Thursday 30 June 2022
Today we left Boulia after a day of work for David and a day of blogging for me, a nice rest day in a little house for a change. As David was inflating the tyres we had 5 caravans go passed us. David thought that was annoying as that was 5 vehicles he was going to have to pass later. That was not they case, they must have all turned off to Birdsville. We then continued to have caravans and campers heading west that we had to contend with on the development road. This is a single lane road that each vehicle has to staddle the edge of the road when passing. So not sure if you believe in unlucky numbers but within about 15min we had our first big stone chip of the trip from vehicle no 13. It’s a big one right in the middle of the driver’s viewing area. An expensive morning. We passed about 50 cars with caravans or camper trailers or roof top tents in the first hour. It is going to be a long day because as you approach each vehicle you slow down, staddle the road edge and pray they do the same. Now we understand why Google maps said 600km would take over 7 hrs. Once again the scenery is so green. We started this morning before we had even left Boulia seeing a camel, a goat and a pig on the side of the road. Followed by brolgas, a bustard and many flocks of birds. We stopped at Cawnpore Lookout which had a beautiful view. A couple we met there had travelled over 200km from Winton this morning and passed 2 cars going east, us and one other. We are definitely going the wrong way, we have passed over 50 in the first hour and it kept going, it is trying David’s patience which is saying something. Our big decision, when is the best time to stop for lunch? Drive hard from 12 to 1pm whilst everyone is eating? We tried that but it didn’t make any difference. It has been sprinkling with rain before lunch but after lunch the rain became quite consistent making going over the edge of the road pretty tricky, slippery and slow. Hopefully it will slow people down a bit. Thankfully we only have to get to Winton and then the last 200km will be dual lane, we think! It ended up being bitumen from Winton with 2 lanes – one each way so I even drove the last 100km. We have checked in to a little steel box for another two nights so David can do some work tomorrow. We will try and have a swim here as well, they have a 25m heated pool.