AFTER THE FINISH AND BACK TO BRISBANE
18th to 24th September 2017
SIX SEASONS HOLIDAY APARTMENT - DARWIN
For a special holiday in Darwin - this apartment has EVERYTHING!!
Pool, 3 double bedrooms plus office, wonderful views, beautifully furnished, fully equipped
and extremely handy to everything - especially bike tracks!!!!
To book - click on any of the pictures below!
For a special holiday in Darwin - this apartment has EVERYTHING!!
Pool, 3 double bedrooms plus office, wonderful views, beautifully furnished, fully equipped
and extremely handy to everything - especially bike tracks!!!!
To book - click on any of the pictures below!
DARWIN TO BRISBANE - 19th to 24th September 2017
It is a strange feeling when you have “achieved your goal”. For the last 32 days I have focussed on meeting my goal each day – I knew – if I kept to schedule on these – then the whole trip would be a success. Obviously things can go wrong and force changes to be made – and we did have a couple of these that we had to work around.
Now – it was suddenly all over!!
For Pat and I – we had 2 nights stay in a lovely apartment staring straight out to sea – something we had missed since leaving Adelaide. It also meant sleeping in a real bed – luxury after 32 nights in the van!!
Annie and Don stayed on with us at the apartment, and for a further 2 days after we had started to head back to Brisbane. They got to meet Kathy the unit owner – I was so sorry I didn’t as she sounds a fascinating person!
The first night, we were given guidance from good friend Gavin to walk (we drove) about 800m along the road to the local hotel that did good meals. That was great and very relaxing. The next day, we re-shuffled gear in the van as to what was going back with Annie on the plane, and what we would be taking in the van. We also went and banked monies we had collected for the ILF along the journey, and bought food for our return trip.
Tuesday and we were on our way bright and early. First stop was about 4 kms down the road at a coffee bar we had been recommended to go to. The pastries were to die for!! Next stop was out at Palmerston where we visited Dinko – a former Brisbane Biking Buddy who is recovering from a mystery illness at his father’s place. Great to see you Dinko – you are looking good – just got to keep working hard on your recovery! Thanks for the chocolates!
Then off we headed – down the Stuart Highway that we had biked up days earlier. Much quicker and more comfortable in the van – and so interesting recalling all the stops we had had and see the familiar places. We stopped briefly at Pine Creek for lunch, Elliott and eventually got to Dunmarra – which had been a lunch stop on our northern trip. We were well satisfied with the progress made today – 650 kms.
Up bright an early on Wednesday and hit the road – aiming for Barkly Homestead. The first 350 kms back to Threeways were all familiar and we stopped at Threeways for lunch. Going well! A couple more hours and we were at the Barkly Homestead. It was stinking hot – so we decided instead of stopping and sitting in the heat – we might as well drive on in the air-con van. By the time we stopped at the Queensland / Northern Territory border we had done about 760 kms – and then it was a short 10 kms further to Camooweal and our stop for the evening. More good progress and roads hadn’t been too bad at all!!
Thursday morning – and off again – planning to get to Kynuna. We made it to Mt Isa even though a bit scary with the fuel light coming on when we still had 70 kms to go!! We went to the Lookout and surveyed the town, and then had a coffee in the town, picked up a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket and continued on our way. The roads weren’t quite so good from here on, frequently rough and bumpy. We got to Kynuna again with a few hours daylight on a hot afternoon left – so we continued to Winton – which happens to be a sister-city with Redcliffe where we live.
Almost a disaster here – their two yearly outback festival was on and reports in the town were that all accommodation was booked out. A local referred us to a campground a couple of kms out from town – and sure enough – we managed to get a spot here for the night so excellent. Another 660 kms off the total today.
Our plan for Friday was to get to Blackall. Our first stop was at Longreach where we went to the Qantas Museum and the Outback Museum – both excellent. What a lovely town Longreach is too! We continued on and had a slightly late lunch at Barcaldine – and again – a very attractive and productive area. I used to work with a guy from here so was fascinated to see the town. Not a long stop – but enough to gain the impression that this was a nice country town! Blackall was the next stop, and we opted not to – and instead headed to a place I had never heard of before – Tambo. What a super small town this was, and we enjoyed a late afternoon walk around after settling into our very tidy camp site next to a motel right in the middle of town. The Tambo Teddies are obviously very famous as many people have asked me about them since! Only 500 kms today but some very interesting stops.
Saturday and we were confident we would get to Miles – a distance of 550 kms. We took brief stops in Morven, Mitchell and Roma and got in reasonably early to Miles. There seemed to be lots of caravans at the free-camp on the edge of town, but we booked into the Crossroads Caravan Park as we needed power to cook our last meal of the trip.
We were now only 400 kms from home so compared to earlier days, a pretty leisurely drive. In many ways we were “over” the travelling and keen to get home – so we set off early and pressed on for home. Googlemaps gave 3 options to get back home, we opted to go to Dalby, then to Yarraman, Blackbutt, Kilcoy and home – for a late lunch. Amazing amount of agriculture through these areas and I was surprised at how well a lot of the crops were doing considering we were in the middle of a drought. Since we have been home there has been quite a bit of rain, so I imagine there are many happy farmers and that the crops would have surged forward.
The van got unpacked that afternoon, and I used the garden blower to try and get a lot of the dust out of the inside of the van. The washing machine was on overtime - and by late afternoon we were pretty well organised and tidy!! I drove the van back in to Brisbane on Monday morning - took my bike with me so I could train and bike home.
The round trip for the van has been 9,600 kms – 3,100 of those I was on my bike – the rest seeing parts of Australia I hadn’t seen before. A terrific journey of discovery and challenges!!
There's a few groups of photo's below covering our fast drive back from Darwin. Hope you have enjoyed this journey!!
It is a strange feeling when you have “achieved your goal”. For the last 32 days I have focussed on meeting my goal each day – I knew – if I kept to schedule on these – then the whole trip would be a success. Obviously things can go wrong and force changes to be made – and we did have a couple of these that we had to work around.
Now – it was suddenly all over!!
For Pat and I – we had 2 nights stay in a lovely apartment staring straight out to sea – something we had missed since leaving Adelaide. It also meant sleeping in a real bed – luxury after 32 nights in the van!!
Annie and Don stayed on with us at the apartment, and for a further 2 days after we had started to head back to Brisbane. They got to meet Kathy the unit owner – I was so sorry I didn’t as she sounds a fascinating person!
The first night, we were given guidance from good friend Gavin to walk (we drove) about 800m along the road to the local hotel that did good meals. That was great and very relaxing. The next day, we re-shuffled gear in the van as to what was going back with Annie on the plane, and what we would be taking in the van. We also went and banked monies we had collected for the ILF along the journey, and bought food for our return trip.
Tuesday and we were on our way bright and early. First stop was about 4 kms down the road at a coffee bar we had been recommended to go to. The pastries were to die for!! Next stop was out at Palmerston where we visited Dinko – a former Brisbane Biking Buddy who is recovering from a mystery illness at his father’s place. Great to see you Dinko – you are looking good – just got to keep working hard on your recovery! Thanks for the chocolates!
Then off we headed – down the Stuart Highway that we had biked up days earlier. Much quicker and more comfortable in the van – and so interesting recalling all the stops we had had and see the familiar places. We stopped briefly at Pine Creek for lunch, Elliott and eventually got to Dunmarra – which had been a lunch stop on our northern trip. We were well satisfied with the progress made today – 650 kms.
Up bright an early on Wednesday and hit the road – aiming for Barkly Homestead. The first 350 kms back to Threeways were all familiar and we stopped at Threeways for lunch. Going well! A couple more hours and we were at the Barkly Homestead. It was stinking hot – so we decided instead of stopping and sitting in the heat – we might as well drive on in the air-con van. By the time we stopped at the Queensland / Northern Territory border we had done about 760 kms – and then it was a short 10 kms further to Camooweal and our stop for the evening. More good progress and roads hadn’t been too bad at all!!
Thursday morning – and off again – planning to get to Kynuna. We made it to Mt Isa even though a bit scary with the fuel light coming on when we still had 70 kms to go!! We went to the Lookout and surveyed the town, and then had a coffee in the town, picked up a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket and continued on our way. The roads weren’t quite so good from here on, frequently rough and bumpy. We got to Kynuna again with a few hours daylight on a hot afternoon left – so we continued to Winton – which happens to be a sister-city with Redcliffe where we live.
Almost a disaster here – their two yearly outback festival was on and reports in the town were that all accommodation was booked out. A local referred us to a campground a couple of kms out from town – and sure enough – we managed to get a spot here for the night so excellent. Another 660 kms off the total today.
Our plan for Friday was to get to Blackall. Our first stop was at Longreach where we went to the Qantas Museum and the Outback Museum – both excellent. What a lovely town Longreach is too! We continued on and had a slightly late lunch at Barcaldine – and again – a very attractive and productive area. I used to work with a guy from here so was fascinated to see the town. Not a long stop – but enough to gain the impression that this was a nice country town! Blackall was the next stop, and we opted not to – and instead headed to a place I had never heard of before – Tambo. What a super small town this was, and we enjoyed a late afternoon walk around after settling into our very tidy camp site next to a motel right in the middle of town. The Tambo Teddies are obviously very famous as many people have asked me about them since! Only 500 kms today but some very interesting stops.
Saturday and we were confident we would get to Miles – a distance of 550 kms. We took brief stops in Morven, Mitchell and Roma and got in reasonably early to Miles. There seemed to be lots of caravans at the free-camp on the edge of town, but we booked into the Crossroads Caravan Park as we needed power to cook our last meal of the trip.
We were now only 400 kms from home so compared to earlier days, a pretty leisurely drive. In many ways we were “over” the travelling and keen to get home – so we set off early and pressed on for home. Googlemaps gave 3 options to get back home, we opted to go to Dalby, then to Yarraman, Blackbutt, Kilcoy and home – for a late lunch. Amazing amount of agriculture through these areas and I was surprised at how well a lot of the crops were doing considering we were in the middle of a drought. Since we have been home there has been quite a bit of rain, so I imagine there are many happy farmers and that the crops would have surged forward.
The van got unpacked that afternoon, and I used the garden blower to try and get a lot of the dust out of the inside of the van. The washing machine was on overtime - and by late afternoon we were pretty well organised and tidy!! I drove the van back in to Brisbane on Monday morning - took my bike with me so I could train and bike home.
The round trip for the van has been 9,600 kms – 3,100 of those I was on my bike – the rest seeing parts of Australia I hadn’t seen before. A terrific journey of discovery and challenges!!
There's a few groups of photo's below covering our fast drive back from Darwin. Hope you have enjoyed this journey!!
Darwin
to Dunmarra 650 kms |
|
Dunmarra
to Camooweal 780 kms and Camooweal to Winton 660kms |
|
Winton
to Tambo 500 kms |
|
Tambo
to Miles 530 kms |
|