The starting point

The starting point

Thursday, 11 August 2022

6/8/22 Tablelands Hwy

 

    Leaving our gravel pit , we continue on along the Barkly Hwy to Barkly Roadhouse and get som fuel , before heading up the Tablelands Hwy toward Cape Crawford . We had wanted to do this when we came over this road last , so now we are doing it ! We have been warned that the road is pretty rough , but we decided that we would go anyway - we'd just take it easy . The road goes into single lane bitumen not long after leaving the homestead , the road was okay . Apparently around the 120klm mark , it gets bad , so we'll just wait & see .


    A truck driver at Cloncurry said there were a lot of road trains moving cattle along this road as well . There's lots of black soil plains here - ideal for cattle grazing , there's not too many trees either . The down side is that the road is rather uneven , with the road surface subsiding regularly , then you have triple road trains driving the road as well .



    There's not much to get excited about , we see bumps on the horizon , they turn out to be dams . The horizon here goes on forever !



   Here's some of the not so good surface .


   And chuck in a couple of road trains , you get off the road and give them the bitumen - much safer that way !!


    This is what happens when the trucks drift off the road - tyres dig into the soil on the sides .


    We found some really bad sections with potholes , no photos , we were bracing for the bouncing . One pothole was the half the width of the road , and as we dodged it we went through another on the other side. Everything bounced , the ute , the van and the occupants , but we got over it quickly - we expected the road to be bad so we weren't surprised - the section of road that was the worst went for about 30klms .
   Continuing on to a rest stop , we stopped and had some lunch , here's an aerial shot of that area - road goes on forever and so does the horizon .


    Another 60klms up the road and we find a quarry to stop at for the night , unfortunately someone else decided to stay there as well . We like our freedom from the crowds . 
   The moon was on display so here it is .


    We went for a walk around the quarry , walking beside the boundary fence - definitely didn't follow this one for too long though - big job doing fences out here , they go forever !


   Here's some aerial shots .


    The road goes for a long way , so do the fences !


    Here we are .


   And a nice sunset .

  Here's a map link : -https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1PbGlko5ZjvSM61XgkZmOJRytBSO22Gk&usp=sharing

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