Ground Hog Day to Longreach

It was decision time yet again as to which route to take to our next stop – Longreach Qld. We could cruise  up the main roads via Tenant Creek which will take 1800km, or we could take the Plenty hwy which is all dirt via Boullia and about 1000km. We headed off intending to take the Plenty Hwy as we still felt the urge for some more dirt road experiences and exploring.

As we approached the turn off for the Plenty Hwy the heavens above opened up and just bucketed down with further black clouds in the distance, it was a no brainer! Continue on the main roads and do the extra 800km or so, as  the Plenty Hwy gets very muddy and blocked in sections when it rains, so you could end up being stuck out there for a few days till it dries up..how on earth would Santa find us if we were stuck on a dirt road in Central Aust on Xmas day?? Not an ideal way to spend it….

Heading up the Stuart Hwy we made the best of it, by trying to see as much as we could along the way. The terrain out here is surprisingly very green and changes often from thick dense scrub to open plains, our first stop was the “famous” Wycliffe Wells Roadhouse,  the area is very well known for supposedly having the most UFO sightings. It is very hard to explain this stop, which is a combined roadhouse, camp ground, “tourist attraction” general everything..they have all the funniest UFO gimmicks in the shop and outside the shop which you can’t help but giggle at, very strange…

Onto the Devils Marbles, a natural formation of granite rocks (massive boulders) which look like they been physically stacked on top of each other by Fred Flintstone and his dinosaur crane..it looks more like a movie set and very non real..hard to imagine these were made naturally, gotta love mother nature sometimes!

The road keeps going and going, and so do we once we drive through our intended stop for the night Tennant Creek…thanks but no thanks I’d rather keep driving the extra 270 km into the night to get to Barklys homestead..

Thank god we did, what a suprise Barklys Homestead is, out here miles from no where is a very upmarket pub, bistro, campground, pool, cabins and very friendly staff. The plan was we have dinner get to bed and then get up early (4am) to hit the road for a driving day of about 1100km to get to Longreach.

Ok, had a great dinner and a few beers as it was quite a hot night, got up early hit the road at 4am, (so far on track) beautiful sunset at 6am, nice drive so far..at about this point Kathy starts shuffling around the car looking for her handbag, the shuffling gets louder as does the sound of OMG where is my bag?? We pull over and literally pull everything out of the car and then back track our thoughts…went to dinner – took handbag to dinner and placed it under the table- had a few beers and left – LIGHTBULB moment! I Left it under the table! Uuurrgh….
Ok, let’s turn around do another 200km back to the homestead, aaah the pleasures of travelling! The staff found the bag and kept it for us which was great, nothing lost other than some of our time.  It seems that our brains have pushed common sense out to make room for our new “survival skills”.

We decided after our little return trip early morning adventure to have a rest day, book a cabin and just take it easy, which we did..spent all day in the a/c room watching bad tv, and enjoying the bar’s facilities (not much else to do here)

Groundhog Day, same as yesterday 4am start but way more organised..we were all cleaned up, organised and ready to take on the road again. What an interesting drive from Central NT in central Qld. The biggest irony of all are the 130 speed signs, when you can your troopy cant….. As you drive through MT Isa you can’t help but think I’ve just driven down the main road at Port Kembla x 10, it is just one big mining town and has a very blue pants fluoro shirt feeling about it, it seems that every one here is somehow connected to this industry which keeps this town bustling..

Kept driving till we finally reached Longreach at about 6.00pm that evening, what a beautiful town! Can’t wait to explore it tomorrow  and see the Qantas museum which is one of the reasons we came via here…