We set off from Charters Towers along the Overlanders Way. This road was forged by early pioneers to the area and it has an abundance of shanty towns dotted along it. 

I had quite forgotten just how bumpy this stretch of road was and as we drove I pictured everything in the caravan moving about. I made a mental note to open all cupboards slowly when we stopped for morning tea. 

The other aspect of travelling along this road that I had quite forgotten about was the offensive smell from the all too frequent road kill. All I could do was wave my hands in front of my face in a futile attempt that Ray laughed at. After that, whenever the smell wafted through the windows he encouraged Caleb to join him in a flip flop hand motion, designed to mimic me. The things we do to pass the time. 

Ray discovered a ‘shortcut’ that would take us to Longreach without having to pass through Hughendon or Winton , effectively saving us 150km of travel. The only catch was that the first 30km of the ‘shortcut’ was an unsealed, red dust road, complete with corrugation. We thought we would give it a try. 

We lasted about a km. If I thought the sealed road was bumpy, I hadn’t seen anything yet! 

The incessant bumping and shaking, not to mention the billowing red dust made us turn back, quick smart! We resigned ourselves to travelling the extra kms and saving the car and caravan from an unknown fate. 

We stopped for lunch in a tiny town called Prairie. Caleb made friends with a dog which was hanging around the park, insisting on feeding it his sandwich crusts and getting it a cup of water to drink. We tried to convince him that the dog was really good at conning the tourists out of tidbits and that is why it was hanging around the park all day. 

Caleb grew more and more concerned that the dog was lost and tried his absolute best to convince us that it needed to join us in the car for the remainder of our trip. We resisted his and the dog’s doe eyed looks, sensibilities winning over, and left. 

The afternoon journey was exceptionally long and tiring. The road seemed endless and unchanging. and then finally we arrived in Winton. 

Caleb swiftly changed into his swimmers and headed for the pool. It was looking much too murky for us to join him so we watched from the side of the pool, chatting to some other travellers. 

It cooled down considerably as the sun set, the temperature gauge showing a top of 32 degrees. We were really feeling the extra couple of degrees of warmth compared with the 27-28degrees in Cairns. 

Ray and Caleb headed to the barn where they listened to some bush poetry. Caleb was chosen to get up on stage and help to act out a bush ballad which he enjoyed. He received a free CD of bush poetry for his efforts. I was recovering from some serious hay fever from (we assume) having the car windows open all day and the dust billowing. A few moments alone…