Premature Grey Nomads!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday 30th July

Last night was really cold but thankfully we seem to have kissed the rain goodbye. Today we travelled a lazy 200km. north to Charleville & checked into a local caravan park. This area has seen drought for quite a period – Australia is certainly a land of contrast! We were staggered by the amount of roadkill…. It is prodigious. It is nearly all kangaroos whom have obviously been hit at night whilst trying to feed on the grass verge of the road. We also saw quite a few emus.

Friday 31^st July

This morning was cool but it turned into a beautiful day. We did some washing, went on a WW2 tour at the airport, looked at Vortex Rain Guns & did some shopping. Tonight we enjoyed a camp oven dinner & desert here at the caravan park in Charleville…….it was delicious & Cheryl let me have seconds!

Saturday 1^st August

Another glorious morning as we headed out to Quilpie. As we entered Quilpie we checked out Lake Houdraman & the river at Quilpie. Lake Houdraman is a magnificent free campsite & there were many people camped there. Whilst having lunch in the Quilpie Café we mulled over where to go next….Eromanga, stay at Lake Houdraman, Adavale!

We decided on going to Adavale & then further north the next day. Seventeen kilometres on the way to Adavale on a gravel road that was in need of remedial roadwork construction …………..disaster

Stephen was travelling at 77km per hour on a newly graded part when the rear RHS tyre of the Triton absolutely shredded itself on the rim. We managed to pull up within about 30 m. (Triton’s do not travel to well on 3 wheels) in a straight line in the middle of the road!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got out & surveyed the damage…..the All Terain tyre was never going to be used again! The Triton was obviously down at the rear & we also had about 1800 kg hanging off the back of it…….Stephen used the front two stabilisers on EKO to lift the trailer so we could get the jockey wheel down . We then unhitched the stone stomper & trailer plugs then the trailer itself.

Three vehicles went by & asked if we were okay & if we had water….which is great isn’t it?

The next task was to get the jack & wheel brace out of the back of the Triton which meant unloading the back seat so as to move it forward & getting them out. We then had to get the spare wheel out from underneath a very lopsided Triton, then Stephen loosened the wheel nuts by jumping up & down on the wheel brace. He then had to get the jack under the back axle which was very difficult because of the shredded tyre. He was jacking it up when two cars pulled up & asked if we needed help. Stephen asked one of the fellas if he would sit the spare back on as he jacked up the Triton. They helped him to do that & then helped him hitch EKO back up which saved us some time. We still had one spare left so we pushed on another 90km of bad dirt road to get to Adavale where we had a beer at the local pub. That was after we had waited 55 minutes for the publican & barman to return from yabbying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We then went to Blackwater Creek where we had our first free camp on this trip. We had a fire & burnt a bit of Gidgee as we watched the moon rise.

Sunday 2^nd August

We were on the road by 8 today & made it into Blackall by lunchtime. It was 200km of corrugated, rough gravel & red dirt but our camper was great with very little dust ingress except for the drawer with Cheryl’s clothes in it. We lunched at a small camping area in Blackall then did a tour of the Blackall Wool Scourer which is now the only steam driven working wool scourer in Australia.

From Blackall we travelled to Barcaldine where we stayed in the local caravan park.

Monday 3^rd August

We overnighted in Barcaldine & checked out the town including the Tree of Knowledge where the Australian Labour Party had its genesis. We also rang Ginny Luttrell who was turning 60 – Happy Birthday!!!! We then drove onto Ilfracome which is 27 km shy of Longreach where we ae staying 3 nights. The caravan park is like Lightning Ridge……no grass. We went along to Happy Hour & were thoroughly entertained by yarns & poetry. We heard about all the snow in Tassie & were thinking of you as it was 27 here (lol)

Tuesday 4^TH August

Today we visited the Stockman’s Hall of Fame & the Qantas Founders Museum – both are briliant