Nearly at the top

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We left Mt Isa and headed west to join up highway 1 with our previous trip. We then headed North to Borroloola a real outback town. The old police station has been turned into a museum and the lady at the campsite gave us a key. It is a national trust property, so, being members, we didn’t have to pay. We learned about the town and its inhabitants, including the local hermit who lived in an upturned water tank - and amazingly, a few days later we met a couple - and the chap had spent his twenties in Borroloola as a patrol officer for the government - and he told us the same stories - fab! He had actually written a book about his experiences there - I must get it. Patrol in the Dreamtime - by Colin Macleod.

From Borroloola we headed back East, across the dirt road to Burketown where, if you are there at the right time of year, and you are lucky (we were, and we weren’t) you get to see a spectacular cloud formation known as Morning Glory - which only occurs in the Gulf of Carpentaria or The Gulf of Mexico - so it’s going to have to be Mexico I think.

The dirt roads are what Australia is all about - fording rivers, rolling along on marbles, trying to get the speed right to go over the corrugations to you don’t get your fillings rattled out. They are tarmac-ing too much of it now. We’ve seen eagles with 6ft wing spans, kangaroos by the dozen. We continued East along the Savannah Highway, then diverted to Cobbald Gorge - a superb place, right in the bush - they only discovered the gorge in 1994!

We stayed there a couple of days, and then headed back north through the Atherton Tablelands - considered wonderful countryside - which interestingly looks just like England - and has the same wet weather! We are now in a tiny place called Laura, half way up the Cape York Peninsula. We hope to get to the top, before the weather closes in - we love it here, but we don’t really want to be stuck until April!

There is a plague of locusts in Queensland at the moment - in fact they are threatening the whole of Australia, and may cause them to cancel the Melbourne Cup - a disaster - they are awful and periodically get into the van.

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Photos

Millstream Falls
Widest single drop falls in Australia - allegedly