Friday 3rd September 2021
After a lovely quiet night, followed by a beautiful walk along the river bird watching and photographing before we headed on our way back to Cloncurry 60km east yet again. Today’s bird list – Dart, Varied Lorikeet, Rainbow Bee-eater, Australasian Grebe,

A quick stop at Cloncurry for supplies, by then it was midday we headed off touring. First stop was to be a late lunch at Walkabout Creek Hotel – location of another Crocodile Dundee scene 120km SE of Cloncurry, it was a beautiful drive through lovely plains. Unfortunately due to under staffing the hotel is only open until 1pm and then re-opens at 5pm till close and they no longer sell meals. Instead of lunch we had our first encounter with Queensland Law Enforcement whilst we were stopped outside the hotel. We had to give our licences, phone numbers and show our border passes, also information about when we left home, entered Queensland, where we stayed last night and where we were headed tonight. We were very happy to have finally been asked after almost 10 weeks in Queensland to confirm our legality of being here. The police officer was very nice and we had an interesting chat with her, helped her pass some time as she spends most of her day checking people on the highway with other state number plates. It is a bit like ground hog day she said. We then found some shade for a sandwich in the park.

So epic fail for the Crocodile Dundee Walkabout Hotel, we only managed a photo of the exterior and didn’t get to have a crocodile burger and a beer. Boohoo!!

So we then headed back 120km NE through some more beautiful countryside on a road a little less travelled to Julia Creek where we were hoping to have a swim in the pool and stay at the caravan park. Foiled yet again, no space at the caravan park again, the overflow McIntyre Park and the RV Park by the creek were boggy from the rain the night before last and were closed. So it was either a gravel pit behind the road house with the other 50 homeless caravanners or move on. You guessed it. We moved on. We tried a Farmstay at Nelia which was 50km East but it also wasn’t taking anyone because it was very boggy as well. So on to Richmond which was over 1.5hrs and 150km further east. We decided against a swim as it would have meant arriving in the dark and we are trying our best to avoid this.

It was a lovely drive to Richmond with a quick detour to Nelia of which I did about 100km, only stopping because I got caught behind a road train. Some of the road signs indicate the road trains around here can be up to 53m long. So needless to say I was too chicken to overtake, so we swapped drivers.

On arrival here at Richmond we checked in to the caravan park which is on a man made lake, so we had a lovely walk around the lake before dinner. It is quite cool this evening but still comfortable enough to sit outside.