Well our night at Kingfisher camp was certainly interesting,
I slept soundly until 3am, which is my usual first ‘waking’ time. All I remember from my dazed state is Iain saying ‘Babe have
a look there is a massive cow outside’ I sat up and sure enough just feet from
the car was an enormous cow. That was just the start, I was just dozing when we
heard footsteps running on our table, then the rubbish bag – that was hanging
up – being mauled, then wallabies hopping and coughing and of course the cow
munching next to the car. As it started to get light they all buggered off and
we dozed for another hour or so.
I went and had a hot shower, taking the
opportunity to shave as it is a very unpleasant experience in cold water, so
hadn’t bothered. As I was walking out another women ran past me, wrapped in a
towel, to her car to retrieve her razor!
We hit the road at about 9am and headed for Borroloola. The
road back to the main road was not really any better than the first part, so
progress was pretty slow. Once we hit the main road we debated going the 30km
down to Doomagee to see if we could get some fuel and a few supplies, but
decided to push on as Borolloola is a bigger ‘town’. Our first stop was Hells
Gate Roadhouse to fill up. The owner, an elderly gentleman met us at the pump, to
pump diesel for us and have a chat. It is when you speak to people like him who
run working cattle stations that you realise how hard it is for them. He was
telling us he could run 10 times the cattle he had, but couldn’t afford them.
He pays a couple of hundred dollars for each cow and then it costs him $100 per
cow to get them trucked up. They then have to pay to get them sent to the sale
yards or abbatoir and only get on average $3/kg. He then has to buy it back
from the abattoir to sell at the roadhouse at $15/kg. Somehow the maths doesn’t
add up! We paid for our fuel, bought a sticker and a beanie for Iain and pushed
on. Just a little further down the road we came accross an amazing rock formation, we of course had to take the opportunity for some pics.
We hadn't done much in the way of photo shoots, so we were looking for an opportunity, around lunch time we saw a side road with a clearing at the end, so decided to park up in the shade of the trees to make ourselves something to eat. As luck would have it, it was an old stock yard!
At around 3.30, about 45km from Borolloola, we came across a
lovely river crossing with great camp sites, so decided to park up for the
night. Shortly after 2 other vehicles also stopped to have a look around. They
appeared to find camp spots and settle down. Around 15 mins later we heard them
leaving, it was then that we noticed a lot of smoke not far from us. We went to
have a look and the bank on the opposite side of the road and creek was well
alight. We watched it for a bit, but when the wind picked up we decided it was
too risky to stay so packed up as well.
We were now late and pushing to find
somewhere to stop – far enough away from both town and the fire. We found a
gravel pit just on dusk, so set up camp there. It was not nearly as nice as the
river spot, but it was a safe place to camp.
We set up, had food and then got the computers out and
started writing blogs. Then disaster – somehow I managed to delete my entire
word document! I went to bed in disgust and sulked until I fell asleep!
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