Guest The Pom Queen Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 After the youngest going on and on about how wonderful Bobj's road trips are we decided to set off on one ourself. Day One and things didn't go as planned. We were all up bright and alert at 5am this morning (ok forget the bright and alert bit) we started packing the car and couldn't fit everything in, so we pulled everything out and tried again it still wouldn't fit in, so Rob tried again still no luck so I told him to leave the fridge which I didn't realise he had just packed so he through everything out of the car (in a wonderful mood) and the huge bag landed on my toes and crippled me, anyway after leaving a few things behind and me hobbling around like a cripple we set off. Half an hour down the road I realised I'd forgot my sunnies, there was no way I was telling Rob, but then I realised we had left the wash bag with meds etc behind, so we did a U turn and headed off home. Then off we went again. I won't bore you with all the details but we headed towards Undara and then off down the Kennedy Development Road towards Hughenden. I have never seen so many traffic lights on a road we must be talking 50 if not more. Then we had 256k of unsealed track. On this stretch: We saw 3 emus A 4ft Lace Monitor Eagles Cows We nearly rolled the car, we were doing 100km on the unsealed road when a crazy calf ran out in front of us, Robs natural instinct kicked in and he broke and we lost control skidding everywhere, I'm shouting stop breaking just hit the damn thing we are going to roll and the little one is screaming don't hit it daddy, anyway he managed to gain control of the car and the little calf trotted off and gave us a look as if to say what was all that fuss about:chatterbox: We had a couple more near do's where you don't see the huge hole in the road until its taken a huge chunk of your car. Anyway absolutely shattered both mentally and physically we pulled up at Hughenden and couldn't get a camping spot anywhere, the boys were happy camping at the side of the road, but no I needed a site with a shower. Anyway nothing at all, so we went in to the Tourist Information where she must have felt sorry for me as she sat me down behind the counter, continued to tell me how rough I looked (I didn't like telling her it was my natural look) although I was still recovering from the damn crazy calf. She then said don't worry we have found you a pitch but it's an hour away in Richmond:shocked: We just said yes. As I was heading out the door I saw a sign saying road closed from Cloncurry to Mt Isa due to bushfires, guess where we are heading, yes that way, I still havent plucked up the courage to tell Rob :laugh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frogian Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Those 'graded' roads, as they call them, are BAD! We had similar not long back out south of Chillagoe, but we were only doing around 60 at the time - OH screamed 'what the **** are you doing, stop messing around!'. My calm reply as I was spinning the wheel crazily left and right to try to keep it going staight was (and I'll admit my bum area was twitching quite a bit at this time, so I think I did well to sound calm!) 'I'm not messin around, I'm trying to stop us crashing' You know what her reply was: "Don't hit the ******* breaks". My, again calm, reply (even though my bum area was twitching 100 times more than before as the car was not slowing at all and a hard left was coming up fast): "I'm not and I wont cos I'm not ******* stupid" (no offence to Rob 'cos it is DEFINITELY instinct to hit them when you loose control). Outcome: a 180 spin to a stop; quater of car hanging over a 6 foot drop into a ditch and a foot away from trees; my OH's friend in the back looking somewhat on the pale side saying "s#it, you did well to keep control there mate" ...and 2 new tyres when we got home. Surprisingly the dog didn't realise owt had gone wrong - she slept through it! The outcome was a lot more good luck than it was judgement - could have been a LOT worse........ Hope you have a great trip (am certain you will)! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Those 'graded' roads, as they call them, are BAD! We had similar not long back out south of Chillagoe, but we were only doing around 60 at the time - OH screamed 'what the **** are you doing, stop messing around!'. My calm reply as I was spinning the wheel crazily left and right to try to keep it going staight was (and I'll admit my bum area was twitching quite a bit at this time, so I think I did well to sound calm!) 'I'm not messin around, I'm trying to stop us crashing' You know what her reply was: "Don't hit the ******* breaks". My, again calm, reply (even though my bum area was twitching 100 times more than before as the car was not slowing at all and a hard left was coming up fast): "I'm not and I wont cos I'm not ******* stupid" (no offence to Rob 'cos it is DEFINITELY instinct to hit them when you loose control). Outcome: a 180 spin to a stop; quater of car hanging over a 6 foot drop into a ditch and a foot away from trees; my OH's friend in the back looking somewhat on the pale side saying "s#it, you did well to keep control there mate" ...and 2 new tyres when we got home. Surprisingly the dog didn't realise owt had gone wrong - she slept through it! The outcome was a lot more good luck than it was judgement - could have been a LOT worse........ Hope you have a great trip (am certain you will)! I love Chillagoe x Wow you were lucky that day. The thing is there is usually no one around for hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Ok the young one woke us up at 5:30 along with the sun and birds, I've said no more camping. Well today we followed Bobj's directions but the kids were adamant I was reading them wrong so instead of taking a left off the main road in to the Fossicking site we took a right up there we travelled for 20km before I said boys this isn't right, so a U turn we did, on the way back to the main road there was a river bed, straight away they found moon rocks and fossils (Bob would love to know what the gems are inside they are awesome) moon rocks to the average joe blogs like me are oval rocks which when cracked open give you a lovely surprise. Anyway after they had finished there we went back to the beginning and found the area Bobj had mentioned but couldn't find the exact spot, I was never any good on treasure hunts lol. We gave up and went to visit then we set off to Winton by Marine Bay Highway, wow after travelling that I know what it's like to be stuck in the dessert, our aircon wasn't working, it was 40 degrees, all our drinks were boiling (who was the idiot who said to leave the fridge) if we had broke down that would have been it, lol. When we reached Winton again there was no accommodation, but we managed to secure a Queenslander from a motel owner who usually only let's it out to workmen and he charged us $20 more than a camping pitch, an absolute bargain, so we have booked it for 2 nights, so I have a proper bed, yippee, I would say it was lovely to have a shower but it stunk of sewerage so umm. Still waiting for this bush fire to get under control which has delayed us for a few days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fish.01 Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 We had a calf run out in front of us on our last outback trip as well. Luckily I was watching the little bugger and had starting slowing in case he made a mad dash...but you still don't expect them to be that stupid to run right in front of your bullbar instead of the 50km of treeless land in any other direction :laugh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ptp113 Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 This is what Australia is about, not sausages or the cost of lemons. Keep it coming please..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest51810 Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Have fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobj Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Ok the young one woke us up at 5:30 along with the sun and birds, I've said no more camping.Well today we followed Bobj's directions but the kids were adamant I was reading them wrong so instead of taking a left off the main road in to the Fossicking site we took a right up there we travelled for 20km before I said boys this isn't right, so a U turn we did, on the way back to the main road there was a river bed, straight away they found moon rocks and fossils (Bob would love to know what the gems are inside they are awesome) moon rocks to the average joe blogs like me are oval rocks which when cracked open give you a lovely surprise. Anyway after they had finished there we went back to the beginning and found the area Bobj had mentioned but couldn't find the exact spot, I was never any good on treasure hunts lol. We gave up and went to visit then we set off to Winton by Marine Bay Highway, wow after travelling that I know what it's like to be stuck in the dessert, our aircon wasn't working, it was 40 degrees, all our drinks were boiling (who was the idiot who said to leave the fridge) if we had broke down that would have been it, lol. When we reached Winton again there was no accommodation, but we managed to secure a Queenslander from a motel owner who usually only let's it out to workmen and he charged us $20 more than a camping pitch, an absolute bargain, so we have booked it for 2 nights, so I have a proper bed, yippee, I would say it was lovely to have a shower but it stunk of sewerage so umm. Still waiting for this bush fire to get under control which has delayed us for a few days. Errr...Photos will help identify them, please. That was most likely the bore water smell. Winton bore water stinks Fun, innit???:laugh: Cheers, Bobj. PS. Definitely NO COMMENTS on one's map reading capabilities...:no: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 Ahh Bobj I've just read that Winton water smells of sulphur wish we had known this lol. Today we had a lie in until 10am then headed off to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs, I'm not going to post much about it in this thread as I think it's worthy of its own. We then headed back to town. Tomorrow we are heading to the Dinosaur Stampede and then Mt Kathleen then staying in Cloncurry. The little one went opal fossicking today to me they look like stones but if you look closely you can see bits of opal he was very happy. Ill try and get some photos up soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 Well I've just had my sulphur eggy shower, it's definately one way to save water I think I was in 10 seconds at the most before I jumped out retching. We saw one of these today, wasn't sure what it was but been advised its a Crimson Chat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 Believe it or not there is an emu on this photo, we forgot the main camera so it's taken on iPhone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 One of the termite hills Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 It's ok only another 256km to go on the unsealed road Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 Sorry BobJ you won't be able to see what this is will take better ones when we get home Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 Fossicking in Richmond illegally I think lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 just outside Winton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 The bush fire that has delayed us Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 Richmond Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munchkinella Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 The bush fire that has delayed us Please take care Kate :wideeyed: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobj Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 Love 'em, Katie.<label for="rb_iconid_14"></label> Cheers, Bobj. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 Well today we were up bright and early. Headed down to see the Dinosaur Footprints. Had another heart in mouth moment when we got in to a skid, but all fine. Today we saw more emus, a bearded dragon, lots of roos, and sheep, I think that's the first time I've seen sheep and lambs in Oz. We then set off for Cloncurry, arrived at 4pm but decided to shoot through and head up to the blue lake and the ghost town of Mary Katherine. We ended up on a 4 x 4 track which can't have been used in years as there were trees growing in the middle, we had Roos hopping in front, a few drainage channels to navigate, oh and then Robs iPad with the map software on ran out, so we had to negotiate it blind which was fun. By the time we reached the lake the sun had gone down the Roos were out but the lake wasn't blue. we then headed to Katherine but didn't have enough time so will be back tomorrow. I could spend a few days on the 4 x 4 tracks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerberus1 Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 A few quick photos of some of the wildlife we spotted on the drive from Winton to Cloncurry today Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerberus1 Posted September 29, 2012 Share Posted September 29, 2012 Driving up around Mary Kathleen today. Absolutely kicking ourselves as forget to take the camera with us. Fortunately, ipad took a reasonable photo. So lucky, was only saying to ourselves a couple of days ago that we'd love to see camels in the wild. Just happened to take the right track today jmEdfd25CB0 on the downside, the 4wd appears to have developed a problem. Currently waiting for RACQ, at this point return date to Cairns - unknown:frown: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PontePom Posted September 29, 2012 Share Posted September 29, 2012 Hope 4wd aint got to much of a problem Great pics Really enjoyed the updates Howard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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