Boodling along on the Barkly Tablelands

Hello dear blogsters, after three nights of roadside camping as we traversed the Barkly Tablelands - we are in Mt Isa and I can catch you up on our travels.

We left Mataranka and headed down to Daly Waters. This bizarre little town ("town" being a very liberal description of the place) - has a rather famous pub, some 'different' residents and interesting architecture. The local sign-writer also entertains in the pub and has rather an unusual dress sense - what a bizarre hat!

The pub is a popular stopping point for tourists from all directions. Many like to leave a little memento of their visit behind and the pub is full of a bizarre range of these. There is money of every denomination, bras and undies, t-shirts and even an artificial leg.

The local pet pig likes to run around the pub, and squeals loudly when picked up.

After enjoying a glass or two of Northern Territory Ale - lovely stuff - we headed off to continue our journey. We found a nice little spot on an unused track for our overnight camp. We set up in the red dirt and had a lovely campfire for the evening.

After a good night's sleep we set off again. We drove down to Three Ways, but were unable to get fuel as the service station had run out. Mum and Dad were a bit short, so they headed another 25 km down to Tennant Creek to fill up. After this, we turned onto the Barkly Highway and headed off across the Barkly Tablelands. Let no-one tell you this is a fascinating drive. In short it is.... bloody boring. Flat, dry landscape with no trees and no features of interest (unless you think "no trees" is a feature of interest - and let me tell you, it ceases to be interesting pretty quickly. Anyway, the younguns in the car resorted to pulling faces to entertain themselves.

At least they thought they were funny.

The 'oldies' amused ourselves by counting how many people waved back when we waved at them. I even kept a tally (much to the disgust of the younguns). This should give you some idea of just how boring it was!

Eventually we pulled into a little unused track for another off-road stop. The boys collected wood for the fire (deforrested the landscape) and we soon had a wonderful roaring fire going. Uncle John set up the bush shower and we all enjoyed a good wash. Uncle John brought out his Northern Territory stubby and we had an ale to toast the sunset. We had quite a good night's sleep (except for Mum laying awake listening to the wild pigs snuffling around and Lachlan, Danni and Sam laughing hysterically into the night as they played around with static electricity caused by rubbing their nylon sleeping bags).

We had breakfast by the fire the next morning and then set off again. Before long we came to the Queensland border and stopped for the obligatory border photo. Mum got into the action and had a bit of a ride on a delapidated motorbike which had been left at the sign.

Not too far over the border, we came to the little township of Camoweal. We stopped in to have a look at a little old shop which has remained the same for over 100 years. The lady serving in the shop said that only two families have run the shop since it opened in 1891. The lady also had a little museum in an adjoining building and we really enjoyed looking through it. The lady was wonderfully interesting and is obviously holding much of the history of this interesting outback town.

The lady kindly let us leave the van and trailer in her back yard so we could take a drive out to see the Camoweal Crater Caves National Park. We drove out on the red dirt road, enjoying a bit of a play in the bulldust, before stopping to have a look at the 'caves' - which are actually sink holes. The first cave was pretty small - Lachlan reckoned it was just a "little hole in the ground" - but the second sink hole was magnificent. It was incredibly deep and the younguns enjoyed climbing down to the edge. This photo looks ok,

until you look at this one, and realise just how deep the hole was (look carefully and you will see Danni sitting on a ledge just above half way up the photo).

After a good look around, we continued on and searched for a place for a roadside camp. We were starting to think we weren't going to find a suitable site, when Mum and Uncle John spotted a good little spot just off the road. We pulled in and set up camp. The view out of our "bedroom window" was pretty darned good. We had a terrific night around a campfire before retiring for a peaceful night's sleep. Breakfast was a peaceful affair around the campfire. The younguns posed for an early morning photo - Lachlan revelling in his new "red-neck, yokel, hick" look. Gotta love those hi-hitched dacks Lach! I can't say I looked any better - a good shower and hair wash is definitely on the agenda at Mt Isa.

Hi to Sheree at home - thanks for the beautiful pictures of Eli - what a gorgeous boy he is!!!!! See you in three weeks!