Finally we changed direction and headed West! We stopped to re-fuel at Charters Towers and took a stroll through the historic township. It was home to a few nice old buildings but nothing much else. We stopped for about an hour and five minutes, and it was an hour too long according to Rob.

P.S. we didn’t see Bob Catter but plenty of big hats.

As we continued West along the highway we lost reception and gained some sunlight in our day.  We crossed the Great Dividing Range and much to our surprise entered the Lake Eyre basin. It extends all the way to the NT border!

We spent a night on the side of the road in a small town called Richmond, which did a great job at neatly grooming their little outback town and it is home to the ‘Big Dinosaur’.

The dinosaur is called ‘Kronosauraus Queenslandicus’ and fossils of its remains had been found in the area. It was a large sea creature when it lived in the area millions of years ago when central Australia was a large inland sea! Hard to imagine while you’re surrounded by arid scrub.

Day two saw us leave the beaten track and head north to the Burke and Wills Roadhouse in Gulf Country. This is where developmental roads that are one lane are the luxurious alternative to dirt roads and where road trains rule!

We saw (and paid for) the mist expensive fuel so far coming in at a rough $1.89 per litre. Ouch! I’m sure it will get worse.

Into the afternoon, we continued past Century mine and down the dirt road towards Lawn Hill National Park. I laughed as we passed a sign that said ‘Mary’s Hole’ and made Rob pull over so we could take a photo.

Ironically, on our way back to the car we noticed we had a flat tire! The shadows were getting long, it was hot, dusty and neither of us had ever changed a tire before! Seems we punctured it because we didn’t let our tires down enough for the dirt road. Seems we had a hole at Mary’s hole!

With a lot of laughs at our luck and a failed attempt to repair the puncture we successfully managed to change the tire and get to our campsite at Adel’s Grove just on sunset.