Brisbane to Daly Waters, NT

---

We finally left on Tuesday 12 May. We’ve been driving for six days now and are really into holiday mode. We headed west along the Warrego Highway then turned north on to the Landsborough Highway at Morven. The roads are narrow and very bumpy but improved on the second day after heading north. It’s fairly green open countryside with attractive towns. - Tambo, Blackall and Barcaldine, where we stopped for the second night.

90% of the traffic is roadtrains and caravans and the other 10% is white 4x4 utes - so we feel right at home in our white 4x4 ute towing a caravan. Barcaldine to Cloncurry had long stretches between towns, little traffic and lots of bumps. The scenery was lovely with rolling grassy plains still tinged with green and colourful hills in the distance. I loved it around Winton.

Cloncurry is Gavin’s home town but naturally it has changed almost beyond recognition, losing it’s sleepy country feel and character.

Yesterday we crossed the border into NT and the countryside changed from red rocky hills to miles and miles of flat nothing. Distances are even greater between towns here. It’s 357 km between Camooweal (a pub, a petrol station and half a dozen other houses and buildings) and where the Barkly Highway meets the Stuart Highway and no towns in between. It sounds monotonous but I love that feeling of isolation. The roads are good and the speed limit is 130km/hr. We passed some bicycle riders heading for the next town hundreds of miles ahead…it’s a long way to drive it let alone ride it.

The Daly Waters Pub is worth seeing with hundreds and hundreds of bits and pieces that everyone leaves - foreign money, stickers, bras, T-shirts and anything you can think of. We didn’t have anything interesting with us and I definitely wasn’t going to leave my bra behind! Gavin had a card of his and one of Catherine’s business cards so if she gets any franchise enquiries from the NT that’s why. There’s a perfect spot to hang a “To the Hilt” T-shirt as well. Send something up with Sandy when he meets us in Darwin if you’d like us to add it to the collection and be famous. We’ll call in on our way back and take a photo for your album. An old bushy entertained us with songs and yarns while we ate our Beef and Barra meal.

---

Photos

Ready to go
We're ready at last...we think

After the NT border
Miles of nothing but grass and a good road.

Over the NT border
More miles of nothing

NT roads
It gives you a shock when someone passes you at that speed

On the road to Katherine
Two bike riders in the middle of nowhere with hundreds of kms to pedal.

Daly Waters Pub
Some of the paraphenalia at the pub. None of the nickers are Gavin's.

Daly Waters Pub
I'm soaking up the atmosphere

Daly Waters Pub
There's a good spot for a "To the Hilt" T-shirt. It would really stand out amongst some of these daggy ones

Here's one for the men
You still find good taste here as well as at home

Comments

[Sandy & Andrea]

Yeah roadtrip!
Glad you made it, only one day behind! Going to bring a To The Hilt t-shirt to Darwin, need some NT exposure...