Day 153 - 10/4 buddy, we're now in Queensland

Hi everyone, just to let you know, the 10/4 comment has nothing to do with Queensland. It's actually to do with the number of snakes I've seen so far. I've seen 10 snakes in total, and have run over 4 of them on the road. To be honest, I've seen 8 of my 10 snakes on the road, some of them have been a little more physical than others.

So I left the lovely town of Tennant Creek today, one of the biggest towns for domestic violence on Australia. No crazy screams this morning at 4am, but they were still going at 11pm when I went to bed.

I had a 470 km drive today, to get to Camooweal. Just to tell you, I've done almost 2000km since Tuesday morning, more than 200km more than the distance I travelled with Steve and Nancy, and I spent 2 weeks with them. I can understand why I'm hating driving at the moment. At least I only have 180km tomorrow.

The drive wasn't eventful at all, except for 2 things. 1. seeing my 10th snake, a little sucker on the road, and 2. I bumped into 2 couples who've just come from Mt Isa, where I'm going tomorrow. Apparently Australia's biggest Rodeo is happening there this weekend, so I might no be able to find any accommodation, and if I do, it'll be expensive as. BUt it'd be nice to see a rodeo.

After getting to Camooweal, I drove the 25 extra kms to get to the National Park, where they had 2 lovely caves. Good caves, but I'd need a rope and friends to go use it.
So now I'm back in town, it's very quiet (thank god!!), and am looking forward to a relaxing evening.

Just getting ready for tomorrow.

Day 152 - And the days keep ticking.

Hi all, well you'd think after a long day's drive, I'd have a nice long sleep, the motel room was nice, and the bed was the best I've been in for months. But no, that didn't happen, thanks to the "locals". High pitched screaming was the go for last night, even at 5am. Hopefully they're all tired tonight, and go to bed early.

Anyway, I left Tennant Creek, to take a day trip down south. My first target was the Devils Marbles. Not too sure what I expected, I just remember seeing it in my travel books months ago, and saying I needed to go.




As you can see, lots of medium sized rocks to walk and climb around. It was still very nice, and I met some lovely people in the process.

I then headed to Wycliffe Wells, a one shop town, with a difference. The roadhouse is famous for UFO sitings, and has made it a place for all the tourists to stop at. Lots of newspaper clippings, as well as the standard "fake" aliens and so on.

I then headed back to Tennant Creek, where I headed the other way, i.e. north. I then did the following: Headed to the Anzac Hill lookout (boring), drove to Kunjarra (Pebbles, a poor version of the Devil's Marbles), and finally to the Lake Mary Ann. If the wind wasn't blowing so big, I'd have probably tried fishing there.

Anyway, planning on getting an early night's sleep tonite, just in case I get woken up again at 5am. Until next time (note: probably won't be online tomorrow, going deep outback, but then on to Mount Isa to find a pub on Saturday to watch the Collingwood/Geelong game. Hopefully it's time for a Pies win.

Day 151 - On to Tennant Creek

Hi everyone, not too much to tell today. I drove approx. 570km today, and although I could drive at 130km/h, it seemed like one of the longest drives I've ever done. Might be a little bit sick maybe.

A couple of things of note:

1. I hate large trucks/road trains - why? Cause when they drive really fast and go near the side-lines, they flick up stones. One such group of stones hit my windscreen, I now about a 20cm crack in the screen, along with about 10 little specks out of it. Hopefully it lasts long enough for me to get somewhere where I can get it fixed. Anita, my windscreen looks like yours now.

2. I've found the most expensive fuel so far. At $1.97 a litre, I'm glad I filled up about 200km earlier. But this now leads into a more expensive time for me, as I head up toward the Gulf of Carpentaria. I reckon in the next week, I'll be paying $3 a litre. But it's only for a short time, I hope.

So now I'm in Tennant Creek, a very strange town. With about 85% of the population being aboriginal, and about 50% of all the shops closed down, it's a very attractive town. One of those places not to go walking around at night I think. I hope the car's OK, I couldn't get it into my motel room. Doh!

Off to see the Devils Marbles tomorrow. Should be a nice relaxing day.