Days 7 Mt Isa to Adels Grove

Early warning of pleasures in store

Getting real in the bush!

We took the Barkly Highway for 117km then headed North for 58 km on the Yelvertoft Road to the Gregory Downs – Camooweal Road. Then the road got bad! The corrugations were severe in places and we managed 30 to 40 kph. After 60 km we turned West on to the Riversleigh Road. The corrugations were wicked for 84 km with a couple of river crossings thrown in.

The caravan did quite well with the tyre pressure reduced to 22 psi. Lower pressures helps protect the main tread and reduces the jarring from the corrugations but it increases the risk of damage to the bulging side walls. We found a few places where dust made its way in but Dell fixed that with about 30 mins of cleaning. Worse, we found that the side panel hinge had started to break up on the rear offside corner of the A’van. Just hope it can last the return journey over the corrugations  and then the rest of the trip until we reach somewhere like Darwin to replace it.

Budgerigars at YelvertonRoad

The bird life on the way was fantastic. Along with the crows we saw wedge-tailed eagles, black breasted buzzards, whistling kites and black kites mostly eating the road kill on the main road. Just at the start of the Yelvertoft road we saw spectacular flocks of budgerigars. They were too fast to get a good photograph unfortunately.

Adels Grove, named after Albert de Lestang a French botanist, is wonderful. We stayed in The Grove which has unmarked sites, no generators allowed, and plenty of shade. The facilities were clean with plenty of hot water for the showers. They also have a workshop, can change tyres, offer fuel at $2/ltr. The Lawn Hill camp site, in contrast, is hot and in full sun so we were glad we booked into The Grove.