News from the North. Unfortunately our esteemed editor had to leave this trek due to circumstances beyond her control, so you will have to settle for second hand news.
We left Birdsville with a heavy heart, but the "follow the Burke and Wills trek" has to continue. The road from Birdsville to Boulia was mainly sealed but even the unsealed sections were smooth-- we managed to escape Kevin's tyre issue. Bedourie was a typical outback town with the sports facilities being the biggest infrastructure, followed by the Information Centre.
Boulia was as I had found it 4 hears ago, with the "beyond the black stump", stump still taking centre stage. We followed Kevin's advice and headed out behind the racecourse and down to the river to find delightful camp sites --took a bit of an effortt to get Duds backed into his site.
This was our first night without Linda and Paul, so you can imagine it was a lovely quite night and the fire was subdued and kept to less than three feet high. Of course all this happened after a visit to the coffee shop.
Next day saw the the other couples head off to the Boulia Encounter which they thoroughly enjoyed --Sandra even managed a few flash photos during the "do not take a photo performance".
After that it was off to Mt Isa, with a quick stop at Dajarra for lunch, along a sealed road.
Crossing the "channel country" was amazing compared to the barren gibber plains, with numerous (dry) river bed crossings and green grass of all things.
Found Kevin at the caravan park he had booked us into, then it was a rush to the laundry and showers followed by cleaning of anything still standing including husbands. That night it was up to the lookout to, see the sunset and sip champagne along with a bus load of "oldies" including a delightful old girl who would appear to have been in her late eighties.
Duds had his broken water outlet repaired at great expense by a pro caravan repairer, then he, Barry and Kev headed for the Hard Times mine tour-- three orange men came back (in their mine overalls) having had an interesting time.Yours truly went shopping and stocked up for the next part of the trip.
Then across to Concurry then north towards Normaton. This meant we had to stop at the famous
Burke and Wills roadhouse for coffee, spring roll or two and a photo for Jen. Passed numerous road trains going south with cattle, all belonging to some bloke called Curley's, eventually stopping at a rest stop called Bang Bang. Half a dozen other caravans but no one came over to share our fire, which we used again in the morning for bacon and eggs.
Stopped at Normaton for coffee but the coffee shop was closed so it was "instant" at the information centre. Then across a flood plain to Karumba where we found every person who owned a boat in Australia booked into the caravan parks -- managed to get into one for three nights and the boys were able to organise a fishing charter for tomorrow.
Karumba is an export centre for baby Brahman calves --very cute according to Barry.
Well Paul, we may not tell you about tomorrow but we will think of you.
Dr Bob - Foreign Correspondent for Stray Tag-a-Long Tales signing off from Karumba.
Sent from Samsung tablet
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