19-21/12/08 The journey from Capricorn back up to Tennant Creek was uneventful. The day after that we took the turnoff onto the Barkly Highway, crossed the border into Queensland after a couple of hours, and after another very long drive spent the night at Cloncurry, having passed through the town of Mt Isa. The landscape became incredibly flat as we travelled down the Barkly Highway; first of all it was just bare earth dotted with scrub, but then it changed to Mitchell grass as far as the eye could see, divided up into cattle stations. These cattle stations are so large that apparently they muster the cattle via helicopter and plane! The man and woman behind the reception desk at our cravan/campsite in Cloncurry were startlingly friendly, so much I almost giggled - nearly everyone we've met in Australia has been friendly, as you'd expect, but I hadn't come across this level before! The next day, instead of stopping for the night at Charters Towers like we'd planned, we decided to go all the way to Townsville, so we'd end up in Cairns on the 22nd instead of the 23rd. Although this meant that we could have spent a full day at Alice Springs after all, which I'd have liked, it did mean we'd have more time to settle down in Cairns before Christmas, and check up on emails etc. sooner, which we hadn't been able to do for about a week. On the way to Townsville, we stopped for some fish and chips and some chocolate milk at Hughenden. After we had bought the food, the woman at the desk told Dave that she couldn't understand him because his accent was so thick! We noticed an amusing sign on the wall behind her which said 'Our manager is called Helen Waite. If you want credit, go to Helen Waite.' We also stopped at Charters Towers briefly, for some petrol, and to our surprise it was only about 91 cents per litre - the average in Darwin and Alice had been about $1.20! 91 cents is the equivalent of 41p as well - incredibly cheap. Due to falling global crude oil prices, I suppose. Townsville seemed like quite a laid back place, and our campsite was by the seafront. Although we didn't have time to go in it, we noticed a square section of the sea with stinger nets round it - there to provide a jellyfish-free part of the sea safe for swimming in. They have box jellyfish here as well, you see.