Disturbed night. A group of old blokes set up camp next to us then went straight to the bar. They returned late into the night swearing and singing loudly.
Now, when I was a kid I remember Libby Neutron Bomb singing Country Road Take Me Home. Though I never admitted it to my mates, I quite liked the song, or perhaps I just liked Libby. Of course, my mates all liked Libby in her “let’s Get Physical” phase!
Anyway, back to Country Road. I knew the words and can still remember some of them today.
Being woken up by a drunk bloke singing is bad enough. But it’s worse when he can’t even remember the words!
“COUNTRY ROAD WHERE I ROAM”…
I wanted to shout “THOSE ARE NOT THE WORDS!” but there were six or more of them so I lay there trying to block out the noise. I wasn’t concerned that the children would wake up, after yesterday’s adventures they were out for the count.
“COUNTRY ROAD TAKE ME HOME TO THE PLACE WHERE I ROAM”… “WEZ VIRGINIA TO MY MOMMA”…
What? NOOOOooooo! That’s not how it goes!
Even after he’d stopped and presumably passed out, the wrong words kept going through my head. It took ages to get back to sleep.
De-camped and left Adels Grove at 9:00AM. We headed 90 km along another unsealed road to Gregory Downs. The road was incredibly dusty – so much so that we had slow right down when cars came the other way and stop when Road Trains came the other way.
Dusty Roadtrain
At Gregory Downs we stopped to refuel, pump up the tyres and get some coffee and snacks from the Roadhouse. The it was 383 km along a mostly single track road to Julia Creek. That was the bleakest landscape that we’ve encountered, I could never live there, it felt so desolate. It was flat, parched savannah with occasional dry creek crossings lined with tired looking Gum Trees. Apparently in the Wet the road floods and the verges are deep mud. Some Trucking companies don’t let their drivers use the road because they bogged if they pull over to let another truck pass the other way. Presumably, after the Wet, the landscape comes alive but, in my opinion, it would still be pretty bleak.
We pulled in to the camp ground at Julia Creek at 5:00PM. It had been a long day! Emily quickly set to work and cooked pasta and bacon whilst we set up the trailer. After dinner we packed as much as we could so that we can get an early start tomorrow. We’ve had enough of savannah and really want to get to the Queensland coast (probably Townsville) tomorrow.