Judy & Brian Tour Oz

No post yesterday, Banka is one of those lovely places where they don't have power, phones or internet (and definitely no freddos, still looking). What they do have is peace and quiet, the best natural spring water in copious amounts and a lovely 2km walk to their own billabong. The billabong was much fuller than last year and naturally some snaps were taken: Cudjenbra Billabong, Banka Banka NT It's not what you think! My shirt was donated to make a nice little cushion for someone with blistered bleeding feet, dodgy knees and a hip quickly freezing up! Cudjenbra Billabong, Banka Banka NT  Cudjenbra Billabong, Banka Banka NT  Move Over! I'm coming round! Banka Banka NT Banka Banka NT The top of the ridge trail to the 'bong. Not for the faint hearted! Banka Banka NT Banka Banka NT Everything looks better by moonlight. Banka Banka NT But wait, there's more.... Up and at it early today, got a long way to go. Pulled o...

Well, here we are finally. From Barkly Homestead it's 130km on a development road (rough bitumen wide enough for 1 car, rougher dirt either side), then turn right and 10km down a wide gravel road. First impression is that it's not much to look at. It just a bunch of vans and trucks and utes parked off to one side, then the racecourse itself, which is a few tin sheds and a track about 2km long. The first race had 3 horses, the second had 5. Judy picked the winner by sheer good luck (it was skill! JB comment )and picked up $57. The races themselves are really amateur staff, although some of them actually have Registered Horses. They also had a Calcutta thing which i know nothing of but its something like a sweep, and they had a few races where they 'sell' the horses. This was odd. Each horse gets auctioned to the highest bidder, Some went for nearly $2000! Then they have the race and whoever 'owns' the horse takes the pot. Now there were about three horses o...

Yeah! Crossed into the Territory this morning. By way of a welcome the landscape opens up into huge, vast treeless plains, stretching into forever where they meet the bluest clearest sky you will ever see. It's only a step of 270km from Camooweal to Barkly, so even though we left latish we arrived earlish - before lunch. Mind you the 1/2 hour time difference and The Rig rolling along effortlessly at 110kph might have helped. I think we saw 1 roadwork, and that was before the border. Judy had been told by the people here that it would be busy, get in early to avoid a disappointment. Well at 1130 when we rolled in, we were the first ones here! Take your pick of spots, spoiled for choice. So we plumped for the same one we had last year. Going to have a quiet arvo and then off to the Brunette Downs Races tomorrow. As an aside, I should relate the sad tale from Camooweal last night, it will stand as a reminder to all other travellers that you need to take care... Last night, aft...

Left the ‘Curry and kept heading west, first stop the Isa (116km) where we topped up on some food things, and then kept going right across to Camooweal (180km). Being creatures of habit we went straight to the BP Roadhouse park where we stayed once before. Someone was in early and took our spot! Oh well, plenty more to choose from. Made ourselves some lunch before walking up the road to the Post Office and then to the Camooweal Pub. You all hope its the last time i mention this, but good old Williamson features Camooweal Pub in one of his songs, something to the effect that all the old cockies and drovers are sitting around having a beer and swapping yarns, one of which is about ‘the drover who’d come from the Kimberly run, Fitzroy’  etcetc. Well we both imagined a really old style country pub and just thought we drop in and drink up the atmosphere. Well how wrong could we be? It’s just one corner of the original pub and its sterile i reckon you could eat off the floor. The on...

Out of van park, turn right, drive west: 247 km to Julia Creek. Few bouts of road works at the 70km mark. OK it was one lollipop zone and 5 traffic light zones over 12km, but who’s counting. But hey, as John Williamson says, ‘we’re further out, in Julia Creek’ Now this is a nice little town, has a nice friendly feel to its one street and almost no shops, not even a proper cafe, which closed 3 years ago. We went into the info centre, which is perhaps the nicest one we've seen, mainly to cop a look at the endangered Dunnart, of which only 11 exist. They were thought to be extinct until rediscovered here at Julia Creek in 1991. They have a special display area and enclosure behind glass (it’s only tiny, like a mouse) but we saw nothing. It was suggested that it had just had a bellyful of flies and had scurried into its hideaway to sleep it off. We forwent the coffee and continued on the 140km to Cloncurry, or as one truckie to another called it, the curry. Now i’m pretty sure i’v...

Heading west from CT, Hughendon is 245km, Mt Isa 773. We chose Hughendon. Two and half hours later we pull in to the sleepy little village. The road is dead straight and mostly flat. Country spreads out for miles and miles into the shimmering distance. In between CT and Hughendon, is Balfes Creek,  Homestead,  Pentland, Torrens Creek and Praire, none of which is bigger than one or two rundown looking fibro shacks and maybe a hotel. Why  are  they here?  I'd  love to stay and find out, but we  must  press on. Two and a half hours is about my limit, my knee  hurts  and  I'm  starting to lose concentration. Hughendon is a most welcome sight and we make the most of it by having a leisurely lunch at the FJ Holden cafe (how could we resist, and besides, its the only cafe in town) before setting off for Richmond, which Judy had cleverly called ahead to book us into the only van park. When we arrive at about 3, it's pretty full alrea...

We left Airlie Beach early and headed north, first to Bowen and then Ayr, where we took our first break. We were back on the Bruce of course, but surprisingly it seems to have survived the road works and is quite an easy drive. One thing that is noticeable almost straight away is that the landscape is changing; we are now in country reminiscent of the outback, huge, wide totally dry river beds, rocky outcrops and fringing mountains. About 30km north of Ayr we took a left turn toward Woodstock, bypassing Townsville and saving ourselves about a 100km and an hour. As we drove along this beautiful valley we slowly started to realise that we had in fact been down here before; last year when we stayed in Townsville and took a big day trip down tho every road. From Woodstock the road opens up and is wide and smooth, giving us a pleasant run through to our destination. With John Williamson's song of the same name ringing in our iPod, we did indeed make it into Charters Towers, not quite ...