Day 17 McKinlay to Cloncurry

There were a lot of people moving out early this morning, it would worry me too much to be on the road in the dark with cattle and native animals about. They’re very unpredictable, birds take off in one direction then often completely change course and end up heading straight for the car. When cattle are on both sides of the road you never know if some are going to cross when the car gets near.

The Temporary Relieving Photographer was on the spot when one of the helicopters took off at 6:45 after a nice night out at the Pub.

We saw some camels today but they didn’t seem to be feral ones, not sure if any are farmed up this way.

It was about 9:45 when we arrived in Cloncurry this morning and the Caravan Park we’re booked into didn’t have its office open. We investigated the town ie searched for a Bakery, the first one was closed.

As we’ve found before in other towns a lot of businesses seem to have failed and premises are neglected. We did find another Bakery which was very well presented but even that one was for sale. Alex was able to get some tasty baked goods, Fergus agreed. When we arrived back at the Caravan Park the Office was open and after they’d checked to see which sites were by then available we moved in and set up before going to see what was at the Mary Kathleen Park. Before we did any of that though I tried to tidy up/thin out Fergus’ coat a little. When I decided there was enough white hair floating around I stopped and we ate our Creme Brulee. Alex got chefie with the sugar on top.

Last year we actually visited the site of the original town so we were curious to see what had been relocated. Because we had Fergus we didn’t go into any buildings but there were plenty of interesting items about.

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After we left there I wanted to see if there were any nice riverside spots. We found Chinaman’s Creek Dam and went up to the wall then came back to a nice looking spot. There weren’t any walking tracks but there was a picnic spot.

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A couple of Egrets were in the area, Whistling Kites and maybe some other raptors were looking for a feed. The Cockatiels were near our campsite at McKinlay this morning.

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Tomorrow I’m hoping to go to the Market here before we set off for Normanton.