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Published: December 5th 2010
We had some pretty heavy rain during the night and when we woke up it was still drizzling. We were grateful for the brief break from the humidity that the grey clouds brought as it enabled us to have a sleep in for once. Once we were packed up we drove to the Mary Kathleen Ruins. The word ruins normally conjures up a picture of castles or churches crumbling a away, but these ruins were from the more recent time of the 1980’s. In 1954 a large deposit of uranium was discovered here and a mine was built at the site. Over the years it lay idle and reopened many times until finally being closed down in 1982. In 1983 the whole town was emptied. There are no longer any buildings but the foundation of houses and garages can still be seen and you can still drive down the old town roads. The land is now used for grazing and is the home to many cows who have very little road sense. Rather than run away from us they seemed to appear from behind the long grass and come to a stop right in front of our moving van. Even with
the cows that played chicken this place still manages to have a spooky feel to it.
We then had a short 180km drive to Kynuna. This was home to the Blue Heeler, another bar that Andy had read about in his Outback Pubs of Australia book. When we arrived we found a rather deserted looking bar with a chalkboard outside with WE ARE OPEN written on it in big letters. I suppose that with a population of just 5 they need to attract as much passing trade as possible. The bar also had a campsite which we booked into so we didn’t have far to wander for a beer. Before going to the bar we decided that dinner would be a good idea, not wanting a repeat performance of our evening at the Murray River. As Andy went to drain some pasta I finished cooking the chorizo in the frying pan. Suddenly from out of nowhere a huge bird not much smaller than an ostrich turned up and started taking an interest in my chorizo. He certainly wasn’t shy, I shouted at it and stamped my feet but it still came closer and almost had its head in the
frying pan. I tried to take the pan away but it just chased me round the campsite! We later learned that the bird was a Brolga and this one can normally be found trying to pinch food from campers.
Dinner finished and the Brolga gone we walked over to the bar for a few beers. We didn’t plan on staying long as we had allot of driving to do tomorrow. We ordered a couple of stubbies and took a seat outside. It was Saturday night so there were a few road workers and some cattle ringers - or cowboys as we would call them - having a few too many celebrating the arrival of the weekend. We got chatting to one of the road workers outside and before we knew it, it was 11pm. We decided to turn in for the night as there were thousands of Gidyea bugs outside and they had a habit of dropping from the ceiling into your beer or onto your head. I went to use the bathroom before heading back to the van. I have got into the habit of checking before I sit in case there is something poisonous living in the
toilet. What I wasn’t expecting was to find a bright green frog sat in the toilet bowl staring back at me. I was very glad that I looked before I sat!
By the time I had returned to the bar, the locals had convinced Andy to have one more beer before bed - now I wasn’t there at the time, but If I was to have a bet I would say that he didn’t take too much convincing! I took a seat at the bar and ordered myself another beer. Not long after this the last orders bell was rumg and the barmaid asked if anyone wanted takeouts. We declined but many of the locals didn’t. With the bar closing we followed the locals to the outside drinking area at the back of the bar so that we could finish our beers. I have to be honest and tell you that after that, things get a little hazy. We spent the rest of the night drinking scotch with a couple of cowboys, we told stories, cracked jokes and made plans for them to pick us up the following morning at 10am to go horse riding. Those of you who
know Andy well will know that he would have to be under the influence to agree to that. We finally stumbled to bed a little after 3am.
The morning was so hot that we couldn’t sleep past 9am. Lifting our heads off the pillow we both groaned as our heads were pounding. Bleary eyed we stepped outside the van looking for some shade, but there was none. Hangovers and 40° heat do not mix well. Remembering the plans we had made last night, a look of terror spread across Andy’s face. He tried to think of a suitable excuse to get himself out of it but with his brain not working he finally settled with “You cant make me, I’m not doing it” I think our new friends were feeling a little rough too as to Andy’s relief they didn’t turn up. I must admit, as much as I was looking forward to it, I was also relieved as I don’t think my aching head would have appreciated being bounced about on a horse!
We were starving in only the way that having a hangover can make you. With a lack of anything satisfying in the fridge and
a lack of any shops for miles, we packed up and set off in search of breakfast. Back at home this is an easy task. You can pop to the shops, go to a café or if you cant even be bothered to get out the car, you can go to a drive through. Here it was a completely different story. Popping to our nearest town meant a drive of over 170km! This is a bit like waking up feeling terrible and saying I’m just popping to York for breakfast - you just wouldn’t do it! With each kilometre our tummies grew emptier, we also had the added concern that there was every chance we would get to Winton and everything could either be closed because it was Sunday or there would be nothing there and we would have another 200km to the next place. With about 30km to go we had to stop to get something out the back. Andy learnt the look before you step lesson when he jumped out of Hilda and straight into a sticky mud puddle in his flip flops, with mud in between his toes he was not a happy man. When we came
to set off again we noticed that much to our despair, once again coolant was all over the ground. This really wasn’t fair! After bodging it again we decided that after breakfast we really must make our way to a big town so we could find a replacement pipe.
According to the sign, Winton had won the title of friendliest town. We don’t know who votes for this, but we certainly hoped it to be true. We didn’t even bother driving around to look at what was open, we just stopped at the first café we saw. There was so much on the menu that we were spoilt for choice, but we finally settled on a burger called the works served with chips and an iced coffee to get our daily caffeine fix. Since we have been on the road we have only been eating two small meals a day. We are either too busy driving or its just too hot to eat a big meal. This has meant that now we just cant eat the amount that we used to. When the food arrived we realised that our eyes were much bigger than our bellies. The portions were
huge and after eating just a third of what was served to us, we were defeated. We could see how the burger got its name - it really did have the works. The bacon, salad, beetroot, bbq sauce, sliced tomato & cheese were all very nice but I must say that the addition of egg and a pineapple ring was a little over the top and as far as I’m concerned they have no place sat next to each other in a burger! You got the feeling that whatever they had in on the day went inside that burger bun. We left the café feeling very uncomfortable and decided to try and walk it off by looking at some of the local sights. First we went to Arno’s wall. Built by a local man, it is a 70 meter long work in progress which he says is his way of displaying all the junk he has collected from the dump over the years. Apparently his inspiration for the wall came to him during a 9 month stay in Rome while working part time at the Vatican - there are some strange people out there! Before making our way to the
next sight we stopped at the local grocery ship for some cold drinks. With Winton being voted the friendliest town I can only assume that the woman serving us was not local. She was most annoyed at us interrupting her crossword. When we tried to talk to her all we got back in return was a stern look an our change! We were so thirsty that we soon downed our drinks. Against my advice, Andy had chosen 2 litres of iced coffee. On top of all that food this proved to be a mistake of huge proportions. He soon had a very swollen stomach and a very bad tummy ache! We went to the Musical fence, which can be played like a huge guitar but Andy was in too much discomfort to have a go. We now faced a long drive up a very boring development road to get out of town. We were hoping to find somewhere to stop on the development road for the night, but the signs warned us that the road may be closed if it rained and that we should drive in the centre of the road where possible to avoid getting stuck in the
mud at either side. At about the halfway point on the road it started to rain. Not wanting to be stuck on this road for days we had to drive the entire 250km, which as we were feeling ill was horrendous. Our horrible journey was only made better when we spotted two wallabies in a nearby field. By the time we reached the end of the road we were feeling much better. It was still raining pretty hard so we decided to drive as far as we could and try to get away from it. Our plan didn’t work as the further we drove the wetter it got. By the time we pulled over for the night it was raining so hard that we slept with the roof down as we were unsure how waterproof we were. With the high humidity levels and the heat coming off the engine it made for a very uncomfortable night. We also had some strange bites on our legs and feet from sitting out the night before, these seemed to made much worse by the heat and the itching kept us awake most of the night.
We woke up feeling completely exhausted. Two
nights of humidity followed by the late night drinking session followed by a night of itching meant that we were now very low on sleep and patience. We had to find a town to buy the replacement radiator pipe. We had no luck in Charters Towers so we drove on to Townsville. After much searching we found a very dusty looking pipe at the back of the shelf that would do the job. The man behind the counter, noticing Andy scratching was also able to tell us that the source of our discomfort was Sand fly bites and that we shouldn’t scratch them as they will take longer to heal. Well that’s all good advice but not scratching them would be easier said than done! We went to the supermarket to get something for dinner before finding a campsite. When we came to get back in the van once again Hilda had let go of all her coolant. At this point I cannot type what was said, suffice to say that the air turned a shade of blue not often seen!
The engine was too hot to replace the pipe so Andy had to bodge it again and we had
to use the water we had just bought to put in the radiator. I went back in the shop to replace the water while Andy waited. When I got back to the van guess what……. another leak from a different place! Another bodge, some stern words and some more water and we were finally able to get out of the car park. We had picked a free camp area at Saunders Beach. In hindsight this was probably not the best idea considering our sand fly issue. Pulling into the site we stopped to read some warning signs. They told us not to go in the sea as there were Crocodiles and box jellyfish, and to be careful of crocodiles who may come further inland searching for food . We decided that since it was already dark we would not venture outside the van. A crocodile is not something you want to be bumping into on your way to the toilet. We had another pathetic attempt at sleep. Our bites were driving us insane - well mine were starting to get better as I had been resisting the urge to scratch them but Andy couldn’t. His bites kept him awake all
night, which of course meant I was kept awake all night. We were both now so lacking in sleep that we were finding it hard to function. We decided that we needed to find somewhere to recover. We drove back into Townsville and found a lovely site with a pool. We enjoyed it so much that as I write this we are still on the same campsite 5 days later.
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Gemma and Steve
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Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas guys!!! lot of love sent you in the sun from the snowy boro' Have been following your journey blog and pictures. Its amamzing. brings back memories. Enjoy every moment! the peace and relaxation and freedom and even the bugs!... keep your socks on under your jesus creapers and cover your legs. those sand flies hurt like mad. Steve's ankles swelled up so bad he couldn't put his trainers to do his daily run. We were in Townsville for New year. We got talking to a couple of old geezers who took us on their little rocky boat to Magnetic Island for new years eve. The moon party was amazing. A moon rise out there is the most amazing thing. Enjoy the rest of you travels. xxx