6/9/2021 Always Check the Road Conditions: Roma to Mitchell

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Last breakfast in Roma.

We left Roma at 3pm after the usual mad flurry of stuffing the last things in boxes and unpacking the swipes/ID cards/paperwork that fell victim to our over-enthusiastic packing and ended up tucked away in our storage shed.

Wat with all the last minute packing and sorting and selling and losing things and finding them again and handing in keys and saying goodbye, we only managed an hour's travel and camped at Mitchell beside the weir, along with ranks of caravans arranged in orbit around the toilet block.  A public BBQ was conveniently placed with a fine view of the weir, and we watched the sun set as we reheated pizza on the BBQ for tea. Just FYI, day-old BBQed pizza is very crunchy on the bottom, and still cold on top.

Om Nom Nom.


"Maybe we should check the road conditions on the Strzelecki Track," we said.  The man who bought our fridge had told us terrifying stories about the sharp rocks on the Strzelecki Track.

As it turns out, checking the road conditions was a Very Good Idea, because the Strzelecki Track is currently closed to 2WD vehicles due to water and mud following a wet May and the gradual travel of all the water down through the channel country. "Dunno when it'll be open, mate," said the Innamincka publican.  "When it dries out, I guess."

Well, that made us re-think things.

We could drive in circles in Qld waiting for the Track to dry out, or we could knock out an extra 2000ish km and go to South Australia on bitumen via Longreach, Mount Isa, Tennant Creek, and Alice Springs.

We took a deep breath, put on our big girl/boy panties, and filled in our Northern Territory border passes.  Then we planned a route and resisted the temptation to take six months and revisit all our old haunts from 30 years ago.  If we slow down too much we are at risk of getting stuck in a Covid lockdown and/or being shut out of South Australia, so onward it is!

Home for the night: Neil Turner Weir, Mitchell.


Goodnight.

Comments

  1. Phil DSeptember 10, 2021 at 1:06 PM

    Not a bad detour! Safe travels!

    ReplyDelete
  2. KatyBeeSeptember 10, 2021 at 8:16 PM

    Thanks Phil! We will have to come back when we're not in such a hurry to cross the border.

    ReplyDelete

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