Day 9

Day 9
Finally, Doug had a good nights sleep. Even better, the caravan park showers were fantastic, and the camp kitchen had a kettle to boil water for tea, and milk in the fridge too. It was a great start to the day.

Setting off, we still had a decision as to which way we went. We could continue on the highway from yesterday, another boring day of nothing of interest, or we could head off and do what I'd wanted when we left, follow some 4wd tracks, see the country, and camp up under the stars in the bush for the night. We opted for the interesting day, and so Doug took the wagon along a brilliant 4wd track. Up and over hills, looping round stations, and even bridging rivers (dry unfortunately but still requiring 4wd to be engaged to move through the ever shifting shingle on the bed). It was a fantastic morning, everything I wanted to get out of driving the middle of nowhere in the outback. It also allowed us to see the road conditions we'd be faced with later in the afternoon, as we still had a choice at Normanton whether to follow the sealed development road or the unsealed development road.

Development roads are so named as they are constantly being washed away and so then being redeveloped. Even the sealed roads were dubious at times, mostly being a single lane road, with packed red dirt on either side so when the inevitable road train/other vehicles approached you were able to dart off scrabble along the dirt and then rejoin the sealed road once you had passed each other.

Once we completed the 4wd track, we spotted that our fuel was getting low. Lower than we'd like considering the next fuel stop wasn't for 120k and even using our reserve up, we could probably only get 100k. Pushing on regardless, Doug was given his first opportunity to run us out of petrol, something he has never done in his driving career. Luckily we still had the jerry cans filled in the back, and at the first sign the engine was struggling after the petrol light had been on for 45k we pulled over to the side of the road and topped off the tank with a 10l jerry can. This gave us the legs to make it all the way to the next fuel stop with no further concerns.

The time we took to have fun along the 4wd track came at a heavy price. When we finally pulled into Normanton for lunch, we hadn't covered nearly as many kilometers as we needed, and the unsealed road was 700-800km to Cairns, compared to the 500-600 along the sealed road. Reluctantly, i agreed to take the sealed road, with the intention of still coming off onto a 4wd only loop road before nightfall so we could bush camp in the middle of nowhere. As we approached the 4d track we stopped at a petrol station. Since the scare this morning of nearly running out of fuel, we'd been keeping a close eye on the petrol level, but had arrived at the wrong time of day. We still had a quarter of a tank left, but as we tried to fill up, we got only a dribble from the bowser. Stopping and trying again, nothing came out but the enticing smell. The proprietor pocked her head out the shop 100m away - "Its no good, its too hot. Its evaporating" Stuck. Without more petrol, we wouldn't be able to head up the 4wd track. I went into the shop to get more information and pick up some cold drinks. The hop proudly signed itself as the oldest shop in the area, and looked like a timber barn, old oak frames holding everything up, wooden planks as the walls and the inside a mess of tourist items for sale. Apparently, the pumps were in the wrong place, so picked up the sun all the way in the afternoon, any time after 3pm on a hot day (which 41 degrees apparently is) the fuel evaporates in the pumps before it makes it out and so no pumping is possible. She suggested we go the next petrol station in Georgetown, where the pumps were better located in some shade. Resigned to not being able to take the route we wanted, I had to settle for coming off on a small offcut if I wanted to bush camp tonight. She also then advised that the 4wd track had flooded and been experiencing bush fires.

We headed out of town, and as we were leaving - spotted a BP garage. Literally round the corner from her, and she told us to go to the next town. Business is this place must be really cutthroat. The BP garage had no problems with sunlight on the pumps and we were able to fill up all the way.

The condition of the track didn't appeal to Doug, so we continued down the main road - still ready to turn off to a smaller track to camp for the night. As the sun started to set and kangarooos became brave enough to dart into the road, we started turning off tracks. The first had a building site on it, so we moved onto the next. The second turned straight into a station access road, and we thought it would be a little unfair to just camp up on some station without asking. The 3rd was the bottom of the loop we would have taken originally. It seemed fairly promising to start with as we headed off and found an even smaller track to the side. Ready to disappear into the middle of nowhere, we headed through, 4wd drive mode engaged. It was at this point we started noticing the frequency of the strange mounds. Some of these mounds were 3ft tall and 2ft wide, massive structures of piled dirt, definitely not manmade. Some had a buzz of life around the base, and creatures of some sort scurried in and out. Every clearing we found, there was a ring of these mounds, which we started to think were termite mounds. Eventually, with the sun close to setting I made the hardest decision so far. I called off the search for a bush camp site, and set us back towards the road. We just didn't know enough about theses mounds - and it wasn't just me I was risking but Doug as well. Doug would have followed my lead, knowing how much I wanted to spend the last night of the Outback section of the tour in the bush, just us and the stars and nature. With a heavy heart i called an end to that dream. As we headed back for the road, even the wildlife seemed sad - the mournful chirping from the trees and the circadas chirruping slowly.

We eventually reached Georgetown, and found a caravan park. It was a lovely place, shaded by trees and full of frogs croaking away in the camp kitchen and jumping our our way as we walked around. It was still full of light, the tree cover masked the stars, and the toilet block could be seen all night long. The outback adventure was over - and we were ready to start the city coastal tour.