We had a big day in the saddle/car seat and travelled 530kms. We are now in Charters Towers.
The first big effort was getting the van out of its tight parking spot without scraping it on the concrete base for the annex or hitting one of the large trees around...or rolling down the hill. That negotiated successfully - in one go. Good job Greg!
It was amazing how quickly the countryside changed. We came off the tablelands and twisted round and round, up and down out of the misty mountains, through patches of rainforest and very quickly we were in a different landscape. Last look at sugar cane, rich red/brown volcanic soil, tropical fruit orchards, roadside stalls selling avocado, peanuts, strawberries and lush grass everywhere.
The rest if the journey we were in the outback travelling through cattle stations. It was pretty dry looking and at one stage noticed bottle trees dotted about the bush and they were dead. There were no towns along the way ..well only a couple of settlements and we didn't stop. It wasn't totally flat, at times we could see mountains in the distance and we went through hills and some nice breakaway country.
The road itself was good for the majority of the distance- and pretty quiet. There were stretches of roadworks with the stop and go man. There were a couple of stretched of single lane bitumen and of course we met the biggest road train there ( three trailers loaded with copper from Surveyor Mine) and you don't share the road with them....you pull right off!!
The day actually went quite quickly with a couple of leg stretches/ lunch stops. That's where the van is great. Greg walks the dog, I make the sandwiches or coffee, we eat, walk some more then off again. I fire off some more photo shots out the window at 100 kmp. Stopped at one truck stop as an oncoming truck had noticed we had a flapping hatch and contacted us on radio. Duct tape fixed the issue.
Tried to read a bit but there is always something happening out the window and had to be on the lookout for cattle as there were brahmans grazing right on the edge of the road. They just look up as we trundled by but saw a few that hadn't fared so well and were stiff and blown up like balloons. Lucky the windows were closed. Also we went over some river crossings with wallabies hopping about. Plenty of ant hills and the size and shape varied with the soil type.
Arrived at Charters Towers only to find all the caravan parks were full so we have been sent to the show ground. I'm happy about that as it's quiet, we have heaps of space and all the facilities we need. I'm about to test the showers. Today is a day exploring this city.
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