WEEK 7

CARAVAN TRAVELS AUSTRALIA WITH BOB & MARION CASSIDY

Week 7:

Sunday 10 April 2011:

Departing Soudan Dip Rest Area at 06.35am we settled down to a cruising speed of about 90kph and passed through Avon Downs at 07.20am.  After crossing the border into Queensland we changed our clocks to Queensland Time and arrived at Camooweal 16 minutes later, at 08.36am [EST].  Our next major stop was Mount Isa at 11.10am  where we fuelled up before departing at 11.21am.  We planned on staying overnight at Cloncurry and after an uneventful trip, we arrived at the Gilbert Park Caravan Park at 01.05pm.  We had stayed at this caravan park several times in the past and found the staff to be friendly and helpful.  The park facilities were kept clean and the site we had was a large driver through site with power.  The resident green tree frogs in the showers were still in evidence and a sign in the showers asked patrons to not be afraid of "Gilbert" the Tree Frog.  It was great to see these frogs surviving in the desert climate.

"Gilbert" the Green Tree Frog.

Monday 11 April 2011:

06.42am we departed Cloncurry leaving the Barkly Highway behind and travelling east along the Flinders Highway for a short 18km east of town where the intersecton of the Flinders Highway met with the Landsborough Highway, where we turned right and headed for McKinlay.  It was 07.56am when we passed through sleepy McKinlay where the famous Walkabout Hotel (Crocodile Dundee) is located.  At 08.51am we arrived at Kynuna and kept going towards Winton.  As we drove through Winton we observed one service station had diesel fuel for sale at a very low price (compared to where we had been); and we stopped to fill up the tanks.  As we were doing so, the manager came out and changed the prices to a higher price per litre; we were lucky to have filled up before the price went up!  Fifteen minutes later we were on our way again.  As we continued on our way a large road train roared past in a cloud of dust and several large stones pelted our windscreen.  We ended up with three (3) "stars" where the stones had made cracks in the windscreen, fortunately the glass did not shatter.  We pulled up at the Crawford Rest Area to inspect the damage; and I decided it was safe to continue on, after we placed small dust protectors over the "stars" to keep them clean for an attempt at repair later on.  I contacted the RACQ (Royal Automobile Club of Queensland) and ascertained that my insurance did not cover broken windscreens as this was an extra cost on the insurance policy, which was not worth it in my view and it was almost as much as a new windscreen anyway.  At 01.40om we arrived at Longreach and I called into a repair garage where I ascertained it was not worth replacing the windscreen unless the cracks in the "stars" began to enlongate.  So far they had not done so.  I decided to leave it all the fate and continue on.

(Eventually we arrived home; and to this day I am still driving around with the "stars" intact on the windscreen.)  Leaving Longreach we drove the 106km to Barcaldine, arriving at 03.05pm.  We pulled into the showgrounds where we knew we could camp for the night with power and hot showers.  After setting up we relaxed with some fellow travellers and chatted about our travel experiences.

Tuesday 12 April 2011:

06.35am  we were on the road again heading further east towards the coast.  This wold be our last night on the road and we were beginning to look forward to getting home again.  We had 565km to go and arrived at Duringa at 12.40pm where we set up and I started up the generator for our power supply.  A free hot shower was located at this large rest area and I took advantage of the facility before settling down to relax for the rest of the day.  We had stayed here in the past also; and I have included a photo taken on our fishing trip north to Karumba in 2007.

    August 2007 - Camped at Duringa en route to Karumba on a Fishing Trip.

 

Wednesday 13 April 2011:

06.12am  we were off to another early start and eager to get home.  We arrived at Rockhampton at 07.55am and experienced the "Rocky" peak hour traffic travelling into town from the outer suburbs.  From Rockhampton we travelled on the Bruce Highway, passing through Mt. Larcom, Benaraby, Miriam Vale, Granite Creek, Gin Gin, Childers and Maryborough; before turning off the Bruce Highway just after 1.30pm.  We fuelled up again at Maryborough and were soon on the Cooloola Coast Road, which took us the 72km to home, arriving at 03.54pm.  Our trip was done!  We had travelled 9084km and consumed 2125ltrs of diesel fuel; at an average cost of $1.53/ltr.  Fuel consumption had averaged 23.4lt/100km.

 

THE END

KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR A NEXT TRIP!