinlay, this is the home of “The Walkabout Hotel” of Crocodile Dundee fame. We had to stop and buy a drink and take a few photo’s. It was so busy that we doubled the clientele (all 4 of us) It was still very similar to how it appeared in the movie although a lot of the pictures were stills and out takes from the film. We pushed on to Cloncurry arriving around lunchtime, so we had lunch in the park decided it was too hot to do the tourist thing so we pushed on to Mt Isa 100 odd k’s down the road. We got caught behind some huge road trains, one of them had 5 trailers, but it was all worth it, after nearly 3000 ks I could see the Golden Arches .. civilization at last!
cape is incredible!
rom Winton
We decided to book two nights at the Mt Isa Caravan Park .. $67 with Seniors discount ... a fairly old park but we had a nice big drive site. There was a city bus tour that gave an overview of the area so after booking that the rest of the afternoon was spent in the pool. The next day the tour started at 930am and we drove around the city and mine sites for about 2 1/2 hours, it was enjoyable and without being to indepth gave us a good understanding of the city.
There is no mountain in Mt Isa! the mine was called Mt Isa after a mine (Mt Edna) in West Australia and the city grew from that After the bus tour it was a bit of shopping, they even have an air cond Bunnings but not with the water ďŹ tting I needed, then back to the pool and that was the day gone.
Leaving Mt Isa fairly early meant we arrived in Camooweal around 11am after a quick look around we decided to head for Barkly Homestead about 300 ks away ,,, it had a pool. Barkly Homestead is just a roadhouse in the middle of nowhere, catering just for the passing trade and does very well at it. We were in the pool within minutes of booking in and then settled down for a windy warm night,
About the only wildli
ife we have seen in days
The Tennant Creek Telegraph
h Station
About 400 odd k's to Tennant Creek, the scenery didn’t change as much as previous days but there was lots of burnt out areas. We didn’t see any wildlife (a few cows) and the only road kill was a couple of cows, perhaps as it was really green compared to other places, animals didn’t have to venture to the roadsides for food ...well thats my theory! We stopped at the Telegraph Station just out of town, I haven’t been flying the drone much due to really high winds. Phil in a phone call suggested it would be no problem, well after nearly getting into trees I got the shot on the previous page and made one of the hairiest landings so far, only clipping a couple of bushes lol. Into town for some shopping, checking out the lookout and out to the lake for lunch. After paying $1.54 a litre for diesel we headed south ... Devils Marbles next stop
South from Tennant Creek
Lunch at Tennant Creek
Devils Marbles The Devils Marbles are a collection of basically round rocks spread over quite a few hectares, We spent sometime wandering around and they were magnificent to look at but once again the heat beat us and we headed off to find a pool and power for the night.
Devils Marbles
There are two caravan parks within 25ks of the rocks and both advertised pools. We drove past the first one as it looked hot and dusty and settled on the second “The Devils Marbles Resort Park” which was situated in Wycliffe Wells, the self proclaimed UFO capital of Australia. The park must have been something in its day (20 years ago) it had a 300 seat restaurant, life size super hero statues scattered through its shady green parklands, there were even green aliens in various locations, unfortunately, like the pool, had fallen in to disrepair. Evidently new owners hope to restore it to its former glory. All that being said we had a lovely spot, emu’s and donkeys to feed, and green lush grass to walk on, those of you who have been to central Australia will know how unique that is.
We actually took time to sit outside and enjoy the “serenity” before heading towards Alice Springs. Even though this is the main highway between Darwin and Adelaide it is really quiet (although it is Sunday) Only a couple of 100ks down the road and someone was having a bad day, the rear trailer had overturned spreading water melon all over the road. They looked delicious but we were waved by without being offered any, I’m sure they couldn’t glue them back together.
35lkm north
Macdonald Ran
of Alice Springs
nges on the horizon
The trip from Wyclie Wells into Alice Springs was getting fairly routine, the scenery while spectacular had a certain sameness with the changes so subtle that you suddenly realise it has changed completely, We made sure we stopped at the several little towns shown on the map but they were really only roadhouses, most of the communities had moved away
Barrow Creek Telegraph Station
Interestingly most of these little towns were based around wells that had been drilled by the government to supply water for the overland route between Adelaide and Darwin.
During the Second World War there were a lot of troops stationed between the two cities and they discovered the red soil was very fertile when supplied with water, huge market gardens were quickly established to feed the troops. The convoys carrying the produce were limited to 40klm hour due to the road conditions a far cry from the roadtrains that roared past us today. . As we get closer to Alice, eroded escarpments appear out of nowhere
An animal that was on my bucket list was the Thorny Devil, in my previous visits to Alice Springs I hadn’t managed to see one so this trip was going to be the one. The Alice Springs Desert Park featured one in their ads so we decided to spend the day there. What a great day we had, it started with a bike ride out to the park, a really good bird show and a couple of interesting talks ...well worth the admission price ,,,, and YES! they had Thorny Devils.. We had about 5 hours at the park and then rode back into the town centre for a bit of shopping and a look around and then it was back to the park and into the pool.
Smashing eggs
Dingo
Ormist
ton Gorge
A trip to Glen Helen for lunch (128ks) and then checking out the various gorges on the way back. By far the the most attractive was Ormiston Gorge, if we had known prior to getting to Alice we would have camped in a shot and just lazed on the beach
Glen Helen Gorge
Jan getting her photos
Simpson’s Gap
One of the narrowest gaps through the West Macdonald ranges, it was carved by the Roe River. Nature lovers flock here at dusk and dawn to spot the very rare black footed rock wallaby ..we saw 3 in the middle of the day, but their camoflage is so good we couldn’t photograph them
The last we will see of the north side of the West MacDonald Ranges for a while, we are heading south tomorrow with Kings Canyon the projected ďŹ rst stop.