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I was kind of expecting this part of the trip to be a little bit like the nullarbor but in the north. The scenery was quite similar but not as flat the whole way as the nullarbor is. The places along the way are also proper little towns most of them. Along the nullarbor there are only roadhouses.
Our first stop was Charters Towers. The caravan park was really nice and had a great pool area. We went for a swim after the kids had jumped on the jumping pillow for a while. It was really hot so it was nice to jump in after a long day in the car. We lay in there for quite some time until we were all wrinkly. The kids have so much fun and have gotten so comfortable jumping around and diving under the water. It's great to see them getting more and more confident.
We didn't see Charters Towers until the next morning when we headed of towards Richmond. Shame to miss so much but it's impossible to fit everything in when you arrive in the afternoon and then leave again early the next morning.
Richmond was a much smaller little village, we drove through the place in just a minute. Maybe even less. The caravan park didn't have a pool so we tried to get the kids excited about going to the public pool across the road. They were not cooperating with us to get their bathers on so we decided to leave it. We are sick of nagging them to get their bathers on. We did the washing instead. So much more fun hey!
Mount Isa was our next stop along the way. It is a mining town with the mine located in the centre of town. It is not very pretty, mining. We went up to a lookout to have a look at the town. If you don't look towards the mine it is acutally really beautiful. The town is surrounded by red rolling hills and that part I really liked.
The pool at the caravan park was not as beautiful as some of the pools we have been in, but that didn't stop us. It was 35 degrees so it was nice to get in there. The water in the pool was just the right temperature. Cool enough to be refreshing but warm enough that you can stay in for a while. We had to do food shopping in the evening so we decided to eat in town somewhere. The only place we could find that we thought might work with the kids was McDonalds. There was a pub as well but we thought that it might be a bit to loud in there for the kids.
Next stop was Barkley Homestead. This was just a roadhouse, it was really nice though. They had fake grass on the caravan sites which was great because the rest of it was just red dirt. It got up to 38 degrees during the day so the pool was on our to do list. We had dinner at the pub because who wants to cook in that heat. We were surprised to see so many people in the pub because it really is out in the middle of nowhere. But the people were all from the cattle stations in the area. Some had driven 100km to go to the pub. I guess they don't get caught for drink driving so much out in the bush. Or maybe they had a designated driver?
Daly Waters is a little place with just a few houses and the famous Daly Waters pub. It is famous for all the things hanging up in the pub that people have left there. There were bras, undies, t-shirts, foreign money, thongs and lots of other things. Really quirky place! Also well known for their barramundi. So we didn't have to cook here either, but we did have to swim in the pool.
On our last day driving to Kathrine we stopped at Mataranka. They have thermal pools there and it's meant to be really beautiful. The pictures of the place are really beautiful. Unfortunately the place had just been flooded during the wet season so there was just mud on everthing. Instead of being all green and lush around the thermal pool it was mud colour. The thermal pool was really nice though, not refreshing on a hot day but still nice. After a swim there we went and had lunch at the hotel.
Then it was just another hour drive up to Kathrine.
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