15 (feels like 9) – 24 deg C, sunny, bright blue sky, no
clouds, gusty wind but not unpleasant
We were on the road at 8:25am, heading back from whence we’d
come three days earlier. There are two ways we could have gone to reach our
next two destinations of Burketown and Lawn Hill/Adels Grove. The first was
directly to Burketown on an unsealed road, which we did not know the condition of,
and then south-west to Adels Grove, and then continue south to Cloncurry. Or
south-west from Normanton to Burke & Wills Roadhouse, north-west’ish to
Gregory Downs then west to Adels Grove, back to Gregory Downs and north to
Burketown. We chose this option as we are not short on time, even though it
means doubling back on some of the roads.
Mornos was had at a rest area on Road 83, south of
Normanton. We stopped again at Burke & Wills Roadhouse for diesel, human
fuel, and a leg stretch. What a busy place and a great little gold mine they
have there: fuel, food, a shop, and caravan park. It all appears well run too,
but we elected to travel on as it was a bit early for us to stop for the day. Although
it was only another 88km to our destination for the night – the Muttigudi Creek
free camp. We arrived a little before 3pm, a great time to pull stumps. We were
the only two vans here, which surprised us as there are so many vans/campers on
the road we envisaged that the place would be full. The road from B&W
Roadhouse was a new one for us; we like it when we can travel on new roads.
This road was a mixture of good two-laned highway, to ordinary two-laned
highway, to a single-laned road that in the wet would be quite dangerous. The
road from B&W Roadhouse to our free camp was a new one for us.
After setting up the van, we (and Bob) went for a walk to
explore the dry creek. We returned to the vans to relax, blog, and fly the
drone. Pre-dinner drinks were had, then dinner in our vans due to constant
harassment by flies. After dinner, we met outside, dressed appropriately, to
star gaze again. Two satellites and two shooting stars, and again, the moon was
very bright, so gazing was not optimum.
A fantastic day on the road and in our free camp.
