I tawt I taw a puddy cat.

I know I said we were going dark, but it turns out Telsta coverage is very good in some of these areas. I won’t bother issuing a warning next time, just know if the blog goes quiet we are somewhere with no coverage.

It seems I have accidentally done something that a few people like, especially our parents, and now feel obliged to see it to the end. I thank those that have said nice things about the blog, but feel I need to add a disclaimer: Being British means compliments don’t sit well; sure they are nice to hear and I’m glad people are enjoying this, but now I feel a weight of expectation dragging me down. We British don’t do well under these conditions; just look at all of our sports teams. So now the blog will take me longer to write and is likely get worse… so thanks a lot.

Goodbye Lovely Lagoon

We packed up quickly and, with a heavy heart, left the lagoon for downtown Normanton. We had several things to do in Normanton, and with a population of 1500 it’s the largest town we’re going to be in until Katherine.

The bad boy of Normanton

After filling up the drinking water, taking some photos of a Kite, driving around the town looking for the best fuel prices in the four places that sold petrol, doing some grocery shopping, stopping at the bakery for a flat white (my first in weeks) and some bread, stopping 10mins later for an emergency bowel movement caused by the flat white, checking if the butcher sold chicken, deciding against chicken as the flat white had scared me and the risks with chicken is too high, deciding on a place to get fuel and filling up and finally lunch at the local pub, it was almost 1pm.

Termite Tokyo

The drive to the Burke & Wills Roadhouse was OK, through some nice outback savannah and some fields full of termite mounds. As we approached the Burke & Wills Roadhouse, at the right turn (the first turn since leaving Normanton), we saw some Black-necked Storks on a patch of grass. We tried to stop to take pictures, but I got a little too close, a little too quickly and spooked them. As they flew away, Becky got a few rough shots but was annoyed that I’d approached them too clumsily in our 3 ton, 4.5litre car. As we were about to top up the fuel and get a hot dog, the last customer walks out and informs us the eftpost was down.

Fleeing the paparazzi.

As we don’t have much cash, this ruined my hot dog plan and in a huff we sped out of Burke & Wills Roadhouse towards Gregory Downs.

For those who have never driven in the outback, take it from a seasoned pro with several hours of experience, driving west after 4pm is a bit of a hazard. Not only are you driving into the setting sun, but the animals also start to get a little more mobile. The biggest danger are the kangaroos, who are cute, dumb fucks that sit by the side of the road then dart out in front of the car at the last minute. Next are the raptors that feed on the dead kangaroos, and the risk with them is the slow take off. Both these are reasonable easy to deal with, as long as you see them and slow down on approach. It turns out the worst are the budgerigars. They sit in large flocks on the embankment, unseen, swarming up in front of the car as it passes. How does this help with predator avoidance? It certainly doesn’t help when the predator is a Landcrusier traveling at 90km/hr. I have no confirmed kill numbers, but drove through several flocks. At first I thought we weren’t hitting any, as you could hear no thuds, but then Becky spotted a puff of feathers from the bull bar after driving through one flock and we realised they make no noise on impact, their small bodies no match for the bull bar. We felt terrible and the whole 1.5hr drive to Gregory Downs was heart breaking… however not enough for me to slow down, as I was tired and just wanted to get there.

Gregory Downs is a small town with a population of 40 according to Wikipedia. There is a motel on one side of the street, and a general store on the other. We’d read that there was free camping behind the general store, and a quick enquiry found the owner just let people camp in his backyard and he even had a toilet and shower block… what a super nice fellow. Although his cockerel did start crowing back and forth with the neighbour’s from about 3am…

We have moved inland a bit, and the temperature now drops dramatically at night.  It reached ~11-12 degrees and was a good reminder that the zero degree night temperatures around Alice Springs at this time will not make for a happy camp, and we’d be better waiting until late spring and coming up from the south, even if that means battling 40-50 degree heat.

A real Cock

We awoke after a pretty cold and cockerel disturbed sleep, packed the tent away without drama and topped up the fuel, with 150km of dusty, unsealed roads between Boodjumulla NP and us. We decided to take a detour via Riversleigh fossil site D. It is a World Heritage listed area, and the brochure said similar to Naracoote Caves in South Australia, a highlight of our road trip south in 2011.

And the winner of Worst World Heritage site in Australia goes to....

The information centre at the site the had a list of all Australia’s World Heritage sites, and it turned out that after this we only have Uluru and Kakadu left to get the full set of mainland Australia sites (there are a few islands I doubt we’ll ever visit). What I can say is I have definitely visited the worst Australian World Heritage site. I know that it has scientific value, and you can see that the important fossils have been taken away for that very purpose. All that’s left is a flashy info centre and the fossil dregs that the researchers couldn’t be fucked to dig up…

That looks nothing like a fucking bird, more like bird shit

 I don’t mind this, but the brochure made it sound awesome. Seriously, just tell the truth; “An important scientific site, but fuck all to see and not worth the 50km detour unless you are trying to visit all of Australia’s World Heritage sites/Australia's worst World Heritage site”.

Hahahahahaha, what great fun the info centre was.

 We arrived at Boodjamulla a short while later and “quickly” set up camp, with only a small fright from a hitchhiker we found when we unravelled the tarps.

You stay on your side, and I'll stay on mine.

The camp looked good in the end and this place seems great. I’ll save our adventures at Boodjamulla NP for the next post‼!