Sunday, 26 May 2013

23 May 2013 – Riversleigh Fossil Centre, Camooweal and across the border into the Northern Territory



We were packed up, filled up with water and on the road fairly early this morning, knowing we had a long day ahead of us.  A large part of our driving south today was dirt road and it included a couple of water crossings.  One of these was across the Gregory River over a causeway.  The water was running a little strong from right to left and the causeway was slippery.  Josh kept the car to the right of the causeway but misjudged where the causeway was – my heart sank as we fell off the side of the road beneath us.  Fortunately there must have been some rocks running along the side of the causeway so we didn’t fall too far and Josh was able to amble across and complete the crossing.  No damage done – phew – and we continued on.  After about the first 60ms, we made a brief stop at Riversleigh Fossil Mammal Site.  It was to be a self-guided tour starting with the interpretive centre and taking us through a field containing some fossils from millions of years ago.  None of us would have said it was much to write home again.  That was until after we reached the top and had a magnificent view of the area, and then on the way down saw a fossil of a “big bird” from millions of years ago.  That made it worth our while.  So – that was our exercise for the day.  Back to the car and sitting on our butts for the rest of the day.  We continued on about another 100kms of dirt track, some areas were a bit bumpier than others but lucky for us we didn’t have the bikes on the back.  We came to a fork in the dirt road and had to decide:  should we a) veer left and now drive 125kms along sealed road to Camooweal (my option) or b) drive about 90kms of entire dirt road which took us straight to Camooweal (Josh’s option).  Yes, Josh was driving and we took option b).  Fortunately we were only about 10-15kms into this dirt road before we were waved down by a 4WD bus tour advising us that the road ahead was extremely slipper due to recent rain and a truck had already gotten stuck in it.  We took the driver’s advice and turned our rig around and went back to obtion a).  Not too much time wasted!  When we finally hit Camooweal, we topped up the fuel, grabbed a couple of items from the local shop and then continued not far down the road to the Northern Territory border.  Finally we have reached our 3rd state!!!  We pulled into the sign for a happy snap and on doing so met another great couple and exchanged the opportunity of getting a complete family photo in front of the sign.  Upon leaving, not far down the road, we witnessed a cheap way to get around the country.  There were two camels pulling along a small Suzuki Sierra.  They had just pulled to the side of the road to refuel – hence the camels were grazing in the paddock and then they would have hooked them back up to the harnesses and continued on their journey.  It was a great idea and I’m sure a great money-saver compared to the fuel prices we’ve been paying!  We continued on about another 120kms west along the Barkly Highway and Josh decided that he’d had enough driving for the day so we pulled into the Soudan Bore Rest Area and free camped for the night.  The lovely folk who we’d met at the NT sign, Bruce and Jenny,  had also pulled in to free camp here so we set up some chairs and grabbed a few drinks and settled into some great conversation before retiring for dinner and bed for the night.
















 











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