We are on the move again. Today was a relocation day to Blackall which is about 200k’s closer to home and a staging point for our next major stop at Charleville.
We set the alarm for 6:30am knowing very well that the plan was to depart sometime after 9:00am. Given the time we had to prepare for departure plus the more refined pack up procedure, we were ready to hitch the car well before 9:00am. We waited until after 9:00am to hitch the car and we were second last to depart at about 9:20am.
Today we were all travelling individually and it was good not to have to participate in a convoy so we could set our own speed. Well, mother nature had her own idea and presented us with a strong headwind / crosswind that absolutely destroyed our fuel consumption. Longreach to Barcaldine saw us burning fuel at the rate of 20.5 litre per 100k’s which is the second worse consumption since we have had the Navara. To make matters worse, we had trouble accelerating and our speed was maintained between 80 to 90 kph with the car struggling. 4th gear was used a lot to maintain momentum.
We stopped in Barcaldine for morning tea managing to park close to the “Tree of Knowledge”. We found a good bakery that provided the opportunity for an early lunch of tasty meat pies.
Leaving Barcaldine, we had the benefit of a tailwind and that was accompanied with no other traffic heading in our direction and a slow reduction in the numbers for fuel consumption.
We arrived at Blackall and attempted to locate fuel without success. Tomorrow we will need to find fuel as we do not have enough to reach our next destination.
We found a nice level spot to park and did the basic setup for a free camp. The site chosen for our stop was the Barcoo River Camping Area. The cost was a nominal cost of $10 per vehicle and there were some facilities on the site that our group did not use. We spent most of the remainder of the afternoon talking with a couple of members of our group. He setup a solar panel to charge the battery used to run the car refrigerator and the solar input should see the refrigerator running overnight or possibly to our destination tomorrow. Work that has been done on ice in the refrigerator seems to be working with the refrigerators returning to numbers that we like.
We had a lengthy happy hour followed by a light tea as we spent most of the afternoon nibbling. During happy hour, we did have a visit from a gent on a horse. We were not sure if he was checking to see that everyone had paid the camping fee or if he was promoting the “Bushies Twilight River Camp Show” which is performed by local riders. The show involves horse riding and interactions with campers, sometimes leading to impromptu performances.
After finishing our evening meal, She watched television until late whilst he went to bed early on what was a barmy winter’s night.