Hot Central Qld

Well, we find ourselves in Mt Isa, after leaving Bonny Hills Monday last week.

We had two days with our daughter Emily and her family at Palm Beach, then on the road. We’ve travelled Australian bush a lot, but have always selected the season! Temperature’s been mid 40s, with a headwind! Yes – hot central Qld.

We went through Ipswich, Toowoomba, Dalby, Condamine, Roma, and Barcaldin and met up with Barry and Donna at Longreach.

We just bush camped all the way, always at least a kilometre from the road and very careful with a fire.

From Longreach, it was on to Winton, Cloncurry, then an interesting diversion up to Kajabbi. Camped near there on the Leichhardt River. It was spectacular, with no-one anywhere.

Due to the heat and the aerodynamic blockage of the rooftop camper, we’ve just sat on 85-90 kmh. That matches the maximum torque at 2200rpm. We’re getting about 15 litres per 100 km. A truckie at Kynuna suggested we get an Abwind deflector, which I’ll look at in Darwin.

Tyre pressures cold are 40 front and 45 rear. We drop them to 35 front and 40 rear for gravel.

We’re about 3500 kg. Perfect left-right balance, but about 400kg heavier on the rear axle. I checked the car at Andrew Miedecke’s dealership before I left; my garage balance scales at home don’t go high enough!

All well!

Lynn, Barry and Donna don’t seem to take to flies well, and my suggestions to make friends with them only seems to make them more agitated! So I keep it up…

The heat is tough, and I have a hunch this may be the most taxing part of the trip because as well as being baking hot, it’s only our first week out and the car is packed poorly at this stage, and we’re still sorting it.

But we end our first week on a high note: The score is currently LandCruiser one, Ranger nil. More details next report!

Spot	South	East	Comment
20km east of Condamine	26 degrees 53.873	150 degrees 16.664
10km south of Tregole	No reading		Adjacent National Park
15km south of Barcaldine	23 degrees 48.53	145 degrees 11.6	Wetland. Very good
5km west of Longreach	23 degrees 24.59	144 degrees 13.80	Noisy. Pretty
5km south of Kynuna	21 degrees 36.057	142 degrees 03.763	Good water. Pretty
5km north of Kajabbi	20 degrees 01.89	140 degrees 03.34	Awesome!

Note: The road to Kajabbi from Mount Isa is very slow going, with a lot of washouts.