After 3 fabulous days camping at Adels Grove and exploring Boodjamulla National Park we packed up, filled one tank with water, used the dump point and headed off on the road back to Gregory Downs. It’s a shocker of a road in our motorhome with it’s rigid truck suspension. We crawled along at 15-30km/h and couldn’t wait until we got to the better section at the other end of the 90km trip.
Catie & Robert and Brian & Helen also set off however they are heading further into the gulf country towards Doomadgee and Hell’s Gate. Eventually they will make it to Burketown. We’d only gone about 5km when they both went past us. In their 4WD’s and caravans with off road suspension they can travel a lot faster than us on the rough.
Just after the intersection with the Doomadgee Road we came across a small herd of brumbies resting under a couple of trees. They were a pretty scrawny looking lot. They were not glossy and fat like the brumbies we are used to seeing at our mountain retreat in the Snowy Mountains.
Doomadgee Rd intersection
We bumped and rattled over the rough road. At one point it was better to drive in the table drain. It was a shorter 2 hours 40 minutes later that we arrived in Gregory Downs.
We didn’t need to stop for anything so we continued on to Burke & Wills Roadhouse. It’s pretty monotonous driving along this road with only the odd Wedge-tailed Eagle to see.
We arrived at Burke & Wills Roadhouse and while we were at the bowser topping up with fuel who should come along? Our friend Michael Brayne! What a surprise! Turns out he’s been working in the area for 2 months and is based at the Roadhouse. He sat with us while we had our lunch and we really enjoyed catching up with him.
After lunch we set off heading towards Julia Creek.
The road to Julia Creek is mostly a single lane tar road however there was not much traffic and we were able to make good time until about 100km from Julia Creek we caught two three trailer road trains. They were full of cattle and going slowly at 80km/h. We managed to get around one at a wide section but had to travel behind the other for quite awhile until we could get safely around.
The countryside is very flat grasslands and is home to large cattle stations. The occasional entry gate to properties and mob of cattle breaks the monotony.
It was quite exciting though to see lots of Brolgas and quite a few huge Wedge-tailed Eagles. We don’t often see those at home!
We arrived in the small town of Julia Creek and, as I wanted to do lots of washing, we tried the Caravan Park to see if they had any sites. They were full so we tried the RV Park. What a beauty! Provided by the Council the RV Park is on the outskirts of town beside Julia Creek. They have Camp Hosts on site to check you in and make sure you do the Covid check in. It is free to camp and they have rubbish bins and water taps are scattered around. As we were filling up with water a lady approached us and pointed to where their motorhome was parked and said there is room behind them to fit another motorhome. What a lovely spot we got. Right next to the creek.
I think you all know by now that I love a camp site with water views!
Our friendly neighbours, Pete and Sharon, were great company and I was able to get lots of washing done and dried.
It was quite chilly at night and we’ve changed the sheets back to flannelette ones. We only needed the cotton ones at Adels Grove where the day time temperature reached 35 degrees. However we are going further south and from here on it will become colder.
The next morning was a sunny but chilly morning and we were back in jeans again after only wearing shorts & T-shirts or swimmers for the last week. We needed gas and some groceries and I still had washing to do. We had reasonable internet too so we decided we’d stay another night at Julia Creek.
Our neighbours, Pete and Sharon, got their e-scooters out and were happy to show them off to us before they set off to town. Sharon said I could have a go on hers later. That might be fun.
The RV Park also has bikes with baskets that people can borrow to ride up to town but as we needed our gas bottles filled we thought we’d better go in the motorhome. The hardware store in Julia Creek fills gas bottles so we were able to top up our gas bottle there.
Back to the RV park after picking up some groceries and we settled in for a lazy afternoon by the creek. Perfect!
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