Well we have done 1100 km in 2 days – on the mission. AND this morning it was, well, not cold… A leisurely start with a shower in the bus, a relaxed breakfast – then off to Charleville etc.
Refuelled at CV and passed by the west of the town centre. Nice looking town… A few Km out of town were detoured (about 10k) around new bridge works.
Then we were soon at, or passing by Augathella, which is off the highway.
Next stop Tambo. Stopped at the start of town beside a/the lake, and had some lunch. Didn’t end up with a photo of it, but biggest 5th wheeler was parked. Huge Kenworth prime mover and 3 axle partly 2 story, trailer home about 9-10m long!! Seemed to be about 5 kids and the parents – all in the cab…
The road about 50km either side of Tambo is the harshest so far with lots of close undulations, pitching the bus (and everybody else) terribly. Thank goodness for the new rear shockers… Long line of caravans, which were as slow as 70kph – with the road too rough for me to try passing… for many km. They mostly stopped at Tambo longer than us, so we got ahead.
Half an hour later we overtook a 3 unit road-train… It was doing about 85 and the last trailer moving about half a metre; timed it well on a better bit of road- and on CH40 UHF CB by now of course - essential. We had seen a few going the other way only one 4 unit pantech tho, mostly 3’s. But the road is still wide enough to NOT have to get off the bitumen. The tamac is only a metre wider than two vehicles just the same… We remember that it goes from 6 to 5 M wide further up!
Next Blackall. Home of famous hand shearer Jackie Howe – world records for shearing with hand blade shears (320 sheep in 7hr40min!!!) and his blade record stood for 60+ years until the 1950s when mechanical shears were common… Sounds like seriously hard and backbreaking work.
Finally Barcaldine; have decided to stop at the showgrounds rather than the highway lay-byes… Wandered around town and found it. Good place $25 p/n for power. Good facilities and convenient.
Had also discovered that the car light weren’t working, earlier, but as following vehicles can see the bus lights over the car, I ignored it for the day. As it turns out my cheap 24-12VDC converter had died – in short circuit so blew my convenient 30AMP fuse! I will tap into the house 12V tomorrow morning, although I want to keep bus (24V) and house (12V) electrics completely separate as a principle – later.
