We started todays journey with just a little trepidation. We had certainly done the homework about travelling this section of road and asked just about everybody we met about the road condition. Everybody told us the same thing. It has been recently graded. There are a handful of shallow river crossings. The section from Hells Gate to the NT border is the worse section. There are steep "dips" at some dry river beds. Everything we were told was correct.
This road forms part of Highway 1 that runs all the way around Australia. It's a real shame that it is not paved the whole way as it would give the tourism industry a much needed boost if that happened.
We were on the road by 8 am. We figured that the 317km stretch would take us the best part of six hours as we can't/won't drive very fast on gravel roads. The first section to the Queensland border was indeed very bad with lots of corrugations but it was only 59kms so it was not a real problem. We had seen the grader working on the road just east of Hells Gate so he will have this last section graded before the tourists start arriving next month. We are very glad we started this journey in April as we are just in front of the expected hoards of tourists.
Once we crossed the border the road improved dramatically and we could see evidence of recent grading. In some sections we could sit on 80-90 kmh, but then we would hit a corrugated section and we had to slow right down to about 60kmh. This seemed to be the order of the whole day. It was a surprise to us when we came to a range that was called Echo Gorge. It was quite a steep drive up the narrow bitumen road with warning signs all the way "Beware. Road Trains. Keep Left". We would hate to have come across one of them on that section of road.
We had numerous river crossings. We crossed the Robinson, Calvert, Surprise and Wearyan Rivers to name a few. The Wearyan was by far the worst river crossing. It wasn't very deep, probably to our vehicles running board, but the stony river bed was very slippery and we did lose traction at one point. That is not much fun when you are towing a caravan. Philip commented that a conventional vehicle towing a van would not have made it to the other side. It was also a steep climb out of the river bed. Actually most of the creeks were steep on both sides.
We were making very good time, even with a couple of toilet stops so we decided to push on to Boroloola for a late lunch. It was a welcome site as we crossed the mighty Mcarthur River to see Boroloola on our right and it was not difficult to find the Mcarthur River Caravan Park. It is a very pleasant van park and at $40/night it wasn't the most expensive. We also took up the $5 extra deal to hose down you caravan and car. Boy oh boy, did they need it.
Let's talk a little about the red dust. The road to Adels Grove was the beginning of the red dust country and I was grateful that we had very little dust come into the van on this section of road. In fact almost chuffed that our van was so well sealed. But that was before we had to face 300kms of it. Our van is not as airtight as I thought. It was over every surface in the kitchen/ding area but surprisingly none in the bedroom/bathroom area. This time it came in through the vents behind the refrigerator and there is nothing you can do about that. We ate our lunch before I started cleaning because I knew it would take me quite awhile to clean. It ended up taking me the best part of an hour and as I sit here writing this blog I can see places I missed......
So, was it worth it I hear you ask. 100 percent YES! The changing scenery was very surprising. One minute you are driving through nothing more than scrub country and then the country changes to gum trees and pandanus. Another section was covered in black boy trees and yet another was open Savannah. Giant outcrops of rock would suddenly appear and just as quickly disappear. The river crossings were stunning and we could have stayed a week at some of them, but then again this is croc country. No camping by rivers! The cattle we saw were all in good condition so we gather that there has been a reasonable wet season. Cattle Stations are few and far between in this area with stations covering vast areas of land. They talk millions of acres in these parts.
We are going to stay an extra day at Boroloola as we want to explore the area. King Ash Bay will be on the agenda I think. Philip also needs a day off driving as it will be another long haul across to Daly Waters from here.
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