After a long good bye, delicious bacon & eggs, a quick photo of the group, and lots of hugs, we hit the road. 130km to the nearest supermarket, I ducked in for meat & vegies while Jase stayed with the rig, then north north north, over 500km to Devils Marbles where we had an early night after a fulfilling meal of kranksy burgers and beer.
Today we woke before dawn, excited and refreshed, and hit the road before sunrise.
The road is long, straight, flat and boring, other than a sighting of a very large red kangaroo which bounded beside us at 80km/hr, and a few flocks of budgies flying erratically at the same speed.
A short stop at Barkly’s Homestead for a snack and beer before our lunch stop in the middle of nowhere, a strass & salad roll. We chat to a bicycle rider who is here from England. He and his friend (who is several kms in front of him) are here from the UK and have been pedalling the country for 8 months and have ridden 11,000km!
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| Barkly's Homestead |
Onwards to our stop for the night, 120km west of the Qld border and another early night after a delicious and long-anticipated bbq consisting of 6 lamb chops, fried mushrooms, sliced potato, mustard, sauerkraut and a glass of red wine. We giggle through the movie “Big Trouble in Little China” and fall into bed saying “Are you kidding? I’m Jack Burrrrton!”
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| BBQ glory |
Next day the road opens up and we are surrounded by open cattle country. The road is boring again, not much traffic, but at least we are in Qld and we can feel the warmth and sunshine ahead. Usually cattle grids mark the boundary between stations, but here, for some reason, the signs warning us of a grid ahead are all false alarms, as each “grid” is simply painted into the road. Weird.
We stop at the Burke & Wills for burgers & chips and are hounded by flocks of apostle-birds who screech noisily, hungry for a free feed. We are driving north now, and the road is a single lane; its bitumen is breaking away at the sides, and the gravel on either side is well worn by trucks. Occasionally it reverts to 2 lanes which enables cars to overtake one another. Thankfully, it’s a road less travelled so we don’t have too much grief. Lots of road kill here – a dead kangaroo every km or so, which is a bit sad but obviously it’s a sign of just how many roos are out there.
Hello Normanton! Rodeo grounds are huge but packed full of trucks, floats, swags, cartons of XXX Gold, horses, camp fires, more cartons of XXX Gold, and us right in the middle. Good times ahead....
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