Last Day ARC Tour

Today we had our last ARC breakfast for this tour. I took Tilly and Blue across in their crate under the shade of a large tree. Roadies watched their antics and agreed it was better than watching TV. 

We had to leave the air conditioning on all night as it stayed warm until the early hours. Blue woke us up again in the middle of the night to go out for a pee. He doesn't do this at home and we don't know why this is happening on the road. Hopefully he will not keep doing this as I am not keen to walk around dark, sleeping caravan parks, even though I carried a truncheon torch. 

Tomorrow we are driving to Wauchope on the Sturt Hwy south of Tennant Creek. A Roadie couple had to drive to Tennant Creek today to buy a fan belt to run the air conditioning in their vehicle. Since we stayed in this most depressing town last year the post office has closed due to violence, and the only supermarket burnt down in July and is trading from a makeshift shed. 

We are spending two nights at Wauchope to visit the Devils Marbles about an 8kms drive north. Caravans can stay at the Devils Marbles, but there is no power and therefore no air conditioning. These large granite boulders are believed by the Warmungu Aborigines to be the fossilised eggs of the rainbow serpent.

Our ARC tour ended in Mount Isa but we are on the rearranged "extension". Originally we were going to drive the Diamantina, heading south from Mount Isa through Boulia and Bedourie to Birdsville. The Track is closed at the border due to flooding. One Roadie couple followed this road but had to double back because the roadhouse at Bedourie burnt down in the early hours of yesterday morning leaving the small town with no fuel. I don't know how far our group might have travelled along that route, but we might have all struggled to carry enough fuel to get to Birdsville.

Tonight we had a sit down dinner before our concert under the stars. These pics were taken before dinner. The dog with Libby and Beccy is Hugo who belongs to our friends. Blue is with Kelly Brouhaha.


Popular posts from this blog

Aussie Road Crew - Finished

Image
After our final dinner and concert some Roadies were continuing their celebrations near our Bushtracker. We could hear the noise even though all windows were shut and the van is normally soundproof. As it was after 10pm I ventured out to negotiate with them. While one person accused me of being the fun police, other Roadies supported my suggestion they turn off the amplified music and keep the noise down. The general expectation in caravan parks is noise stops after 10pm. There were non Roadies trying to sleep in tents, and I suggested their activities would reflect badly on Aussie Road Crew and Beccy who might not be able to return to this park on future tours. Fortunately there was very little noise after my visit. We drove out of the Crows Nest Tourist Park just after 7am looking for a MacDonald's in Toowoomba for coffee and brekkie. Instead we spotted Valetta Cafe in time to park the van across the road. I bought a take away brioche egg and bacon roll and coffees. The cafe is i...
Read more

Around Chinchilla

Image
The Condamine River is flowing over the Chinchilla Weir 5kms out of town. It has reached the 6m mark on the gauge and is an impressive sight. It is forecast to reach 8m by Tuesday in two days time. Chinchilla has suffered several floods when Charley's Creek rises. This is the post office in the 2010-2011 flood and as it was today. On 28 December 2010 the water level at Chinchilla Weir topped 15m. Despite this history of repeated flooding Chinchilla appears to be a prosperous town with many community facilities such as a water park, 700 seat cultural centre, and major road improvements. Many of the out of town workers are employed by QCG, a Shell company "producing" natural gas in the Surat Basin - presumably this means collecting the gas by fracking. Just down the road there is accommodation for 1,000 workers in Stayover so the town is benefiting from the presence of this large workforce. Tilly finally slept through the night. Today I kept her outside as much as possible ...
Read more

Broken Hill to Burra

Image
We left Broken Hill about 8am for our drive to Burra. Our first stop was at Mannahill. We followed this load of sheep as we dawdled through roadworks. On a recommendation from friends we explored Terowie, an historic town that is almost abandoned. The town grew late in the nineteenth century as a transhipment point from broad gauge rail to narrow gauge. In the 1970s the line to Peterborough was converted to broad gauge and Terowie became a near ghost town. Several abandoned shops are now owned by the South Australian Government. Unfortunately there is a risk associated with asbestos being blown around the town. The population fell from about 2000 to 130. In 1942 General Macarthur passed through Terowie on his way to Adelaide and Melbourne. He made a public speech at the railway station famously asserting "I came out of Bataan [in the Phillipines] and I shall return". A plaque marks the location at the rem...
Read more