Merhaba from Mt. Isa,

As today’s leg was to be the longest of my trip, I departed Blackall at a pre-sunrise 6:45, continuing along the Landsborough Highway, warily scanning the road ahead for ‘roos. I was in Barcaldine by 7:45, where I … guess what? Yes, that’s right, and it had an excellent range of fare.

The aroma of the freshly baked provisions from the back of the car soon became too much for me to resist, so I had an early coffee break at a roadside rest area, ’round 8:30.

I refuelled in Winton at 10:50, after having done 620km since the last fill, with the reserve light glowing, and the trip computer indicating that the range left in the tank was 0! However, I could squeeze only 60l into the 69l tank; it’s a good thing that such indicators are overly pessimistic!

I had a second, lateish, morning coffee ’round 11:10, at a rest area in the environs of Winton, and partook of a late lunch (in the environs of nowhere) at about 1:30.

Around 70km short of Cloncurry, the countryside began to change, from the mostly monochrome treeless plains, to an open low green scrub, tainted with the yellow/green of wattle starting to flower, studded with small dark brown termite nests, and spotted with clumps of grey/green spinifex, all against a background of cream dry grass.

From Cloncurry to Mt Isa, the terrain gets hillier. I’ve described the scenery on a previous trip here. It’s hard to find a spot to pull off the road that has a decent opportunity to take a photograph; here’s the best I could do.

I was ensconced in my motel room by 4:20, with the temperature at 25 degrees.

Today’s run was a long 875km, with no nomad encounters. In retrospect, I should have planned to stay in Cloncurry. Without thinking, I repeated what I did last time I was up this way, in 2005, forgetting that on that occasion, my ultimate destination was Mt Isa.

Here’s today’s route:

Cheers,
Julian