Cape Crawford and The Road to Queensland

Sunday the 4th of July I got away from Lorella Springs a bit before lunch. I again had to tackle these rough corrugated roads. As I was still on the Lorella Springs driveway (39km) I came across a bunch of guys around a camper trailer. They were strapping a fresh cut branch to the axle of one side of the trailer so that it could be dragged into Lorella Springs. So either they did not have a spare or they had already had two flat tyres and so no working spare. It would have been an incredibly rough ride for the trailer and I would be surprised if it could make it intact. Did not get a photo though. I proceeded on and came out to the Carpentaria Highway on the Borroloola side as I wanted to come by the MaCarthur Mine where I could get phone service. I needed to apply online for a permit to enter QLD and I wanted to make phone calls to the family as I had not spoken to them for six days due to no service. I grabbed lunch at the same time on the side of the road in the shade near the mine. It worked out well. With that done I drove on to The Heartbreak Hotel Van Park at Cape Crawford where I had my van in storage.

I paid for the storage and filled with fuel and hooked up the van. My original plan was to move back to the Little River free camp. I had a fair bit to do though with the re sorting of things in and out of the Landcruiser to the van and vica versa. I also found that the two long life milk in a cupboard had gone bad and burst. They had got wet from the leaked cordial bottle I found at Borroloola. So as I had to do with the cordial bottle smell I had to wipe down the shelf and its entire contents. I was glad I was at a place with bins so I could get rid of the rubbish. Another job I had to do was to hose the dust out of the caravan breaks as they had been grabbing. Again it was good to be at place I could do that. So with all that to do including wanting to grab a shower there, I wound up staying there the night. As a single person, unpowered it only cost $10 so it made sense to stay there. So I did all the jobs and grabbed a shower and parked the van for the night and finally relaxed again. It had worked out well with the tent and air bed but I was glad to be back in the van.

The next morning, Monday the 5th July, I was feeling more relaxed after having completed the Savannah Way so I had a good breakfast. By that I mean that the corrugations were over, plus there were no big decisions to make as far as van or no van, and how do I keep everything cold, and what would I need to pack etc. I had all four tyres on the Landcruiser and all four tyres on the van to inflate now that I was on sealed roads again. That took a long time as I had to use my air compressor because the Hotel servo did not have one. I reckon they don’t as it would be in constant use by people using the Savannah Way. But I don’t know why that would be a reason to not have one. I had to wait after each couple of tyres for my compressor to cool down. Otherwise it would get burn out. In between that and the waiting I took a couple of snaps of the road and signs.

The road trains are massive, especially the four trailer ones.

This was the road I was heading out on, The Tablelands Highway. I was then turning left at Barkly Homestead onto the Barkly Highway headed for QLD. South Australia had a hard boarder close and so that stopped me from visiting the Flinders Ranges on the way home as that was my second main target for the trip. Therefore my plan now was to get back into QLD before they had a hard boarder close. Once there I would be right to return to NSW whenever I wanted to. As much of the road does on the Savannah Way, the road goes from two lanes to one for long periods. Still better than gravel though.

So with all my jobs done and tyres inflated I headed down the Tablelands Highway. I stopped at a rest stop to boil the billy for morning tea and then for lunch.

I saw another dingo as I was getting closer to the Barkly Homestead. He posed nicely for me but I would have had to break and then reverse and he would have been gone by then. I arrived at the Barkly Homestead where there was phone service so I gave Linda a ring. Then I headed east along the Barkly Highway for another 40km or so and pulled over at the Wonarah Bore Rest Area where I was staying the night.

It was a peaceful night. The next morning, Tuesday the 6th July I continued east and crossed over into QLD. NT Police were manning the boarder, checking people coming into NT. However, there were no QLD Police there.

It was another 13km to Camooweal. I put some fuel in there, used the dump point and grabbed a coffee. The fuel was still expensive at Camooweal so I only put in enough to get to Mount Isa. So I filled at Mount Isa and shopped for a few items. I then pushed on for another 60km and pulled over at Mary Kathleen for the night.