We had a broken sleep last night, as we were awoken a number of times to the pitter, patter of rain cascading down upon the tin roof of the van again. I am seriously beginning to wonder if we are towing a big rain cloud along behind us like some sort of oversized novelty helium balloon. It just seems to be that wherever we go, a droplet or two decides to fall, I am sure in an effort to remind us of the lovely weather we have tried to leave behind.

To make matters worse, the alarm was set for the earth shatteringly early hour of 7:00AM this morning, so as to give us the best chance of making it to our intended destination of Julia Creek at a reasonable hour. Despite the early morning wake up call, we were still 10 minutes behind schedule as we rolled out of the caravan park at a little after 8:00AM. That will of course push our estimated arrival time back in Melbourne out 8:10PM, still on the 11^th of October at least at this stage.

Although it didn’t rain for us while we were on the road, the weather was decidedly cooler than what we have been enjoying, barely reaching 20^oC for the most part. What was painful, were the road conditions. We were almost wishing fort the restricted speed zone signs and yellow vested workers that would signal some road works, because they sure as hell needed it. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it had been occasional sections of broken tar, but it was kilometre after kilometre after kilometre of wallowing great undulations that had ‘The Beast’ pitching back and forth like a dinghy in 10 foot swells. We were being thrown back and forth within the cabin as a result, and I daren’t stop to check out the inside of the van, for fear of finding all manner of goods strewn about the living space. As far as we could see, the only plan the authorities had in relation to alleviating these conditions, was to erect signs every 30 or so kilometres, warning of the rough roads.

Our first stop for the day was at Hughenden, where we quickly refueled ‘The Beast’, to ensure we had enough juice to keep us on the move for the remainder for the day. We also hungrily devoured a quick snack, as by this stage we had already been on the go for 4 hours. We usually wouldn’t be long out of bed by this time of the morning.

Leaving Hughenden, we made the unwelcome discovery that the roads deteriorated even further. Driving through the wide open, flat plains, I was sure that the highest point for many miles around were the crests of the pitch inducing undulations of the road surface.

Looking about, we were traversing a tough country though, the fields almost bereft of grass, lending itself to a lunar like landscape appearance. The few tufts of grass that were present were grey and tough looking, hardly the kind of nourishment needed to sustain a herd of cattle.

Emaciated cattle battle for a feed in a tough country.

As we continued towards our next stop at Richmond, the traffic seemed to lessen in density, until we were barely seeing another vehicle. About the only car that passed us all day, we later seen pulled over on the side of the road, a police car stationed close in behind it. What a shame!

In Richmond, we broke the monotony, to have a bite to eat for lunch, while looking through the information centre, garnering a few extra nuggets of intelligence on our upcoming destinations. There was also a fossil display that you could walk through, but at $20.00 a head and 45 minutes to take it all in, we decided to give it a miss. We wanted to be back on the road, as bad as it was, so as to get into Julia Creek as early as possible. The plan is to stay in a free camping area on the outskirts of town tonight, and we want to ensure we don’t miss out on a spot.

Julia Creek was only about an hour and a half further down the road, during which time, the weather warmed a little, creating a haze that made the distant strip of bitumen appear to be a shimmering pane of glass, rising up magnificently into the light blue sky, punctuated with cotton ball like tufts of cloud. Either side of the road, the wide expanse of nothingness continued for as far as the eye could see.

Arriving in Julia Creek, we made our way to the information centre, where you must first check in, if you want to avail yourselves, as we did, of the free camping facilities. Although facilities would be an overstatement. No water, no toilets, no grass, we’re not even meant to drain our sullage and waste water out onto the ground. We later found it to be nothing more than an expanse of soft brown dirt, pock marked with fist sized holes and wheel ruts. As rugged and uneven as the fields we’d been seeing through the windscreen all day, it turned into an effort just to get the van to sit on a reasonably level keel for the night.

Back to the information centre experience though, there were two things that I wanted to find out about, and I was to be sorely disappointed on both accounts. The first was a much anticipated free tag along tour to a nearby red claw farm. Red claw is the local name for a species of yabbie or fresh water crayfish. The owner of the farm is on holiday though, and so no tours are available unless we want to wait a few weeks.

The second tidbit of information I was chasing was to do with a nearby property, Dongonally Station. This was the main reason I had wanted to stop in Julia Creek, and was also one of the big reasons for me, to be doing this trip. For personal reasons, I very much wanted to go out and visit this particular station, to see where it was and what it was like. I was devastated to find that it has closed down for the week, as have most of the other stations in the area, while all of the staff enjoy some R&R at a nearby campdraft. I don’t really know what I expected to find out, whether the manager would welcome me out, or tell me to piss off, but I had at least hoped for something more than: “Sorry, but nobody will be there.” It was with a lump in my throat that I left the information centre, despondent, my mind reeling and not really sure what I would do.

Adjoining the information centre is a series of huts all featuring displays on the local history and make up of the local shire area. We decided to have a look through the displays whilst we were here, not that I paid much heed to what I was looking at. The main hall features information about the once thought to be extinct Julia Creek Dunnart, a furry little creature I would have mistaken for a large mouse or small rat had I come across it in the wild. A live specimen is housed in a small glass enclosure, and is quite a sight to see, running energetically and non-stop about the confines. As hard as we tried, we weren’t able to manage to capture a picture of this little mad creature.

From the information centre, we made our way back out of town, the same way as we had come in, to the aforementioned dirt paddock that would serve as our resting place for the night. It took some maneuvering just to find a sod that would suitably support ‘The Beast’ and the van, and then some further toing and froing to find a level enough section to enable us to park without unhitching.

Our camp for the night.

Being that our plan had been to park here for the night before moving into the caravan park for a couple of days, whilst enjoying the supposed red claw farm tour and Dongonally Station, our plans were somewhat in disarray. Therefore we are going to sleep on it, before making a decision as to what is our next step.

At least the sunset was captivating.

Until next time, stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to write.