A couple of long, hot days on the road!
With blue skies overhead I hit the road early, and had a good, uneventful run to Longreach, 615km away.
The next morning, I decided to do my first sightseeing of the trip, and visited the Qantas museum, which has several historic planes, both originals and replicas.
Once out of town, with temperatures pushing 43 degrees Centigrade (that’s 110 F for Americans), and pushing hard to stay on schedule, the rear tube went…and not just ‘went’, but actually melted inside the tyre. An hour and a half in the baking hot sun with no shade followed, stripping out the old tube and getting back going again.
The road slowly started changing from the dead-flat Channel country to more interesting rock formations.
Before I reached the Walkabout Creek pub at McKinley, made famous by the movie Crocodile Dundee. A few beers were had with the evening meal, including meeting some of the local characters.
Just outside of Mt Isa, the road passes through a series of ranges, reminiscent of the Flinders’ Ranges, providing some good scenery and variety to the road.
Then the red outback earth and the ubiquitous termite mounds start to dominate the terrain.
I’m currently sitting in Camooweal, just east of the Queensland / Northern Territory border, about to start the long run to Tennant Creek. 1500km in three days so far, and I still have a few hours of daylight left today!
