Drive Across Oz pic set #2 (click on images to enlarge)

Once again I have fallen behind in keeping the blog updated. We had a good crossing of the Nullarbor, and the weather stayed overcast which made for a cooler crossing than normal. Several hundred caravans and campers were travelling westward and as normal lots of road train trucks heading in both directions. More than half a dozen road trains passed us as if we were standing still and I always flash my head lights to indicate that they have passed and they can move back over, these trains passing can be a little nerve racking at times as they are so long and take forever to get by. We were soon in the routine of pulling over for the night to relax and rest up for a new days driving in the morning. Its magic having your own loo and shower on board, but, that shower can use the water supply we carry 80Ltrs real quick. At Ceduna I started to unlock the van at the fruit and vegie inspection point, but, when the little tubby inspector realised he had to climb up such a large height he told Teresa he trusted her when she state we were carrying nothing and flagged us through. On our last night of the crossing we woke to a pea soup fog that stayed with us most of the way as we drove towards Port Augusta. Fuel prices just keep going up every time we cross the cheapest per Ltr was $1.99 and the most expensive was $2.09 at Nullabor in SA. After a resupply in Port Augusta we headed south then turning towards, then on to the Barrier Highway ( which would be normal if driving to Sydney) we stopped at a few of the towns enroute to look around, but, over the years we had travelled this route often and not much has changed at all. At Peterbrough it was getting late afternoon so it was time to find a place to stay overnight. As we departed the town we came across a group of vans who had set up for the night in a group of trees so we joined them for the night. We followed the Barrier Highway until Cobar then turned north and headed to Bourke. I had flown in and out of Bourke in the early 80's, but had never been by road, we also wanted to drive on up to Charleville as this was one place we had never been to. Bourke was a disappointment, It is always mentioned when people talk about outback Australia "Back of Bourke" etc. we were expecting red dry country, but it was lush green with plenty of lush grass growing road side. We saw lots of Emu's both in herds and pairs as we travelled through. Kangaroos were every where on the road with most of them dead, after the road trains had travelled the road by night. The town of Cunnamulla in Queensland along that route we found to be far more interesting than charleville or Bourke. The roads were good if not a little bumpy at times, but overall it was a very pleasant drive after the Nullabor run. At Charleville we headed towards Brisbane stopping at our first caravan park in Roma for the night. we were in Roma last year and the place was still a real buzz, lots of mining people live there and you are flat out getting a car park in Coles or Woolies and the que in MacDonalds were insane for such a small town. We were travelling this way to go to the Sunshine coast north of Brisbane as I wanted to look at Naked RV, so with no real plan to get there we decided to go via Kingaroy (peanut country) The smell of roasting peanuts in Kingaroy was nearly to much for Teresa and when we stopped at a peanut van to buy some she asked the woman if the nuts come from China she didn't know what to say it was then down to the north coast after staying in a park just out of Kingaroy. We know several people on and around the north coast and caught up with people there and around Brisbane before heading to Palm Beach on the Gold Coast. Our ute handles the load on the its back without effort, but the draw back is that it loves to drink plenty of fuel, we are lucky to get 6 klm per ltr, but if its a head wind it's far less. To Be Cont.......