Dingo to Lake Elphinstone

We had a pub meal at the Dingo Pub (learnt the town was named Dingo .....as you no doubt guessed....because of the dingos round the area) and talked with the publican/road house owner/ pioneering family member who no doubt was making lots of dollars but who also knew the local history.  Plenty of dogs around that barked frantically as we walked to the pub. But they looked  like pig hunting dogs and looked pretty mean.

Next morning after a surprisingly good sleep, despite being in a park with; two saw mills nearby, a road used by huge road trains and close to the railway line where coal trains continually rattle by, we headed off again. The train that stopped us at the crossing yesterday had three locomotives ( two in the middle ) and 100 wagons carrying coal.  We were told us at the pub they can be one and a half km long and that about 14 trains a day pass through the town. There is a lot of coal mining happening around this area.

One of the two sawmills in town.

This guy in the caravan park made good use of the off-cuts from the sawmill

More outback countryside out the window as we sped by along the Fitzroy Development Road. It was a good road with few road trains and little traffic.

So far the road trains have been fine, they fold in our side mirrors with the wind gust as we meet but there has been plenty of room for us both on the road.

Bottle Tree

We travel along flat country with low scrub and very few trees then the road would dip for a creek crossing with interesting hills and different bush then just when you're sick of the dry barren looking country we cross a creek/ river with water and all the land around is irrigated and a lush green colour.

Irrigated crops next to a creek

When it rains I can understand how this country becomes impassable. There are so many creek crossings on the road. They are often just dippers to let the water run across the road but some have bridges over deeper dry creeks and gullies then comes a river with a serious bridge.

We crossed the Isaac and the Mackenzie rivers and yesterday the Dawson.   Agriculture consisted of stations with lots of cattle and more intensively farming with cropping.

We diverted into Middlemount a shiny, new purpose built coal mining town begun in the 1990s for the coal industry, all neat and tidy with three styles of houses square, rectangular and raised. It reminded me of Kambalda in the early days when we lived there. The golf course was lush and green, the streets were laid out in some crazy pattern so there were no through roads; everything was circular. Locals call it the peanut plan.

Then on to lake Elphinstone where we are free camped on the lake. It's lovely. Plenty of bird life and hills around. Greg went off kayaking and did a six km lap of the lake - clocked the route on his garmen GPS, but cut across bits because they were bird breeding grounds teeming with feathery water birds. No power though, poor mobile coverage and no internet.