From historic Daly Waters we’d switch directions again – this time to the Carpentaria Highway and on east towards the Queensland border, but not before stopping in for a night ( as most travellers do ) at one of the most famous outback pubs in Australia  ( which also operates the town’s only campground ): The Daly Waters Pub.

Steeped in history ( and overlaid with a dash of local legend ) this pub’s story is inextricably linked with the original overland telegraph line and then with the earliest exploits in Australia’s aviation history. Prior to long haul direct flights, passengers on multi-stop flights to Asia and the UK would actually touch down in the town and be catered to by the pub. The original old QANTAS hangar still survives with some interesting displays telling the fabled history of the airline and its links with Daly Waters. Fascinating to simply wander around and soak it all up.

The route east is pretty remote and the drives were long – you know it’s tedious when conversations get reduced to speculating on how many cars we might pass today. It was often very few on this particular road as it’s the secondary route across the area beneath the Gulf of Carpentaria. Most folks go further south and then turn east at Tennant Creek, but ( for reasons that now escape me ) I wanted to stop in at the small town of Borroloola. It’s a lonely drive up there, little traffic on the road and the town itself offered little if you were not a fisherman ( we aren’t ) other than an interesting museum chronicling the town’s colourful  history and some of the eccentric characters that once called it home.

Dropping down from Borroloola to the Barkly Highway brought us back onto a more trafficked route. The Queensland border is crossed at tiny Camooweal and then suddenly one is in Mount Isa, a major mining centre. It’s major draw is a mine tour but it was booked out for the next two days.  Mt. Isa is not a particularly attractive place and we had no intentions of waiting two days for a tour that would take us deep underground – years back a visit to the insides of a pyramid in Cairo revealed that we were both somewhat claustrophobic, an experience we were not anxious to repeat. We quickly moved on to Cloncurry and nearby Mary Kathleen.

Karumba, a quaint little spot very popular with campers and right on the Gulf of Carpentaria was somewhere we were anxious to visit, and looked forward to the much talked about happy hour at the Sunset Tavern right on the water. A long drive up via Cloncurry and Normanton but well worthwhile and, fortunately, en route east to Cairns from Mt. Isa. We enjoyed the shared experiences with fellow travellers that tend to congregate in “end of the road” places like Karumba and found the local Barramundi Discovery Centre to be well worth visiting. While it wasn’t the reason we came it’s the lure of a big “barra” catch that brings many folks to this historic frontier town. Locally known as “Barradise” 😊.

Still a long way to Cairns ( we took the southern route via Georgetown and Mt Garnet ) – more on that in the next edition!

Till next week…..