The Drive across from Perth to Qld

The drive across started a little late as I spent too long the night before chatting with Lee and Frances. The Port drinking may have also have had something to do with it.

I drove until I was tired and then just pulled up and slept in the car. A couple of hours at night but mostly day driving. Two kangaroo encounters along the way both during the day with one actually turning around and running into the back tyre on the drivers side. No damage to me but I bet he had a headache.

When I crossed the Darling river at Wilcannia it had a little water in it. Now this town was supposedly where the paddle steamers came up to, yet I have never seen the river more than knee deep. It was later in the day that I heard that the Darlings Flood waters were going through Mungindi and I couldn't get to Queensland via Moree, Mungindi or St George. So I turned north at Cobar to go through Bourke where the flood waters would arrive a little later in the week. It would be a fair few days before the waters would reach Wilcannia. There has been a lot of rain through this country and the plains have tall green grass for 1,000s of kilometres.

There was a lot of water damage on back roads from Tambo through to Clermont and thunderstorms every couple of hours. I got drenched in a downpour at Belyando Crossing but but as it was so warm I stood there in my shorts and singlet and just put up with it. It was the third bath I had coming across. Just no shampooing at the pumps allowed.

The following day was the first of my drives to a cattle station, Kirkland Downs, to drop of a food parcel. I drove the route I would walk and checked out the creeks. The two major ones on the Dotswood Road were flowing well and I hope that continues for the 5 weeks till I am back.

I then had to try and get through to the next Station, Kangaroo Hills, only to find that the road from Ewan north was currently impassable due to washouts. I left the parcel with Helen at Ewan which means I have to tack and extra day into the parcel further north.

I then had to back track around to Herveys Range road and through to the Lynd and up to Mount Garnet to go south down to the next Station, Yammanie, where I had a good chinwag with Vicki. She is looking forward to visitors this year.

From there its back up to Mount Garnet and onto Innot Hot Springs Caravan Park who will hold a parcel for me. I had planned a two night stop here in the luxury of a bed but my planned date puts me there on a weekend that is already booked out. I might have to either speed up or slow down to try and bring onto a week day.

As I went out of town I saw a sign to Irvinebank and since the trail passes through there I thought, Why Not? The initial road was rough and then it turned into a track and whilst I didn't need 4WD it was very slow going. When I eventuall crawled across a 40 metre wide creek into Irvinebank I thought, thank goodness I don't have that steep old road. Then I looked at the map and yep I do. It will be one hell of a day leaving Irvinebank. My car says we climb to 1000 metres but you do that by going up 100 down 50 then up 100 down 50 etc etc etc. That was coming in reverse.

If I knew it was the trail I might have taken more notice. Still there's plenty of water to start the climb and dry creek was running well.

I went through to Mutchilba and dropped my last box and drove to Mareeba then to Mount Molloy. The trail currently follows the main road from Mount Molloy to Mareeba and after driving I thought, "Not for Me". It will kill my hip constantly walking on the shoulder camber or the first bit out of Mount Molloy is just plain dangerous. Very Little or no road shoulder and a very busy road. I waved at a bloke riding a bike when I was crossing the Nullabor only to find out two days later he has been cleaned up by a truck. I am working on an alternative.

I dropped down to Mossman and have checked the current route out of the Daintree Village and whilst the first bit has no shoulder the road does not have heavy vehicles. The other bit is boring. However, I met up with an old workmate who is staying at Newell Beach (4k outside Mossman) who's son works on the council and is mates with the land owner that is causing the diversion. I will be following up later in the week and it currently looks good. Keeping this under the hat as I dont know the full story behind the reasons for no access at this time and I whilst I might get through I will ask for others coming behind me.

So now a bit of rest and playing tourist and getting some supplies for the next section before picking up Belinda on Friday and moving onto Cooktown.