Barkly Homestead

Early start today as had 450km to travel to our next camping spot. Road out of Isa was really good, Wide sealed and not too much traffic so I got brave and offered to drive until Camooweal. We had identified this as our lunch destination and the last town on the Queensland side of the border.

It took a little while for me to settle into the drive and determining the right line to set, I had a few vehicles pass me and even managed the road trains coming at me. I pulled off the road just out Camooweal so Regan could do the tricker stuff. In all I drove about 150km and felt quite pleased with myself.

Camooweal was even smaller than we anticipated with two fuel stops and nothing else, so after we fuelled up and kept going. We crossed the border in the middle of nowhere but still had to go through a full police check. No dramas and we are good to stay here for a few weeks. We drove another 60km to a rest stop for lunch. All around us it was wide vast spaces with dry grass and no trees. You felt a bit like you had reached the end of the world. The Barkly tablelands are approximately the same size as New Zealand. Farming is mainly cattle stations which are some of the world’s largest.

Our stop for the night was Barkly Homestead. It is a roadhouse with camping facilities and lush green gardens. It is such a contrast to the surrounding landscape. We found a camping spot, for an unpowered site it was first in first served. As the temperature had been over 30 degrees all day I was brave and had my first swim of the holiday at the pool.

The roadhouse offered happy hour and meals so we took advantage of the convenience and had dinner out. Walked around the campground after dinner checking out all the different types of vans and camper trailers. There are hundreds of campers all sleeping over in this oasis. Hopefully most are travelling east away from us. Smaller drive tomorrow to Tennant Creek with similar temperatures of around 30-33 degrees.Read more