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Published: September 9th 2011
It is about the half way mark, so I thought that it was time for a little summary of things. By Georgina
Since Tennant Creek (5 days ago), we have moved with fairly rapid speed over what is known as The Overlander's Hwy. We have seen a lot of dust, huge cattle stations (in the distance) and endless road ahead of us. We have stayed at Mt Isa, Cloncurry (where I was able to catch up with my Aunty and Uncle who I have not seen in nearly 4 years-they left Perth in May for a 12 month around Oz and we miraculously managed to meet up for a night in the middle of no where), Charters Towers (a really nice gold mining town with many of the old buildings still operable in the main street) and now Townsville.
It has been very warm. At times we have driven over 200km without a petrol station and our lunch stops have been at small rest stops with other travellers on the side of the road.
The kids have been very good (sometimes we have driven for 8 hours as there are huge distances between accommodation spots). They have entertained themselves through reading, journal writing,cards, drawing and the DVD player (thank goodness for them). We have played the odd game of eye spy but there isn't much to spy. After 5 minutes, we run out of ideas.
Gav can't get over how often the landscape changes and never tires of looking at it. The rest of us don't get it. To us, it seems to go on and on. With some of the towns, it is possible to wonder how people make a living.
We are now pretty good at rating the quality of toilets in roadhouses (Will said that they are very different to the roadhouses on the highways in VIC). The main rating point is if they sell good souvenirs. Most don't.
We can also pack and unpack much faster with everyone taking on jobs. Both Grace and Will have become quite proficient at setting up.The kids can also rate swimming pools in most of the places that we have stayed as they have tried nearly all of them. Some caravan parks are good and some should be charged with false advertising. We have actually preferred to drove and extra 250km than stay in some of them.
Will has now realised that Qld is not all beach but rather the opposite. Grace is happy to be in Townsville-she has told me that she is much more a beach girl than outback girl!
We have estimated that since leaving Melb, we have travelled 5,500km. Our 2 biggest days were 650km and 640 km, towing a van.
We have only seen 2 Maccas and much to Will's dislike, no 7 eleven with slurpies.
Our most expensive petrol was $2.08 a litre (can you believe it). We hovered around the 1.95 mark for some time. We are now paying about $1.50 and it seems so cheap.On some days, we could fill up 3-4 times.
The most expensive food was Kings Canyon-$5 for a can of coke (yes a can) and $7 for a not too good looking lettuce (we obviously went without on that day).
Over the last 3 days, the landscape has changed dramatically. We have seen wild emus, feral camels, dingoes, wallabies and so many wedge tail eagles as we moved across outback NT and QLD and now everything is green and tropical. Still to spot a cane toad.
It makes you realise what a diverse country we live in-people that we have spoken to from overseas comment on this all the time and how beautiful, big and friendly it is.
The most exciting news for Gav is that he has had a chance to use his CB radio. We turned it off for a while as the truckies conversation needed to be filtered! However, he has been able to play with his little toy and talk to all the workers that we have been stopped by doing the QLD roads. Thank goodness it has come in handy! As has the nudge bar! I will give him credit for the reversing mirror-I have not had to help once.
So, now we turn South and make the slow trip home.
We hope that it has stopped hailing in Melbourne-we are getting so sick of shorts and t-shirts up here! So glad we all packed out ugg boot slippers and a thermal top-what was I thinking.
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Chris and Chas
non-member comment
Halfway mark
Hi Dwyers, It is so interesting reading about your adventures. You certainly have been 'way way out back' and seen so much. Enjoy the tshirts and shorts for it has been quite cool this weekend, but apparently the weather is warming up, so by time you get back it should be nice. We both enjoyed reading about the fish place and the photo of Grace and Will. It would have been very interesting to see the turtles and hear how they are looked after. When are you leaving Townsville? Where are you heading next? Enjoy, The Thompsons