Friday July 17th.Another wonderful coincidence today! Ross and I had spent most of the afternoon inside as the wind was blowing and it was more pleasant inside We had a huge lunch finishing off with golden syrup dumplings left over from the roast last night, so by about 6.pm we still weren't hungry and decided to have a cuppa instead. Ross went outside to fill the kettle from the container and in the dark he saw a lady standing close by and she said Hello. Then I heard Ross exclaim "Oh my! It can't be! Gab come here!" It was his brother, David and sister in-law Bev. David and Bev also travel during the winter months looking for a warmer climate same as we do. David and Bev had travelled the Burke Developmental Road and had set up camp opposite us (unbeknowns to them and us at the time), Bev was reading her emails and our Blog and she said to David "Unbelievable as this sounds, Ross and Gab are here at this caravan park right now". They went outside and looked around. They knew we had a Jeep, but so do lots of people these days so that when they saw one opposite they thought, "could it be?" No that would be too much of a coincidence! Go and see said David to Bev. Go and Knock on the door! So Bev came over pondering on whether or not to knock! What if it's not them she thought? I'm going to look pretty silly if its not them and that is when Ross came outside and said hello not recognising Bev in that split second as Bev and David were the last people he expected to see in Normanton.so far from home. They are leaving Sunday heading east, We also leave Sunday heading south west and then west but we will see them tomorrow and go out for tea and a catch up.
Sunday 19th July to July 21st We said goodbye to David and Bev as we each went our separate ways, Bev and David to Port Douglas and us to Cloncurry. Roads and some camps around here are named after Burke and Wills the explorers who discovered this country but tragically died before getting back to civilisation. We drove along the Burke Developmental Road (another narrow sometimes wide road with several one lane only bridges) to camp at Bang Bang rest area for night one and then at the Terry Smith rest area for night two, both free camps (Ross beat me at Scrabble again!!!!) before staying at Cloncurry Caravan Park for two nights to recharge batteries,(ours as well as equipment) do some more washing (it never ends) and replenish our supplies. We have stayed in this caravan park before, but we noticed a decided decline in park ambience as you will see in one of the photographs.
Also you will see photos of the Burke and Wills Road house which is at the halfway point between Normanton and Cloncurry. We had been warned not to stay here as it was expensive, no TV or Internet Reception and the manager was not very pleasant, which is why we chose to free camp. We were glad we had made that choice as it didn't look any more inviting than the rest areas we stayed at. This morning we are packing up to start the fairly long trip to Katherine, which we estimate will take us about five days, alternating between rest areas, sometimes called free camps (council maintained overnight camping areas) and caravan parks.