For Sale: Bicycle Pump And Two Helmets!

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(plus cycle tyre repair kit!)

Sunday 7th August – this morning we overslept! When we finally came to it was about 7.45 and I know that doesn’t sound late but today we had a long journey in front of us and later on in the day it would be very hot for travelling. After a mighty effort from us both we were on the road by 9:00am. We’d really enjoyed our short stay in Mount Isa and after initially wondering how we would fill two days here we still didn’t get to see everything the city had to offer. Now though we were heading towards the east coast and the major city of Townsville.

For the first part of the journey the road was undulating and very bumpy causing the caravan to “bounce” over the undulations but at least the countryside was pretty. Eventually, though, the countryside became very flat, often with not too much in the way of trees and bushes. The road was still very bumpy, probably the worst road we’ve been on in all of our travels, and there were cracks and patches in the tarmac where it had been repaired. We could also clearly see where the road had been widened from just a single track to a two lane road. It reminded us of the road we used eight years ago that went north out of Mt Isa. That had been just a single track bitumen road with gravel lanes either side. It was a nightmare to drive along especially when we met a road train. We stopped for morning tea at an overnight rest area called Oorindi and spent some time chatting to other travellers. They had just completed a repair on their caravan where a stone had pierced the pipe from their water tank causing a loss of valuable drinking water. These rest areas, although not huge, generally have a small block of four toilets which are mostly very tidy and would be good for overnight stops if we were ever tempted.

We hadn’t been back on the road very long when a near calamitous situation began to develop. A big road train had been catching us up and now it was right up behind us but Graham noticed that the bikes had slipped from their usual position. It was a really tricky position to be in – there was literally no-where for us to pull off the road and we couldn’t just stop on the highway. But if the bikes came completely away from the rack, with the road train behind us, it could cause a nasty accident. Graham tried the CB radio just to advise the driver of our predicament but we got no response so we just crossed our fingers and kept going. After quite a few kms of more bumpy road we at last came to a small parking area, almost full already, so we used the CB radio again to tell the lorry driver of our intentions and, fortunately, we were able to pull slowly off the road and let the truck go by. A bolt holding the bike rack together had snapped, probably because of the pressure from all the “bouncing”. The bikes were being held by just the elasticated straps. Fortunately, when the bikes fell off the rack, they came to rest on the tow-bar of the caravan which prevented them from falling off completely. We had suspected for a while that something like this was likely to happen but now it had we weren’t sure what to do. The bike rack was beyond repair and there was no room to stack the bikes in the caravan. We realized that we would, sadly, have to abandon the bikes. They were in almost as bad a condition as the rack - they had been well used, the gears didn’t work properly and they were fairly rusty. Still, we didn’t like to leave them behind but we had no alternative so we just left them next to a bin. We hoped someone would give them a new home or that the bin men would be prepared to take them away. The road continued to be terrible as we bounced our way along to a suitable rest area – Max Welton – where we stopped for lunch and wondered if we’d done the right thing just abandoning the bikes on the side of the road.

Our onward journey took us through the very pleasant looking town of Richmond where we sought out the cheapest garage to re-fuel. We had thought we might stop there overnight and even though we had already travelled 400 kilometers, it was reasonably early and Graham felt fine so we kept going. Richmond was another place where there had been massive finds of fossils and it is part of Australia’s ‘Dinosaur Trail’. We drove past yet another overnight rest area but now, at about 4.30pm, it was bursting at the seams with caravans and motorhomes. Finally, we reached Hughenden, the small town Graham had been aiming for all day. We had travelled 539 kms – the second longest journey in our whole trip - really too far for one day especially as we were towing the caravan. But we needed to be in Townsville the following day and that journey would be that much less to cope with after today’s trek. The caravan park at Hughenden was very clean and tidy and the very friendly lady in the office even helped us with the parking, although Graham would have managed fine on his own. We had a ‘drive-through’ site so thankfully the car and caravan stayed attached. A large swimming pool was invitingly close but it was just too late in the day to consider a dip. We had a brief wander but then just had some supper and an earlyish night.

We still had nearly 400 kms to go and I was regretting the fact that I had already booked us in to a caravan park in Townsville for the following night. In hindsight, an extra day on the road would have meant far more manageable distances and much more leisurely travelling. I almost phoned them to put the booking back a night but Graham decided that we would do our best to get there and get this long trek over with. Hughenden was another town linked to dinosaurs and to emphasize the fact, there was a huge replica of a Muttaburrasaurus that we passed as we drove through the centre. It’s also in the middle of a large cattle and sheep grazing region.

On Monday we had a much more leisurely start to the day. We were booked in to a park in Townsville so we had no real need to rush in the knowledge that a site with “en suite” facilities awaited us. We meandered through Hughenden and realized that it was a far bigger and much more pleasant town than we had anticipated. The major thing we noticed this morning was that the road was far better than yesterday. Progress was good and the level of traffic was modest. We were overtaken by a couple of speedier car/caravan combinations but generally things were quite quiet. Our mid-morning break took place at Campaspe River rest area. There were a couple of units which were clearly staying there for a night or two and a couple more that, like us, had just called in for a break. We were entertained by the arrival of another Terrano towing a small convertible caravan. We chatted to the owners for a while comparing notes. They bought theirs from new and were very pleased with it. We were so pleased to see another Terrano that we took a photo of it.

Back on the road, we made excellent progress and decided we would have time to see a bit of Charters Towers. We visited the town eight years ago but neither of us could remember much about it. We made our way to the town centre where signs indicated a special car/caravan parking area. This turned out to be in the middle of a very wide side street where parking bays were clearly marked. It worked well – they were easy to access and the eventual drive away was equally straightforward – what a good idea. Charters Towers was quite impressive – a fair sized town with some splendid old buildings and an excellent array of shops. We found a very pleasant cafe for lunch as we had decided to keep our sandwiches for later. We tootled on to Townsville and arrived fairly late at about 4.30pm. It was a popular park and a queue had developed of several caravans all waiting to be checked in. The queue wasn’t helped by an automatic security gate which took an age to open and close each time though the park people insisted that it was closed after each entry and wouldn’t leave it open to let the queue pass through in one go. But eventually we made our way to our site which was extremely roomy with a beautiful outlook and a nice ‘en suite’ block which afforded us a little bit of privacy for a change.

As the sun went down we had a wander round the caravan park and marvelled at the beautiful red sky. The park has a large inviting swimming pool which we’ll hopefully get a chance to use and on a more practical note there were a row of splendid looking stainless steel washing machines which no doubt I’ll make good use of. We were both tired but especially Graham following his marathon effort with the drive from Mt Isa in two days so an early night was called for and that’s just what we had.

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Photos

Details of the route we are following: The Overlanders Way
the information board also reminded us of the fact that much of Australia sits on an enormous artesian basin

What a terrible road this was
and just think we travelled 539 kms today a lot of which was on surfaces much like this!

We presume this is a Kronosaurus
as it's next to Kronosaurus Korner in Richmond

and what should pull up but another Terrano!
A much loved car - the youngish couple who owned it bought it new 14 years ago.

Thankfully, the road was much smoother today
on the leg from Hughenden to Townsville

What do you do when giant road trains come across the road in front of you?
stop of course!