A relaxed start.
Chatted with brother, Ian, about staying with them near Grafton on the way home. Filled the thermos and headed East. Stopped briefly by the side of the road to photograph some wildflowers-red grevillea and yellow wattle.
Stopped at Barkly homestead for hot chocolate and muffin. So clean and well kept. Looked like good accommodation too. Bathrooms were so nice, gorgeous, clean and everything worked! Great Goanna sculpture out front and art gallery inside.
Back on the road, it’s a long, long straight road to the horizon. Fields of grevilleas and wattle then vast plains of golden grasses. Lots of flocks of tiny birds. Groups of locusts flying across the road. Loads of small raptors singly hovering over the road and fields. Loads of butterflies.
Fortunately most of the butterflies are blown off before hitting the windscreen; not so much the locusts!
Pulled over for lunch by the road. Another traveler saw the bikes on our trailer and pulled over for a chat. He was also racing Finke and had previously been a truckie on this highway. After we packed up lunch and headed off, about a couple of hundred metres down the road we found there was a proper pretty lunch spot followed by a small stream and wetland; then more of the miles of grasslands. Crossed into Queensland with no fanfare, but possibly better roads.
Took a brief pitstop on our way into Mount Isa and then into Mount Isa. Thanks to the Petrol Spy App we hunted down a good garage diesel at 207.9c/l premium diesel 209.9 – a big shift from everywhere and also quite a big shift from the rest of Mount Isa. It’s a very big flush petrol station not an out the back in the container job. So, we did a big fill here.
Checked in to Van Park cabin. Toilet didn’t work. Changed to another cabin. Much better but now a bit late to sit outside-mossies are out. Enjoyed wine and cheese then we heated up the left over Finke spag bol for dinner. Still yum. Showered ready for an early start tomorrow.
