Day 37 = Monday
From Gin Gin we went through Bundaberg to Bargara. Due to the terrible weather the normally lovely sea water had turned dark brown, so not very inviting to swim in. Martin didn't feel like going to Harvey bay anymore so we went to Noosa. Very busy, why? it's not a holiday season, nor a weekend, hard to find a parking spot. WE had lunch there and the sea was dark there too so............Lets go home, only 190km further......... Nice to be back home............
DAy 36 - Sunday
Day 35 - Saturday
It rained all night and in the morning it wasn't much better; great day - NOT - to go on a boat to Hamilton Island and after Whitehavenbeach. Anyway, Hamilton is full of high rise buildings, everyone is driving golf buggies around, it doesn't feel like an island...........I don't like it at all.
Whitehaven beach - no white sand!! And then they tell ya that only 3 weeks ago someone got stung by the Irukandji so it's not so safe to swim without a spacesuit.. Lucky the sun came through a bit.
Happy to be back on land again.
Day 34 - Friday
Day 33 - Thursday
Well, just to get back to the cloncurry camping; the gas for cookiing was empty too!!!
We left early and hoped for the best............Julia Creek, no problems but after we got to 'dirty creek'. We stopped, a lot of water over the road. 2 big trucks came, 1 went over, the second told us that if we waited we wouldn't be able to go over as the water was coming up , he said that if we got stuck, he would pull us out so .............halleluja we went in and.............made it!! when we got to the end of the road at Richmond, they closed the road for traffic. On we went, all the way to Woodstock where again, they had just opened a road to Giru and from there on to Ayr, we wanted to go further but the road was really closed of 2w drives, only the trucks and 4w drives were allowed to go through. We ducked into the first camping we saw and went out for dinner. Not very lucky at night.........too hot, a mozzie that we couldn't see but we could feel it.............. around 5.30 the fella from the camping came to tell us they had just openend the road again so.......................we packed up and left.
Day 32 - Wednesday
A long straight road again since 7.30am, first stop Barkly homestead for some fuel, the further towards the Queensland Border. YES, made it. In Camooweal there was supposed to be a very nice camping; we didn't see it. Next stop was Mount Isa, a mining town with good tourist information. They told us the road to Cloncurry was fine but after that.............
We drove on and that road between Mount Isa and Cloncurry is really nice and not boring. Cloncurry is ok too with even some shops. We stopped at the Discovery camping which is advertised as super but............not really, very basic, only 1 toilet block, the lady said there was a BBQ but..........there's not, only a 3 gas plates........outside so if it rains............HELLOOOOOOO and they still charged us $35!!
Tomorrow, our best bet is the flinders highway from Cloncurry to Townsville, there is still water over the road and this arvo it was closed again so we might be stuck here for a couple of days.............hopefully............at the most
Day 31 - Tuesday
a long drive from Darwin to Threeways - about 30 km before Tennant Creek, about 900km. Again, nothing much to see along the way, just straight road and sometimes a fuel station which we were always happy to see. Threeways is very basic, the power went of about 5 or 6 times since we arrived at 5pm. Had a meal and ofcourse the power went off, almost had to eat something else as the chef couldnt make mine due to the power failure.
Had a good sleep, we were exhausted but up again early, on our way at 7.30am
Day 30 - Monday
A rest day in Darwin. We left to explore the city, its a nice place!! Not so big or hectic, actually very cosy. We had been reading about the wave bath and that is was free but it isn't anymore...half day $5, full day $8. The 'free' 2 hour parking is only between 8 and 10am. The rest of the city is not free either as we had been told, it's 2 hour parking limit for $1.80 per hour.
We walked the nice streets, sat down for a cup of coffee when we suddenly heard a woman screaming: 'what are you looking at?'.........we turned around and some abo bitch was yelling at Martijn...he just ignored her as he wasn't looking at her at all - hell!! she wasn't really something you would wanna look at at the best of time!! Anyway, we didn't react and turned around again, she disappeared.
In the evening we went to see Maaike and her hubby and their doggies. It turned out to be a very sociable visit, i would have liked to have stayed longer but we were tired and they had not even had their dinner yet so after a nice cuppa we left.
Son Ben had booked us a night in the Crowne Plaza Hotel so no campervan for us for 1night.
Funny though, when i was lying in bed it felt as if i got bitten every time but i couldn't see anything. Next morning i did have some lumps and bumps!! Woke up early and we left at 6 am.