July 13-18 Alice to FNQ (Croydon)

After our 500km detour to Alice, we set off again, with Cairns on the east coast as our target destination. Took a while to get back to warm weather. The trip back up the Stuart highway to Tennant Creek was long and boring. The only excitement along the way was a forced stop on the highway for about 30 mins while the police cleared an accident. Someone missed a bend and rolled their car off the road. We turned towards the east at Three Ways and found a gravel pit on the side of the road to spend the night.
  

A traffic hold-up for about 1 km while police cleared an accident


On the following day we drove across the Queensland border - our fifth state/territory in our travels. We found a Radio Repeater tower and camped the night. This one was set on a hill with some great views in all directions. Lovely spot.

 

A lonely walk up the hill for Princess





Our camp spot near Camooweal next to the tower on a hill.
That's Princess in the bottom left of the photo.



Lovely views in all directions

You can see for miles...

The sunset was disappointing, but the moon-rise made up for it

Our next destination was Mount Isa. Cheap petrol! Only $1.37 with discount. There was only one place left for the underground mine tour, so I grabbed it. (I think Jude was happy to have an excuse not to go.) It was a fascinating tour and I got to keep the orange overalls that you have to dress up in. (Sorry, no photos.)

We found a nice camp spot about 50kms out of Mt Isa towards Cloncurry - Clem Walton Reserve. It's a recreational dam with lots of space for camping. There were about 8 other camps set up when we arrived, in stark comarison with the road side camp spot just prior to the dam turn-off, which would have had over 30 campers wedged in side-by-side - horrible. We considered spending more time but decided to keep moving towards our target destination.

Our camp spot at Clem Walton Reserve

Spectacular view across the dam waters

Cloncurry was a bit of a disappointment. Not much happening at all there. Even the public toilets were locked. We fueled up and kept moving. Found another Radio Repeater station 35kms out of Normanton.

Our camp site near Normanton

Relaxing in the bush next to the Radio Repeater station

View from the van window in the morning

Normanton was a nice old town. We did the walking tour around town and saw the sights.

The old safe room for one of the original banks...

...being explored by Princess

Princess exploring the stairs and getting stuck.
She finally decided to go around the back to escape.

The Purple Pub. It started out a soft mauve colour and has gotten darker with each re-paint.

The oldest bank in Australia that is still in operation.
The nicest automatic teller that I've ever seen.

Krys the crocodile. Apparently it was over 8m long.
Watch out Princess!

The Gulflander narrow-gauge train that travels between Normanton and Croydon (about 150kms).

The next town along is Croydon, an old gold-mining town. We decided it was time to set up our coffee machine again, so we booked into a caravan park - intially for one night but have extended for a second and third night. We were all packed up after the second night and ready to go when the neighbours told us about a free train trip and meal happening that night. How did we miss that? So we're staying for another night.

The map of our travels from Alice to Croydon