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Time to leave Airlie Beach and head for the Outback. We leave the hostel at 10am and make our way to Mount Surprise (roughly a ten hour drive) As we leave Airlie, we meet Stefan from our cruise and say goodbye to him as we head up north. En route, I make a phone call to a working backpacker hostel in Innisfail, and shock horror, they advise us they have work for us starting this Monday. Good news as we could do with the exrtra cash but we’ll see what happens. As we make our way inland, our first stop is Charters Towers. A small rural town 100km inland, resembling a town from a western movie. After a slow but delicious lunch, we head on to Mount Surprise. We are not sure what to expect in terms of road quality, but after ten minutes, we realize we are in for a long drive. In many places, the roads are single lane that switches between asphalt and stones. As if that isn’t enough, we have to contend with 50 meter long Road Trains ploughing along at 100km. These trucks are HUGE, and don’t move for anybody. You either move onto the stones
at the side of the single lane road, or you get flattened. We decide we need to stop at the next available town for fuel. Turns out that isn’t for another 207km from Charters Towers, and is more of a shop and petrol station than an actual town. You can drive for 20 minutes and not see another car, house or any signs of civilization. It is crazy. As the sun begins to fall, the driving conditions are becoming atrocious as it is virtually impossible to see with the sun directly in our eyes. It’s a bit unnerving when we see loads of blown out tyres at the side of the road, and even more so when we pass a burnt out campervan. Neither of us say anything, but inside I think we are both praying that we make it in one piece. As night falls, we get set up for some late night driving when all of a sudden; this enormous adult Kangaroo appears in the middle of the road. Greg slams on the breaks, and luckily manages to avoid the roo by about half a metre, as it is not for moving. All in all we see 30
Gray Creek
my very own creek Kangaroos, 5 cows and four rabbits on the way. Almost at every turn there are dead animals at the side of the road, including a dead cow which must weigh in excess of 500 pounds. If our car was to hit a cow travelling at 80km, in the middle of the outback, we would have been in deep trouble. Thankfully we remain unscathed, and are delighted when we reach our destination of Mount Surprise, 11 hours later. Mount Surprise has a population of 65 people, and everything in the town is shut apart from the pub, and a small café that appears closed. We decide to chance our arm, and are greeted by a nice couple (and Rocky the dog) who are originally from Wembley, London. They advise us that the café is closed, but will stick on a couple of meat pies for us which are exactly what we needed. Full of pie, and a few beers, we head to bed for a well deserved kip in our luxury caravan, complete with our very own gecko.
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