Karumba to The Isa

In our usual manner we covered the short distance, about 600 km, from Karumba to MT Isa in the most leisurely way. Frequent stops with short drives in between. Driver fatigue was not going to wear me down. The road surface on The Burke Development Road is mostly very good, although there are a few single lane sections to take care of. Similarly there are also several single lane bridges to be aware of.

The first stop-over was at "Bang Bang Rest Area", only 112 km South of Normanton and 90 km North of Burke and Wills Roadhouse. This is a very large area that boasts Toilets and a Dump Point.

Another view of "Bang Bang Rest Area" with our neighbours from Merbein and Newcastle.

Everybody seems to take a break at The Burke and Wills Roadhouse. Tour Coaches, Road Trains and many caravanners. Absolutely nothing has changed at The Roadhouse from our previous visit 16 years ago.

There are still a few Cattle Road Trains on the road but far less that what there once was.

Many caravans though.

But not many staying in the Van Park Area.

The second night we pulled into "Terry Smith Lookout Rest Area". This is 103 km South of Burke and Wills Roadhouse and only 78 km North of Cloncurry. This is also a large area with toilets and a Dump Point. I was surprised to have Telstra Mobile reception here so we stayed two nights and posted the previous Blog.

Wide open spaces with many white barked eucalypts.

We called into Cloncurry only to top up the van with water and to stock up on groceries. We then drove 53 km West towards The Isa and pulled into "Clem Walton Park on The Corella Dam" This is the barren, dry and deserted camp and picnic area.

This is the reason no one is camped here, there is no water.

This is what it was like on our previous visit, not many years ago.

As it was deserted at the camp area we drove into the Boat Ramp Area and camped there like everyone else was doing. At least there was a little amount of water remaining.

Julia Creek

After a fun stay with family in Mount Isa the time had come to say goodbye and leave this Outback City.

Have you heard of the statement 'According to Murphy's Law'? Well, it applied to us at this time. Having driven from Longreach to Cloncurry into W/NW 'head winds' on the way out to 'The Isa', we now face 'head winds' on the way out of 'The Isa'. From Cloncurry to Julia Creek we were punching E/NE winds gusting to 25 km/h. The wind was only one factor against us, the outside temperature was hovering between 43 C and 44 C as well.

I didn't like to push the car this hard, towing the van, so I slowed down our speed to relieve the stress on the vehicle. We were only 20 km from Julia Creek when the engine temp gauge shot up and the Auto Transmission Temp Warning Light came on, the first time I've ever seen it glowing it's red presence. We pulled off the highway and left the engine idling for about 8 minutes. All temperatures 'normalised' and we drove into our free camp 1.2 km east of Julia Creek. Very relieved to arrive without damage to us or the vehicle. The XXXX Bitter tasted wonderfully refreshing.

Julia Creek, a free camp and picnic area 1.2 km east of the Town of Julia Creek. Picnic tables and wood fired BBQ's aplenty. Nature Trail to walk, if you are inclined. We walked around to the other side of the creek and saw the 'slither' marks of a very large snake. We were very happy to not make acquaintances with it.

Our camp from a different aspect.

Jude resting in the shade of the van. Cattle flies were a bit of a nuisance, Jude donned a fly net but that makes drinking your XXXX Bitter too difficult.

Fullarton Rest Area

Huge day's drive today, by our standards anyway! Woke at Longreach at 5:00 AM and there was NO breeze, so grabbed a bit of brekky, packed up and hit the highway. We arrived at our present camp at 2:00 PM. Don't know how many km's that is but we are now 60 km short of Cloncurry. We noticed a lot of pooled water along the highway after we went through McKinlay, from yesterday's storm. We have an easy 182 km to 'The Isa' tomorrow. Probably after a sleep in! It is quite cool here tonight but very humid, there are storms all around us but nothing happening here. We have a truckie and another camper for company tonight.

This storm passed through to the North of us, probably went to Mount Isa!

Quite dark and gloomy at our camp site tonight. Very humid too, not used to that up here.