Going East.2

Going East.2

Posted on 10 Jan, 2009 2 comments

At 3 pm we arrived at the Threeways Roadhouse and got petrol, water etc. This was as far South as we would go, we turned left here, to head due East. Now entering the desert, very uninteresting and flat countryside, endless and often boring roads. At the end of the afternoon at 5.15 pm. we arrived at the Barkley Homestead Roadhouse, something from a wild west movie. We had covered 727 km’s that second day. It was still 26 degrees, but soon dropped and we had yet another cold night to get through. The cabin was something unbelievable, just a donga, a bed, bedside table, two windows, and ensuite with a tiny washbasin, fit for a canary! Leaking taps, toilet cistern filling up slowly, etc. There is no electricity, so a huge lighting plant runs day and night. There was a landline phone in the restaurant, but my money kept coming back, when I tried to ring Evy, lol. We had locked the dogs in our cabin ( highly illegal, haha ) and had dinner in the restaurant. This was a truly wild west experience, yet we were in the middle of Australia. But who cares? We had a strip heater on the wall, which was a luxury, so together with our dogs in the cabin we were snug and fell asleep without any trouble.
1st July, Sunday. We are leaving the Barkley Homestead at 8.17 am and the temperature at the gauge showed 13C. Heading East, and that would continue all day.
The landscape uninteresting, distances to cover huge, but here and there we are surprised by the sudden change of scenery.Tall white grass in the early sunshine looking pittoresque, then small trees in the desert, shrubs with yellow flowers. At 10.15 am it was 23C. We were now heading for the Frankland River, then James River, and from then lots of rivers and creeks, all with funny names, and often the same, like for instance: scrubby creek. Road conditions the last few hundred km’s from the border were shocking, they must have had a lot of rain, causing potholes everywhere. Whe crossed the border, but going into Queensland it was the same story, so we didn’t get too far.
We took petrol at Camoweal and by now we had done 1464 km’s from Humpty Doo. At 11.15 it was 25C, still heading East and for Mount Isa, a huge mining place.
As I said before this was the first place we could use our phones since Kathrine. It was Sunday which we realised later on, when nothing was open. I walked for nothing to Coles supermarket and even the petrol station didn’t have sandwiches, poor show! But the landscape before and certainly after Mt. Isa made up for a lot. Fantastic mountain ranges, arid and rocky, red dirt. We found a good place to stop, a little bit on a side track, where we made our own lunch. We have a car fridge, which runs on the cigarette lighter, so our milk, orange juice, bread, butter, cold meat etc. which we had brought from home, were still ok. We had so to speak a cheap lunch! Dogs always get bikkies and water on the stops. They have been absolutely fantastic, not a whimper, no complain. They loved every bit of the journey and going outside the car in new territory, sniffing the sniffs of the desert and who knows, perhaps of other traveller dogs.


I now understand why the kangaroo is our national emblem creature. I have not been able to count the dead roo’s on the side of the road, litterally thousands, and I am not joking! The road lead us through flat country again, and bad road. We were not going to be on time at our destination today, that became clear. But one cannot stop in the middle of the desert, we would freeze to death! So, just at 80 km’s an hour we proceeded, now the sun so low, I could see it sink away in my side mirror. I turned around and saw this huge red/orange ball slowly disappearing. In front of us the sky turned on a magnificent display of blue, orange, red and yellow glow, which we could enjoy for some time. I then discovered a UFO low on the Eastern side of the sky. “Look” I said to Paul. But this UFO didn’t disappear, it became larger and larger. Haha, it was of course the moon! Moonrise over the desert is indeed spectacular. Huge, orangy yellow, then it became yellow when fully emerged from the horizon. It was full too. How lucky can you get, seeing a sunset and moonrise all within the span of half an hour. Now it was really dark and we actually did see a kangaroo family on the middle of the road, so had to swirve a little, slowing down of course. The road is not busy at all, so quite safe. And I said too, if you get an accident, there is no way an ambulance will come, you cannot even ring the police!
We finally and painstakingly arrived at Lakeview Caravan Park in Richmond, right on top of the great artisian basin. Soggy everywhere.
The cabin was fabulous, a bedroom, sitting and kitchen seperate, fully equiped. But who feels like cooking after driving 800 km’s? Not me! So we had some take-a-ways from the petrol station across the road. The cabin too had its own fence around it so the dogs had their safe garden. There was a heater too, so we were not too cold in the night, but the dogs had to sleep in the car, but survived, as they had their own mats, sheepskin and blankets, lol.

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