Free camping

 26/05/2012
  So that was Karumba, nice town, nice people but too far out on a limb to think about going back there. We are now heading south and free camped about 200k down the road. Way out in the bush again doing mostly single track roads. This camp area is a big one capable of accommodating big rigs and road trains. We hadn’t been here long when a road train pulling 4 cattle wagons pulled in. He was followed by 5 more units each pulling 4 or 5 wagons each, all full of cattle. The drivers had stopped for a smoko and to check their loads. One of the drivers told me that each road train was carrying pregnant cows and cows with calves. 500 animals on each road train, that’s 3000 head of cattle in one convoy. He told me the whole consignment had been bought by a farmer just south of here, for how much I couldn’t hazard a guess, but it would have to be a minimum of 100 bucks per beast. It was a sight to see so photos eventually when  we get phone and internet connection. That could be not for some time.

 27/05/2012
  We can now call ourselves true travellers as we are once again free camped miles from anywhere and have cooked our snags around a campfire. I have been into the bush foraging for firewood and then set it alight without rubbing 2 boy scouts together, matches are much easier. We have come to a tiny community called Gregory Downs with the intention of going further into the outback to Lawn Hill. Unfortunately it looks like roads to Lawn Hill  are fit for 4WD vehicles only, so we have to return to the Burke and Wills highway some 150 K return journey.
 Gregory Downs hasn’t got a lot going for it except a very  picturesque river which officially you are not allowed to camp beside. Tell that to the 15 to 20 4WD vehicles towing off road caravans that are parked there whilst us soft Brits abide by the rules and park on some crappy designated camping area. Still, it’s free and we have lots of lots of wood to burn.
 This part of Northern outback Queensland is a birdwatchers dream. Just driving along we have seen everything from Bustards to Budgerigars and Wedge tail eagles feeding on road kill Wedgies are the biggest of all the raptors in Australia. We have seen Jabiru, Brolgas, Whistling Kites and many other species. If we were to stop and check our bird book every time we spotted a bird we didn’t recognise, we wouldn’t get anywhere.

28/05/2012
   Last night campfire was success except we went to bed smelling like we had been doing a pig roast all day .So another first this morning when we used our campervan shower, which we haven’t done before, always using the camp facilities. Now we have decided to do much more free camping the shower is tried and tested, albeit a bit neat and we must remember to park on the level. Last night we were on a downhill slope and the water escaped into the van rather than down the plughole! We live and learn.
 The return journey to the Burke and Wills roadhouse was just as much a nature trail as before. This time as well as the birdlife we came across a very big snake in the road, maybe over 2m long but fortunately no longer a member of the snake gang having been squashed by a passing car.
 Coffee at the roadhouse where we chatted to a young lady working there, temporarily, who comes from Middlesborough. It can be  a small world.
 Once again we are free camped a very long way from any town of size with no communications. Tomorrow we need to go into a town and re-supply. The only thing we managed to judge correctly  when we stocked up with supplies last was……the beer! So we have spent the afternoons at outside the van in glorious warm sunshine waiting for the sun to go down with a schooner or six.