Another long day, 8am departure from Charleville to Roma, Mitchell and up the inland route to Emerald, Clermont then Charters Towers. As on previous days MB and FBS did shifts at the wheel. Mami suffers from motion sickness and slept for much of the trip, popping Kwells every few hours.
Lots of triple decker road trains on the inland roads and with the mining boom in central western Queensland there are also many trucks carrying huge loads of mining machinery. In Mitchell both sides of the road were blocked by a truck coming through carrying part of an enormous mining dump truck.
Picture show FBS in the main street of Mitchell which even has a windmill. The main street of Mitchell is also lined with very picturesque baobab trees.
Car parking in Mitchell was reverse 45 degree, funny how every town has a different rules on parking.
The final leg of the day was pretty punishing, Clermont to Charters Towers on the Gregory Developmental Road which is close to 400klm. There is one outpost roughly in the middle called Belyando Crossing, which consists of one roadhouse. The trio pulled in to fuel up and were welcomed by a large bonfire in a 44gal drum just near the petrol bowsers, with one patron dressed in an akubra and drizabone lighting up his cigarette next the "no smoking" sign. The Gregory is a surprisingly good road, however one has to be wary of the road trains, with one 20klm section of the road single lane only.
After traversing a very large section of Queensland, the exhausted trio arrived at Charters Towers at 9:45pm and stayed in a very comfortable cabin at one of the local caravan parks. Dinner was cold roast chicken on french stick picked up in Emerald.
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