Longreach to Cloncurry to Barkly Homestead

Longreach to Cloncurry.
We set off for Winton and were going to stay there one night but I rang the Birdsville Hotel and was told the road south was closed to cars with caravans, we might make it through but they now had a ferry over the Cooper Creek and it wouldn’t take caravans so we decided on the way to Winton to go the long way round through Alice Springs, this was going to add about 3000km to the trip but better to know now than half way down the Birdsville Track.  The revised plan is to head to Alice Springs, Kings Canyon and Uluru (that’s Ayers Rock in case ye didn’t know) and then down to Melrose via Coober Pedy to catch up with Rob and Mel for a great weekend!
So…we had a wee stop in Winton, they actually have a museum dedicated to Waltzing Matilda…yes a museum dedicated to one song…very odd BUT very entertaining and well worth the visit, if only to hear all the versions of the song, still reckon John Williamson does the best! On to Cloncurry – claim to fame the birthplace of the Flying Doctors, no, not the TV show the actual service, ye eejit!!
Funny how many towns in west QLD claim QANTAS, Flying Doctors and School of the Air – now called the School of Distance Education as I suppose they use very little “air” and more computers these days.
Spent a very hot night in Cloncurry…It was 38C when we arrived at around 5pm after a 600km drive. Next morning off to Mount Isa, Camooweal and then into the Northern Territory. We broke our own record by being packed, hooked up and on the road by 8am!! Please take note Simmo’s we didn’t even disturb the neighbours, that’s what Croc’s can do for ye and no WL needed as it was bright J.
Had a quick stop over in Mount Isa and then off to Camooweal, which is close to the border with NT. The scenery did change a lot from flat boring to amazing hills, to flat grass lands, to Mulga Scrub…how those explorer chappies kept going is beyond me, it must have been soul destroying to get to the top of a hill and see scrub in every direction to the horizon! When we left Camooweal there was a sign with “ SH 440”, which normally means a town with the letters S H is 440km away, it took us a LONG time to work out that the SH was the Stuart Highway and that was the next main intersection and there is NOTHING between Camooweal and Three Ways, we did find a roadhouse and camped out the back, power, toilets, pub and Trish what more could ye want! ( J )