Trip to Mount Isa Day 18

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We arose early as we were leaving Tennant Creek to begin our long journey across the Great Artesian Basin to Mt Isa. The day was clear and cool and sun strike was the early problem. As we left town we were almost wiped out by a road train turning across our bow. This was really scary, we came up to the lights and we had the right of way green light. Luckily Graham noticed this huge road train come hurtling through a red light. The driver waved to us as he negotiated the sharp corner. The first two trailers went through, the third cut right in across the footpath and the fourth just about took the light and us out. It broke the footpath. All we could see was this trailer wobbling over the top of us. It was not a nice experience. We drove along the Overlander Highway across the Barkley Highlands. We stopped at Barkley Station where petrol was $1.84 per litre. We continued along long, straight roads which seemed to always be climbing but we never seemed to go down the other side. We saw such a lot of road kill comprising of Kangaroos, Steers and lots of Wedge Tail Eagles. Some of the grids were painted to look like concrete slabs, not rails. At 10.45am we entered the Lake Eyre Basin and continued for 150 Km to the border between Northern Territory and Queensland. Some of the Stations were on a giant windswept plain with paddocks full of horses. We crossed into Queensland at 12.40pm and stopped at Cammoweal to fill up with petrol. We were glad we had not elected to stay the night here. It all looked a bit dodgy. We noted many flowering gum trees on the way, this could be because of all the rain the area has had. We sustained a chipped windscreen from flying stones kicked up by a Road Train. We tried to locate a windscreen repairer in Mt Isa without success. The room at All Seasons Hotel is very comfortable and we are planning to stay here for 2 nights.

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Photos

Lovely colours
This road actually had a corner that we could turn!!! Most unusual.

Oh my
Passing these Roadtrains was a lot of fun!!! They are very long and you need a lot of clear road and a vehicle with a lot of oomph!!

Confusion
They had run out of petrol so we had to wait for the tanker to fill up the tanks.

Rest area
Some of the rest areas were excellent and had lots of room for cars, caravans and roadtrains.