(decidedly dry, dusty and deserted!)

We left Alice Springs for the last time to head to Queensland. Our first camp was at Gemtree Fossicking Roadhouse and Caravan Park (thanks Wendy for the tip). It was a real outback camping ground and we stayed two nights. We would have gone fossicking with the park owners but there was a sudden death the night we arrived so we had a quiet couple of days. The place was deserted, like most places we’ve been to recently.

We moved on, camping at good old Tobermorey – not the one on the Isle of Mull in Scotland but the one in the middle of the desert in Australia! The drive took most of the day but wasn’t as bad as we expected. The track was a combination of corrugations, sand, rocks and occasionally bitumen. The car and van handled it fine.

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Tobermorey is just four kms before the border so we entered Queensland early the next morning.

I loved crossing the desert! You think its going to be boring but it’s not, it’s fascinating . The landscape does change even if it’s just the shade of the red dirt, or suddenly there is a rock formation in the vast flatness . And the cows kept us busy as they wander onto the road. We saw very few cars but one we did see coming towards us skidded to a stop in front of us and did a u-turn, pulling over just in front of us. Two young Aboriginal men jumped out holding some kind of weapon that looked to me like a boomerang. They must have noticed a goanna or something on the side of the road because as we passed they were circling it ready to kill it presumably for dinner.

We camped at Tobermorey which was just a camping ground in the desert but also had diesel. (We always plan our next fuel and water stop even if we don’t know where we will camp). So before leaving the next morning, we went to fill up the car. The fuel pump was shut and the little shop had a sign saying it was closed for the day! I rang the bell but there was no-one around. We always carry an extra 20ltrs of diesel but, even with that, we weren’t sure we’d have enough to get to the next fuel stop at Boulia. I was confused about why they didn’t mention they would be closed when we booked in the previous evening.

As we drove through the desert, we watched the fuel gauge slip silently into the red zone but we tried to focus on our surroundings. We did stop and fill up from the jerry can.

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We noticed a couple of cars at the side of the road and recognised them as belonging to some people we got talking to in the caravan park. We pulled over to check they were okay and they were . We told them our predicament with being low on fuel and they reassured us that they had spare and would follow us. Unbelievably we scraped in. When we finally crawled into the garage at Boulia, we put 83 litres of diesel into our 80 litre tank! As good as their word, the other two couples shadowed us right to the garage!

The campsite at Boulia was nice with various cute animals wandering around freely. We spotted a dog, two cats, a little black piglet and some calves. The town itself had nothing to offer us but the Min Min Exhibition which was closed unfortunately. So, early next morning we moved on towards Winton.

Although we missed out on seeing the Min Min Light Exhibition, we did stop at the site where the Min Min Light was apparently seen.

Further along the road we came to Cawnpore Lookout which had wonderful views of the area.

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Our next stop was for lunch at the Middleton Hotel in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Apparently Middleton was a Cobb & Co. stagecoach stop in the old days, and there was some evidence of that around. We stayed over an hour chatting to Val who was relieving the new owner. She was lovely and showed us a fossil she believed to be a crocodile. Before we left, Val gave me some rock with opal in it. So kind.

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We also met Steve who was camped across the road at the ‘Hilton Hotel’ and helping Val by doing some cleaning. He told us he was walking around Australia and was planning to write a book.

After an enjoyable visit, we took off for the town of Winton.