Gulf Country

It turns out that not getting a fishing charter was a good thing. It started raining while we were at the Karumba "Animal Bar" (I kid you not) celebrating NYE with the locals, and by the time we were on the road at 8AM this morning it was showing no sign of letting up. It would have been miserable out there! The drive down the Burke Development Road in the rain however was a fascinating experience. There was wild life everywhere ... kangaroo's, a goanna, a (hit by truck) wild pig, Brolga's, Herons of all varieties, Curlews (which are bloody stupid with respect to road sense - one would have taken out our windscreen if I hadn't had slowed down rather rapidly!), pelicans, galahs, corellas, sparrows and flocks of other various small birds (many of which sadly didn't get out of the way fast enough), and a huge flock of green budgies! Oh, and an incredible number of hawks and Eagles.
The landscape (what we could see of it through the rain) was constantly changing as well. 200km past Normanton (and only seeing 6 other cars in that whole time) we hit the Burke and Wills Roadhouse for "cuppa". The picture below is posted at Libby's insistence and my protest - I swear that I wasn't trying to act "macho"


Another 180kms and we stopped for lunch at the only place open in Cloncurry, and then we hit the road again for Mt Isa. A few km's down the road we spotted a few camel and managed to get a picture before they wandered off

The landscape along this section is incredibly surreal - it's incredibly rugged and breathtaking. I would have loved to see it in the sunshine rather than on the dreary day we had today. Even so I did stop to take one snap - it's a shame that the only safe place to stop wasn't the most amazing view but this will give you some idea. To know more start driving :)

Mt Isa is also rather surreal. The town is nestled in a sort of "bowl" surrounded by rocky hills similar to the one in the photo above, and as you drop down into it and get your first glimpse of it you can't helped but be amazed by the Copper/Zinc/Silver mine and processing plant seemingly smacked bang in the middle of town. It's actually right on the edge but withing spitting distance of the "CBD". I'll take some photo's of that on our way into the Northern Territory tomorrow morning.

>5000km down and the red center awaits us ...