Major Journeys

Round Trip From Hervey Bay to Uluru

 

Well Friday night we have prepared the car, hooked up the van and ready. For some sleep before our long journey starts tomorrow. There must of been a little excitement built up last night as we went to bed before 21:00 and what seemed like hours later the clock was telling me it was only 22:00, then again at 23:13, then yet again looking at the clock 02:00 and one last time at 03:00 before the alarm went off at 03:15, needless to say, I wasn't feeling like I had slept at all. The kids all got up to say their farewells and saw us off. Fifteen minutes into the trip Lyn says "did you get the caravan keys" quick as a flash I responded "aghhhh, you've got to be kidding, aren't they in the centre console?" But no, they are still on the hook on the kitchen, we rang the kids and fortunately Mel and her boyfriend Nick was still up so Nick was kind enough to race out to Maryborough South to get them too us as we waited for Rob and Jo to arrive at our rendezvous.

Stanley the Emu, Lightning Ridge.

With key secured and the trucks filled we headed out of Maryborough and took the back road through Woolooga, tuning then onto the Wide Bay Highway we continued through to Dalby. Pushing on we got to St George after travelling along one of the worst highways I've ever been on, (yes, including the Bruce) pulling into St George we fuelled up at my brother's Caltex Servo, had lunch with him by the river while Lyn got dinner organised in The Dream Pot, on the menu was a Chicken Chasseur dish on a bed of Chicken rice which will be ready for when we setup our at our first night on the road. 

Arriving at Lightning Ridge we utilised a free camp site on the side of the highway and we were greeted by Stanley the Emu. This site had many other travellers there with open fires going, there was plenty of room for us so we setup and relaxed with our meal ready as we watched the sun slip away over the horizon, we hit the hay pretty early as we needed an early start in the morning, so, off to bed at around 8 o'clock for us, big drive meant exhausted drivers, didn't take long to start snoring.

Up before the sun, we tried not to disturb the other campers we packed up the gear and, we hit the road again, goal set for Broken Hill, we anticipated it wasn't going to happen due to the long distance and the need to get off the road before sun down. The road thus far was lined with so much carnage we didn't want to risk damage to our vehicles from Kangaroos, Emus or live stock, so we made plans to be off the road by 4:30.