The sound of cows chewing green mangos woke us intermittently throughout the night as they foraged under the trees near our campsite at Moreton Telegraph Station. The birds stirred early in the morning, drowning out all but the loudest of the noises coming from the cows and announcing it was the start of another day. The birdsong along the Wenlock River was also quite different to that around the coast at Punsand Bay.
Being well versed in our set-up and pack-up routine, we were back on the road south at around 8:30am with a billowing cloud of dust pursuing us for much of the morning. The journey south was broken by a stop at Coen to top up the water tank in the Tvan with potable water; we had tried some on the way north and found it to be acceptable for drinking. We also refuelled (at $1.80 per litre) before stopping yet again – this time at the Great Northern Café on the southern outskirts of town.
Three coffees were ordered at $5.50 each. They were served up in large mugs and were actually pretty passable for these parts. The young indigenous girl who served us had a quiet manner with a ready smile when we chatted with her. We took the opportunity to call ahead and confirm that we could get in to Jowalbinna Campground (near the small township of Laura) and that a tour of the local Quinkan rock art would be possible tomorrow. Nobody answered; we left a message hoping that a reply would be picked up closer to Laura – when we might next get mobile reception.
Musgrave Station approached at the time we were all contemplating a late lunch. The decision was made to see what was on offer; straight away we opted for three burgers with the lot (so we could compare them to the ones we tried at Bramwell Junction a few weeks back). The burgers came promptly and the verdict, by a narrow margin, was that the Musgrave burgers were the best of the two we had tried on Cape York. A home-made beef patty, cheese, tomato, fried onion, fried egg, beetroot, pineapple, lettuce, bacon and sauce were all packed between a toasted bun and served up on a plate with a serviette.
Long sections of sealed road today were interrupted by unmade, corrugated and very dusty sections of track that seemed to have deteriorated since we had travelled north. Two more weeks of traffic and no rain to settle things down hadn’t helped. Hann River Roadhouse came and went, followed by a lengthy bridge / causeway over the nearly-dry Hann River.
As Laura approached we got mobile network signal briefly, with a message from Steve Tresize at Jowalbinna confirming they were running a tour tomorrow. With that sorted, we kept an eye out for the secondary track off the PDR that would take us the 32 kms to our campsite for the next two nights. Much of the 32 kms had been recently graded, and we made good time until the first of three creek crossings. The track became a single set of wheel ruts from the first crossing right through to the dwelling that Steve calls home.
Steve sauntered over to greet us on our arrival, confirming the campground was about 2 kms further on and we could camp anywhere we liked as there was plenty of space beside the creek. The final creek crossing was a little bit of a challenge but nothing compared to portions of the OTT we had tackled around Eliot and Twin Falls. We have met our new neighbours at the campground and one suspects we will be talking to them again before we leave.
Just on dusk we witnessed an exodus of fruit bats heading in a westerly direction to no doubt eat their fill before returning before dawn to roost and sleep through the day – then repeating the cycle again tomorrow evening.
We have to be back at Steve’s dwelling at 8:30am to commence the tour of the Quinkan rock art sites in the escarpments around our campsite.