2010/09 Australia trip - Mount Surprise |
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We continued up the Leichhardt Way; the road went from bumpy two-lane to an even bumpier single lane. The road has a narrow stretch of blacktop with two red gravel shoulders. If you meet someone, you’re both supposed to get your nearside wheels off onto the gravel and share the blacktop. If you meet a road train, it owns the blacktop; you get completely off and either stop or bounce your way along and try to miss the stakes at the edge of the road.
We had to pull off at The Lynd to fill up with diesel, and the pump gave up after 50 litres. “Must be the heat”, said the pump attendant, a young guy from Manchester who probably thought that any day in Queensland was hot. We eventually got filled up and made our way to Mount Surprise, a tiny strip of a place along the Savannah Way, the road that connects Cairns with Darwin. This road is considered to be the start of the Cape York Peninsula, so we’d reached the southernmost point of our destination, but still had about 700 miles to go.
We camped at the Bedrock Village caravan park as they advertized an internet connection, but it wasn’t working anyway. It was still a 
nice place to stop, and we were welcomed by a flock of apostle birds and this galah. We were camped right next to the railway line, but the Gulflander train wasn’t due until Wednesday so it wasn’t likely to trouble us.
A black lab came and sat down with us at dinner time. He ignored all the frogs that were leaping around us and focused on our plates, so we let him help with the washing up. Later that evening I walked into town to use the payphone and the dog came with me, sauntering along in the middle of the road, obviously not expecting any traffic. I was surprised that the town’s only street had street lights. Then I found that I could turn off the lights just by pointing my headlight at them; that’s Saturday 
night entertainment at Mount Surprise!
Sunday October 3rd
I took an early morning walk down to Elizabeth Creek, which was much prettier than I expected, with its paper bark trees, butterflies, and birds. We met this elegant sarus crane later in the morning.