Friday 20th June

As we left Blackall, we said goodbye to a couple from Sydney that we shared some of our time with last night. An interesting pair that has been involved in a lot and relatively recently retired.

Moving off this morning was hectic as it seemed everyone else was moving at much the same time. There were caravans and motor homes going in several directions. It appeared that a few have no regard for the cost of fuel or their fuel consumption.

Today was quiet as all we did was travel from Blackall to Longreach by Barcaldine. We had a coffee and a break in Barcaldine. Then we travelled westerly towards Longreach.

At a small village, Ilfracombe, I felt I needed to refuel as the gauge needle was below the empty mark. So I pulled up to the diesel pump and saw the price was 195 cents per litre. We will get used to this or even worse. I now know that I have at least 16 litres in reserve when it gets to that point. My fuel consumption has been 16.74 litres per 100 kilometres. I am quite happy with that especially when I have asked both Nissan Patrol and Toyota Landcruiser owners their figures when towing similar weighted caravans. Most are more than 22 litres per 100 kilometres.

This afternoon, we met the first Kimberley Karavan owners on this trip in the same “Gunadoo” caravan park in Longreach. They are from Merriden in Western Australia. They decided to drive to Ballina to collect their KK and had a few nights in the park at Lake Ainsworth. I actually spotted the KK there on one of my walks. We may catch them again somewhere as they are doing the Kimberleys , too. There is a good chance we will meet more KK owners as we go on.

This caravan park is very big with plenty of room. It is located within walking or easy cycling distance of the points of interest such as the Stockman Hall of Fame and the QANTAS Founders Museum is right opposite here. It is an strange sight to see the big Boeing 747, from quite a distance away, parked near the highway along with the smaller 707. We will do those aircraft over tomorrow and a river sunset dinner cruise in the early evening. Sunday will be at the Stockman Hall of Fame.

No good photos today.