Into the Outback, Rest Easi Campground
3,802 kilometers around Australia
A quick visit to the local mechanic and we were ready to get back on the road again with a working radiator fan – whew, that was an easy one. As we left Charter’s Towers we managed a quick drive through town to see if there was anything exciting that we had missed during our less than 24 hour stay. But after a few photos of some old buildings and an iced coffee, which is basically a coffee and ice cream shake, we decided we were ready to move on down the road towards the west coast.
We officially crossed the invisible line into the Outback today. Although the red dirt along the road and the thin but shady eucalyptus forest didn’t seem to change at this border, it was a moment of high excitement. Imagine driving at about 55 mph through the hot desert, passing an occasional roadhouse advertising “hot food, cold beer” and sometimes gas, taking pictures over and over again of the straight road stretching out front because you think it captures the scenery just a little bit better than the last photo, being passed constantly by road trains (what they call semi’s that have 3 trailers), enjoying the feeling of the wind whipping your hair if every direction and singing along to the sweet sounds of Michael Franti. I suppose we are still outback virgins and the thrill of this vast and empty land may not last forever. But for the time being, we are pretty excited to be right where we are.
If you look at a larger map of Australia it seems like we haven’t even made a dent on our trek inland, but it feels like we are a world away from the coast. We are staying on a brown patch of grass under a big shady tree in the town of Hughenden, home to roughly 1,000 residents. As we drove into town we had to capture the skyline . . . flat and dusty with a few scattered trees, houses and a huge communications tower. The tower is our internet connection and its existence is the only reason we are able to make camp for the night. We’ll spend tomorrow morning working in camp and then head to the tiny local library so we can poach their air conditioning while we wrap up the rest of our work day before moving on down the road again.