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Published: March 27th 2017
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Landsborough Highway (south of Winton)This is the last blog of our trip which began on 29 November 2016. We have really enjoyed the places we stayed at, the towns where we stopped for brunch or lunch, and those that we drove through. We decided to leave in late November to miss the Build Up Season (the heat and humidity, with little chance of rain) and the weather we encountered ranged from very hot (Christmas Day - 43º at Kapunda, SA) to quite chilly (6º at Bathurst, NSW), and a storm one night with winds up to 100kmph winds for good measure.
We left Biloela on Sunday 19 March and arrived at a small town called Alpha, which is between Emerald and Barcaldine, mid afternoon. Monday, we left with the aim of staying overnight at Kynuna, which has just a pub (caravan park at the back) and a roadhouse and is north of Winton. We eventually stopped at Cloncurry. The desire to get home is getting quite strong, but that was a long day with over 700km travelled.
We have travelled a number of times on the Capricorn and Landsborough Highways over the years, so the towns were familiar to us. One aspect which
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Breakfast, just after Mount Isa we didn't expect was how green and healthy the land is through central Queensland. Such a wonderful change from seeing the terrible drought conditions that we have seen on past trips.
On Tuesday 21 March, we decided not to travel so far (as it is very tiring) and travelled on the Flinders Highway and Barkly Highway, arriving at the Barkly Homestead mid afternoon. The weather was very hot (40º), but as we have stayed here a few times, it felt like we were only a short distance from home - which is not the case at all (still 1100km to go)!
Wednesday we left nice and early before the day got hot. We really felt like we were nearly home when we turned right onto the Stuart highway. The countryside from Cloncurry and up the Stuart Highway remained green and healthy. It was great to see such great looking countryside all the way home from Biloela. Once again, although we had originally decided to stay overnight at Elliott, we kept going and stopped at Mataranka. Another over 700km drive, but this meant we had less than 400km to go.
Thursday 22 March, and the last day of
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Hello NT! our trip. We had heard that the Top End had had a good Wet Season and this was evident as we continued towards home. We got home around 1.30pm and couldn't believe the growth on the property! We are going to be busy over the next while, mowing, slashing, picking up tree branches, pulling out 10-12 foot tall Gamba grass clumps, and other tasks to get the place looking really good again.
So goodbye for now to those who have followed us on this terrific journey and to those friends and family we weren't able to catch up with this time around, be assured, we will be visiting next time!
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