From Wonarah Bore we drove east along the Barclay Highway, dodged Road Trains and a walker with a guitar strung to his back, and crossed the border to Queensland. Termed the Overlanders Way, it follows the path of our droving pioneers who brought huge herds of live cattle from the east Kimberley to the east coast. Our first stop in the ‘State where Australia Shines’ was the well resourced Mt Isa Information Centre for lunch and some intelligence. The attendant’s first hand knowledge of the Queensland road network informed our route. Avoiding gravel tracks, we decided to continue heading east to Charters Towers, before making our way north along the inland way to avoid the crowds expected in Townsville for the popular V8 Supercars racing event. But nearly 1,000 kms of highway ahead of us before we even got to Charters Towers meant we would have to make a couple of stops in what we thought would be some boring locales. Boy, were we wrong!
Our first stop was a bush camp at Corella Dam, under 100 kilometres from Isa. We were in awe of this gem of a find, just off the highway. The birdlife was plentiful and the colours of the land and water as the sun set were amazing. Another striking sunset, bush BBQ and meeting interesting people made this a memorable night. We met a couple from Sydney in their early 50s’, Graham and Adele, who had been living traveling in their caravan for over 2 ½ years. They had had enough of the rat race and haven’t looked back spending their time touring this great land. Interestingly, they hadn’t made it to WA yet, but were planning to do so “… one day soon”. Their next long stop was to be Karumba, where they planned to work for a while before heading off again. I envied their free spirit and capacity to just leave everything behind – kids, house, friends – for a few years while they explored this great land. Good on ‘em!
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