Long Day 4: 540 Ks from Three Ways to Mataranka

The speed limit is 130 km/h (78 MPH), and you can go fast through the rather bleak desert of the centre of the NT.  Lots of interesting little things along the way, though.  In Renner Springs, there is the first place (of many) which does not offer espresso coffee or cappucino.  Rats!  They do offer a unique picnic table, though:

And then let's get gas in Elliott.  Oops!

Well, there actually was gas two minutes down the road further in Elliott.  Whew!

Then we came to the lovely Dunmarra, where the proprietor took in a tame corella, named Toot, who was raised by humans.  He tears up everything if he stays in the house, and he gets depressed if he gets put out back, so he gets to stay by the picnic table and talk to everyone who visits.  Toot loves to eat!

But we could be doing Australia by bike.  Here is Peter, a man from Victoria who has done bike trips of thousands of kilometers at a time, who is 57 years old and in fine shape!  He is going from Melbourne to Darwin.  Wowie.  That was too far for us!  Good on ya, Peter!

And the last town we "stopped" at before Mataranka was Larrimah.  Eek!  Not much there.  At least when we were there. 

At least we did not need gas. 

Cakes?

Nope.

Now we are in Mataranka, home of We of the Never Never, and host to Bitter Sprngs, a lovely quiet, bird-filled forest with a thermal pool the temperature of bath water.  What a nice reward after a hard push through the Outback.  We are here for two nights.  Quiet, star-filled, and sweet place of nature. 

Day 3: Camooweal to the Northern Territory (now we are in "Three Ways")

So, today we enjoyed Camooweal all morning.  Quite a sweet little place with a great historical museum of cattle droving (the Cattle Drovers) and a great post office, with the following bathroom and enlarged sign above the toilet:

The awesome post office also serves great coffee and has blazing fast internet.  Yeah! 

And as a last paean to Queensland, this sign is what you see if you have just left the Northern Territory and are entering Queensland (in other words, going the opposite direction that we are)

So, I guess we are to set our watches back five years and 30 minutes.  Believe it or not, the time in the Northern Territory is actually half an hour behind Queensland. 

Today our trip was shifted into high gear (!) - Shirl is  finally driving in 5th gear, and we did the 450 K trip at the speed limit of 130 km/hour (78 miles per hour) in a little over four hours from Camooweal to the next junction of highways (the Barkly and the Stuart), which is called Three Ways.  Lightning fast.  We are ensconced in a shady site in the one and only Caravan Park here and are enjoying our extra half an hour of rest!  

Day 2: Cloncurry to Camooweal

Well, we have made it through a mere 300 Ks of road on the Barkly HIghway to Mount Isa and then the Overlanders' Way to Camooweal.  Not much on the road but the occasional little flower:

and then a huge windmill!!!

We think Camooweal is known for its windmill

we are here, if but just overnight.

Update on Tue, August 30, 2011 at 6:52 PM by The Untethered Folks

Shirl recommended I share this Non Sequitur comic, so here's the link:

I Blog, therefore...

Day 1, Karumba to Cloncurry

So it was over 450 "K"'s of driving, almost all straight road, punctuated every few minutes (literally!) with these signs - Floodway; Road Subject to Floodings, Indicators Show Depth.  Fortunately, we are here in the dry part of the year!

you measure it in meters?

And what are all these little pyramids throughout the outback?  Yes, kids, they are termites - millions of them!  See their little houses?

And we knew there were no towns between Normanton (just 70 Ks out of Karumba) and Cloncurry.  We also knew that little green signs on the road mean that you are a certain number of Ks from a town that begins with the initial at the top of the sign.  So what did this sign mean? 

Well, it meant Burke-Wills, the crossroads of two highways and host to a great road house.

And a place to get petrol (that is very important in the outback!)  Here is Rowan's favorite type of vehicle, a road train.  Check out its size, compared to our little red mud covered "Ubi" (our van's license plate in UBQ094), and we are ubiquitous, so that's her name.

The Drive to Darwin

We may be off the grid at times because we're now going into never-neverland of the middle of Oz and there ain't much of a yellow brick road to follow so here's a map you can print out to post on your milk carton if you don't hear from us again.

Map of our drive to Darwin with possible stopping points (moving from point A to B). Click on the image to view a larger map.