Boulia to Winton

Early today, Sunday, I left Boulia for Winton, about 360 kilometres. I said farewell to Col and Colleen as they are going in a different direction to me. It was around 0715 as I left the Boulia Caravan Park.

As I drove along the Kennedy Development Road, I thought what an amazing little place Boulia is. Some of the residents are so committed to ensuring visitors have a good time while in the community. Everyone is friendly compared to Alice Springs where some members of that community would rather antagonise than be pleasant.

Driving along I passed many entrances to stations. There are some ruins along the way of days long gone such as the Hamilton Hotel which was demolished some years ago and now is a rest area. The other notable area is the Min Min Creek where the famed Min Min lights have been seen. There are small items around to show where these places once were.

Just over halfway along, is the Middleton Hotel. I stopped for a stretch and a drink. There were 6 road trains, all with 3 trailers with double deck stock bodies, parked there. The drivers were having breakfast. Thankfully they did not catch up to me although I could hear them on the UHF radio.

There was very little traffic on the road and the first I saw was near Middleton. This area is very quiet.

The scenery changed as I travelled along from not seeing anything but flat treeless land to some quite amazing hills.

After travelling for about 4 ½ hours, including breaks, I arrived in Winton. I had lunch in the Waltzing Matilda Centre Cafe where I had a nice burger and muggacino.

Then I booked into the very basic Caravan Park. It is clean and quite cheap for a powered site. As I drove in I discovered I am right beside a couple who parked beside me in Boulia on Friday night. Jim and Judy are from near Bunbury in Western Australia and have a farm there.

I had time for a ‘nanna’ nap this afternoon which made me feel a lot brighter especially after getting up at 2300 to watch the Springboks beat the Wallabies 32 to 25. I did not get back to sleep until after 0130 this morning.

My dinner was simple, helped by a red wine. A nice filet steak joined by some lovely vegetables. It is silent in the caravan park as I think a lot of people are travelling a lot of kilometres during the day. Also, the temperature is around 35 degrees at 1900. So it is hot especially as we are not into spring yet.