Slept great last night until about 4am when the gentle breeze turned into a howling gale with winds rivaling those at Archer Point. Initially we left all the windows unzipped but then as it got even colder we zipped up the ones on the wind side. Nobody got much sleep after that including Sunshine who jumped into our bed shivering!
We got up at 7am. Had a cuppa and packed up. Dan was amazed that we allowed him to have beef jerky for brekkie! Little did he know he would be eating salad for the rest of the day to make up for it!
Packed up and were on the road by 8.30am. Weather 32 degrees.
We made good time and refueled at Cloncurry ($1.43!) then another hour to Mt Isa. The mine is amazing. The main road into town runs right up to the front gate and all you can see for miles around it the huge chimney. Certainly not trying to hide it - but then why the hell should they?! It has a particular type of beauty all its own.
We had to stop dead further along for a herd of Brahman cattle to lazily cross the road in front of us and nearly flattened a pair of huge wedge tailed Eagles who were far too busy eating their yummy roadkill lunch to bother moving til the last second. The rule out here is basically just keep straight and don't swerve.
We had lunch on the run and stopped a couple more times to let the dogs have a break. The ground was way too hot for them to walk on, so we had to carry the little darlings to the grass each time!
This was our longest day of the trip and we were all over it by the time we reached Camooweal at 2.30pm. We refueled for $1.56 a litre oh yeah! And then drove the short distance to our campground.
We camped next to Camooweal Billabong which had shrunk to about 150 x 20m but still had a lot of bird life (and probably red claw!)
To park the van, we had to use both levellers, chocks and various stones we found around because it was really sloped. But we managed and by 3.30pm we were relaxing in the shade with a drink.
Laura decided to test the water but sank down to her ankles in thick grey mud. It wasn't tol she turned around she realized Sunshine and Spike had followed her in! Spike was up to his stomach and Sunshine up to her knees Hahahaha. Oh well it's probably very therapeutic!!
Meanwhile Steve and Dan tried out the brand new awning. Super easy and awesome.
As the beautiful afternoon wore on we saw a couple of extremely large elegant birds which we believe are Sarus Cranes. They are pretty rare so we were very privileged to see them.
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