Store cupboard living

Trying to empty the store cupboards of stuff we bought at the start of the trip and have towed for 30,000km. Plain flour, sugar, cinnamon. Hmmm.....have eggs, milk and a banana that needs using. Pancakes! Absolutely revolting, so horrible I just had to have another one😊

full circle

we have now completed the big lap and made it back to the Pacific at Townsville. 39 weeks on the road, have driven about 38,000km, and I reckon used about 5 tonnes of fuel. And yes, my arse is now the exact shape of a Nissan seat.

We should be here for a week or so doing jobs - we advertised the rig yesterday so need to give it a good clean inside and out in case we get any viewers in the near term- plus give post a chance to catch up to us and catch up on some internet stuff. And we might even do some fun stuff that we skipped last time like going over to magnetic island.

then we can potter our way up to Cairns revisiting a couple of our favourite spots like balgal beach. Yvonne and Tony fly into cairns in 3 weeks so need to be there by then so Maria has someone else to talk at for a change.

Outback Queensland

From Daly Waters in NT it took us 3 days to get to Mt Isa in Queensland. A quick stop meant we were able to catch up with emails and make some phone calls before we pushed on inland. We carried on along the Barkly highway, through Cloncurry to a little place called McKinley and home of the Walkabout Creek Hotel used in the film Crocodile Dundee (and I thought it was in NT):  

Two days later we made it to Longreach and the country’s centre of aviation in the early days of flight technology, as it was here that Australia’s first six-passenger aircraft was built. We visited the Qantas Founders Museum and toured one of the last 707-138s that had been restored in Southend and flown back to Longreach for the museum. We also went on board an old 747 that was stripped back so we could see where the blackbox is and what’s behind all the panels!

The town is also home of the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame which explains about the lives of the first outback pioneers of this country and the hardships they endured.

We had a great couple of days around this small outback town. We continued our journey east and stayed last night in Sapphire (Rubyvale was just down the road) and today we're in Emerald. Many gemstones have been found in this part of the country, hence the names, but all I've seen so far have been in Sapphire's service station/general store! It's quite high up here, so the temperature dropped quite considerably last night (down to about 6C), and it was nice to feel cold for a change. We shall continue north now, through Charters Towers and on to Townsville and the warmer weather.

Goodbye Northern Territory - hello Queensland (again!)

Kakadu National Park covers almost 20,000 square kilometres and is a place of contrasting landscapes. We visited the rock art galleries at Ubirr and Nourlangie Rock which date back many thousands of years

The steep 250m climb/rock scramble to the top at Ubirr was worth the view across the floodplains below:

Gunlom Falls was only accessible via a 4WD road – the ute was rather orange afterwards from going through a number of water crossings along gravel roads.

It rained quite heavily for about 5 hours the last night we were in Kakadu, but the temperature didn't fall below 30C and the humidity was astonishing. We had to abandon watching a film outside as we couldn't hear the soundtrack for the rain on the van and awning and we realised we were sitting in 2 inches of water! Time to turn off the generator! In the morning, the tidemark around the awning showed that it had reached 4 inches – we were in a swamp. A new batch of mozzies was also waiting for us as we started packing up to move on. We often wonder what they eat when we're not there.

We continued south for a few days through Pine Creek, Katherine and on to Elsey National Park, home of the hot springs at Mataranka. The thermal springs were fringed by paperbark and palm forest and bubble at a constant temperature of 34C. It’s also amazing the difference a few hundred kilometres makes on the overnight temperature as by this time, the nights were a lot cooler so there was still a chill in the air when we went swimming first thing in the morning. It was lovely – first bath I've had since Sydney J

Next, on to Daly Waters and the home of Australia’s first international airfield. From the 1930s to the late 1950s it was used for flying mail into the Northern Territory from Queensland. It then became a staging and refueling point for Qantas international flights flying through Darwin and on to Singapore and other domestic services. In those days, the trip cost £275 and took 8 days. During WWII, Daly Waters played a large part in the protection of the Northern Australian coastline. The Australian and American air forces were based here along with Mitchell Bombers, Kitty Hawks and a fighter squadron.  We walked around the original Qantas hangar, reading about the place and how it all began. The old drover’s store in the township is now the Daly Waters Pub and people come from miles around (including us) to experience the bush hospitality. At least 100 caravans plus tents and swags were in the field adjacent to the pub, so we didn't have far to stagger! ‘Beef and Barra’ on the BBQ is a must (barramundi is a tasty, meaty white fish – yummy!), washed down with a few beers and accompanied by a couple of guys on guitars and later in the evening, a typical bush comic. A great night was had by all.

From Daly Waters it took us two days to leave the Territory and cross the border into Queensland. Now we’re visiting other places we didn't the first time around.