"Now that was a Buggy good day."
Wildlife day today. Enjoyed a shower with a green frog. He started off on the wall above me but as the condensation formed he had trouble holding on and dropped into the shower with me. He looked a bit concerned as he couldn’t get out, but I promised not to stand on him and continued to wash. He did not waste any time jumping out once the curtain was pulled. That’s a first for me, showering with a frog.
Started out on the road at 7am in a very colourful twilight and the road was swarming with Wallabies. Now dear reader, there is no use in getting old if you don’t get cunning. I mucked around (taking a photo of the Croydon general store which claims to be the oldest shop in Australia) and made sure that Dad lead out, and hung back just a bit. He was stirring up all of the wildlife and this lead to two emergency braking episodes due to the silly wallabies running out in front of Dad. But then I remembered the wise words of advice, from my mate Pete, who said “Its not the first bastard that runs out that gets you, it’s the third one, the stupid animals follow each other across the road and wham, your stuffed!” then I remembered Dad is older than me, and probably way more cunning, Of course he was in a hurry to lead off, Doah! I started to really pay attention. Dick and Ken had headed off about ten minutes before us so had already stirred the Wallabies up. Maybe that was a good think as mostly they just hoped away from the road when we came through. We did pass a Road train heading out of Croydon and probably should have stayed behind him, but that is very hard when you have an 1150cc motor between your legs, so through we went. Thankfully neither of us hit any Wallabies, and the bird life was very active at this time of the day. Saw Flamingo, other stalks, pink parrots etc etc. There was a snake on the road at one point all curled up, and I was not sure if it was alive or run over but as I flew by at about 100km/hr I could not recognise a flat spot, so assume it was out on the road warming up, didn’t stop to say “how do you do?”, purely because we were at the business end of the trip and had to keep moving. Arrived into Normanton at about 8.30 and fuelled up, could not raise any conversation out of the old boy running the gas station, although he could speak English as he took my money with no trouble at all. We then went into town and met Ken and Dick who had found a café serving breakfast. Ordered Bacon and Eggs and a couple of coffees. Dad asked if it was going to be a hot day today and the woman behind the counter said ”No, it will be good for us, but you will find it hot.” I was getting a distinct impression that Normanton is not too fussed on tourists. She did smile when I asked if we looked like we were not coping with it. Perhaps they are just not morning people here. Had our feed and then bid Dick and Ken farewell as they are heading into GS country, down a sandy and rutted road to Burketown, whereas we were headed on the asphalt to Burke and Wills roadhouse, a mere 200km down the road and the next sign of civilisation after Normanton.
Rude word. I have lost my earplugs! Now relax, I could feel you tense up after the last rant about loosing gear, this is no big deal, hardly worth mentioning whereas the thought of Hattie still stings. I looked at the gas station to check I hadn’t dropped them there, but no. So turned the radio and tunes volume down a bit and carried on. We headed into the furnace at this point, probably not that hot but with the wind and heat it certainly sucks the juice out of you. The road was a mixture of two lane and single lane with dirt verges. A couple of “wide eyes and brown trousers” moments as trucks came around corners, but not too much drama. There was the occasional wack on my feet and occasionally on my legs also and I could not see and insects so thought it must be stones flicking up, but when we arrived at Burke and Wills roadhouse we were covered in splattered bugs and a few were still recognisable as some sort of winged grass hoper. They must have been on the road and jumping at the last moment for us to not see them. There was also the odd swarm of bugs. The vegetation was scrub and pretty hungry looking ground, but clearly there is enough here to support billions of termites and other insects. This then supports lots of small birds, which I guess support the birds of prey, which I guess are eagles. A lot of guess work going on here. My point is there were heaps of Eagles, mostly feeding of heaps of Kangaroo and Wallaby carcases on the side of the road.
We stopped for a brew at the Burke and Wills Roadhouse and there were a few Road trains parked up, and numerous four-wheel drives and utes with caravans. There was every shape and size of caravan imaginable; some very full on four wheel drive camper trailers, and a couple of caravans very sensibly with air conditioning. I hate to admit it but the woman at Normanton was right, we were struggling with the heat but the locals all looked very comfortable.
Headed out and dug the spurs into the iron horses, with them pointed in the direction of the next bit of civilisation, Cloncurry, which was 180km away. I think it would not be exaggerating to say the Burke and Wills roadhouse is in the middle of nowhere. This is appropriate as Burke and Wills were early explorers who lead a team from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria, essentially straight through the middle of Australia but then failed to make it back and indeed, only 1 man out of the 7 that did the whole trip made it back alive. Tough country. Need to keep that in mind if setting out on foot.
We passed some Bicycle tourers. Are they mad? 200km in one direction and 180km in the other and they are on pushbikes and it all pretty much looks the same? Now don’t get me wrong, I love bike touring, but there is a time and place for everything and this is not the place for bike touring unless the bike has a dirty great petrol tank and a Germanic reliable motor on it. Perhaps they are descendents of Burke or Wills trying to connect with their heritage. Maybe they took a wrong turn at Townsville and are wondering where Brisbane is? I will never know as other than giving them a cheery wave as we flew past them at 120 we did not communicate.
More interesting terrain as we headed north with rocky outcrops periodically, and lots of red dirt and rock. The bug onslaught continued. We stopped for fuel and a pie and Coffee at Cloncurry and had a good chat to a couple that were travelling in our direction to Mt Isa. A couple of locals that have had 16 years in Mt Isa and will now head for the coast to live. They gave us some insight into Mt Isa, which is a town built on top of the mine and hence is not that salubrious. They confirmed the previous comment about the definition of Happiness being Mt Isa in your rear vision mirror, obviously a local mantra. I guess everyone is getting rich from the mine though, so stays there.
Carried on to Mt Isa arriving at about 4.30. Found a motel that was a bit flash but we thought it would do being Saturday night and all. Checked in then hooked up to the Internet and Skyped home to the Tavern and then to Nelson for a chat to everyone. Amazing technology really. 20 years ago (or so) when I first headed overseas I wrote a letter or phoned once a month but otherwise was off in the wilderness with no one really knowing exactly where I was, now it is so easy and cheap to stay in touch. A video link for free other than the cost of Internet connection. I have no doubt that this will seem primitive in the future also. Oh well that’s progress for you. We could have satellite tracking on us with a live feed to a website so people could see where we are in real time, but come on, that is a bit over the top! Or maybe not? Perhaps it is essential and I am being reckless by not having this, maybe I should look into it at the next town. Then again, "harden up Garth", Burke and Wills would be rolling in their graves with laughter.
A feed in the Motel restaurant, a couple of beers and some friendly banter with some locals who were a bit put out as we watched end of the Warriors beating Queensland on the TV. Off to bed early. Neither of us are having any trouble sleeping.
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