Hawkes and Oil (Thargominda, Queensland)

Journal entry for Monday 22nd Apr, 2024 (day 24, kms 302)

Today seemed to be never ending; with the black strip of tar (sealed road) heading off into the distance through flat and almost featureless country. Though to be fair the type of country changed from time to time. Sometimes bare rocky desert, othertimes lush grass lands thanks to recent rains, and othertimes mulga strub. But always with the red-sand or red-rock underneath.

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Burke and Wills (Wild Camp, Queensland)

Journal entry for Sunday 21st Apr, 2024 (day 23, kms 292)

As the title of this post suggests today would be about Burke and Wills though we did not know that at the start of the day. A little after getting started today we came to the oil settlement of Moomba. Aussies of my age might remember when "the Moomba oil discovery" was a major news story. One never hears of it now but the town of Moomba and the surrounding area is alive with activity and as a result we would encounter many work vehicles and heavy trucks from this point until after Innamincka.

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Strzelecki Part I (Somewhere on the Strzelecki Track, South Australia)

Journal entry for Saturday 20th Apr, 2024 (day 22, kms 315)

Before leaving Lyndhurst this morning Nina went on her usual morning walk and got captivated by thee effect of the early morning sun on the earth dams behind the hotel. The photos in some sad way captures the essense of Lyndhurst. A cross-road settlement that barely earns the title of a town and consists of two gas stations and a pub.

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Birdsville Track II (Lyndhusrt, South Australia)

Journal entry for Friday 19th Apr, 2024 (day 21, kms 286)

The notable feature of today is probably the flat tyre we had to deal with. We parked at the campground where the track crosses Cooper Creek and noticed the tyre was going down so was able to change it without driving on the flat tyre; fortunate as that saved us from destroying the tyre.

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Birdsville Track I (Mungerannie, South Australia)

Journal entry for Thursday 18th Apr, 2024 (day 20, kms 313)

We started the day with a visit to Birdsville Bakery, just like a lot of other travellers. Thereafter we started the long trek down the legendary Birdsville Track to the town of Marree. The track was in much better condition than we had expected though there was a lot of small scale water damage with most of the small creek crossings being rough. There was also a lot of water still around in the paddocks beside the track and in ponds in the creeks. We only encountered maybe half a dozen pools actually on the track that we needed to cross.

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