Greetings from Charters Towers,

I left Mount Isa at 6:45am, with a packed lunch, heading east. It was relatively cool, as it had been raining on and off all night, and it was still raining. It was quite heavy at times, but by the time I reached Cloncurry, 116km away, I’d passed under the rain. From Cloncurry, I continued due east, along the Flinders Highway. Before long, I was back onto the plains, and the temperature was rising. Just before Julia Creek, a bustard on the left-hand side of the road took flight right in front of me. I swerved to the right, attempting to avoid it, but it hit the top left corner of my windscreen. Bustards are big bastards, so I was lucky that nothing was busted. I’m unsure of the fate of the bustard; I couldn’t see it in the rear vision mirror, so don’t know what trajectory it took after its encounter with the windscreen.

At 9:45am I had morning coffee and some carrot cake, which was most excellent, by the side of the road. I refilled the tank at Richmond at around 11am, and at midday had lunch (a chicken salad sandwich and a ham and cheese sandwich). Eventually, the plains gave way to hills and forests, and little townships appeared much more frequently. I arrived at the motel around 3:15pm, after travelling 762km. After the temperature had cooled down a little from 35 C, I went for a walk around town, and topped up my cash reserve at a “hole in the wall”.

I’ll be heading for Townsville tomorrow, then down the coast to Sarina, where I’ve booked a room for the night. It’s “only” some 500 odd km away, but I don’t expect I’ll be able to maintain the average speed that I have been achieving for the past few days on flat, straight roads, with a 110km/h speed limit for the most part.

Cheers,
Julian