From Eyre Creek we travelled north on the
Eyre Development Road through Bedourie, stopping for fuel but not staying for
the camel and pig races. Next stop was Boulia where we took on food and fuel
for the trip west via the Plenty Highway to Alice Springs.
For the first 250 km of the trip to the
Qld/NT border, the road is called the Donohue Highway and then in NT the next
500 kms to the Stuart Highway is called the Plenty Highway. For the 750km crossing
there are sections of sealed road but mostly it is gravel of various types and
condition, ranging from good to not so good but nothing really ugly. The Plenty
joins the Stuart Highway 70 kms north of Alice Springs.
The journey takes you through relatively
flat cattle country most of the way with some attractive rocky ranges towards
the western end, outliers of the MacDonnell Ranges. While recent summer rains
had generated some grass growth, the grass by mid July was now dead and the
soil, water holes and creeks were dry.
We took two and a half days for this crossing
with two overnight bush camps. Fuel, basic food supplies and some camping is
available at cattle stations and Aboriginal communities along the way. We
elected to be self-sufficient and took all our own food and fuel. It pays to
take reserves of fuel, food and water in case of unexpected delays rather than
rely on fuel supplies from stations – we have found in the past that fuel is
not always available as advertised.
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Signage at the start of Donohue
Highway near Boulia. There is a push to have a road from Cairns in Queensland
through Alice Springs to Laverton in WA. |
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Sign with distances to cattle station
between Boulia and the Qld/NT border. |
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Outback roads can suddenly close due
to rain. It pays to keep a close watch on weather forecasts for rain to avoid
being trapped on a remote road unable to go forward or back until the road
dries out. |
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Photo of our iPad mini GPS navigation
system showing a section of the Channel Country and Donohue Highway. The iPad
has detailed HEMA maps loaded, which give incredible detail, linked by
Bluetooth to a GPS receiver (the receiver we use is used by airplane pilots and
is very fast and accurate). |
Travelling west from Boulia in Channel
Country, the main river crossed is the Georgina which eventually discharges via
other rivers to Lake Eyre. Further west the rivers such as the Hay and Plenty
drain south into the Simpson Desert, the largest sand ridge desert in the world.
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Georgina River crossing. |
The Plenty Highway runs east west roughly
along a divide between the Barkly Tableland to the north and the Simpson Desert
to the south.
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Vast flat treeless plains are common
at the eastern end of the Plenty Highway. The plains are punctuated by watercourses
supporting acacia on the smaller drainage lines and eucalypts on the major
rivers. |
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Beginning of the Plenty Highway at the
NT/Qld border. |
|
We encountered a number of eucalypts
in flower, species unknown – it could easily be a Corymbia species, and at this
location Black-faced Woodswallows were feeding on the nectar and no doubt taking
any insects that they came across which were also attracted to the profuse
flowers. |
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Some of the Black-faced Woodswallows feeding
on nectar. |
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Birds were coming and going. |
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At first I thought the Woodswallows
were foraging in the flowers for insects thinking they were insectivors and not
also nectar feeders. This one may have an insect in its bill or just flower
stamens? |
|
On closer inspection I think there is
no insect, only stamens. |
|
The bird under observation soon
departed for more flowers elsewhere. It does not pay to stay in one place for
too long and risk becoming a meal for a raptor. |
The road passes through mostly Mitchell
grassland however there are a few sections of spinifex country with large
termite mounds built by termites that specialize in consuming spinifex.
|
A large termite mound beside the
Plenty Highway – an impressive structure given the size of an individual
termite. |
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Here is a section of broken off mound
showing galleries full of harvested spinifex stems. |
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Campsite near Injerrabonna Water Hole. |
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One of a number of
Yellow-throated Miners, a very common species in outback Australia, found along
the bone dry Injerrabonna Water Hole. |
Our second and last camp on
the Plenty was at the start of the now closed Cattlewater Pass track in a
designated fossicking area. I have no idea what people were fossicking for there
however the area coincided with a mature and very attractive Gidgee woodland
where we found Singing, White-plumed and Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters, Rufous
Whistlers, Chestnut-rumped Thornbill, Red-capped and Hooded Robins.
|
Campsite just off
Plenty Highway on start of Cattlewater Pass Track in mature Gidgee woodland. |
We have encountered Hooded
Robins in good numbers in most places we have stopped from Sturt NP to Alice
Springs. This species is now declining in Victoria where it was once more
numerous and widespread. It does seem to be very well adapted to arid inland
Australia.
|
Female Hooded Robin |
|
Male Hooded Robin. |
Hooded Robins have the same
hunting technique as many other robins that take prey on the ground. From a
perch they look intently this way and that until they spy a suitable food item
and then dive down and capture the food. Then they fly up, usually to another
nearby perch, and resume the process over again.
|
Same Robin as above
still looking for food on the ground from the same perch. |
From the Cattlewater Pass
Track camp we soon found ourselves on the Stuart Highway with at first no speed
limit and then a 110km/hour limit. Our maximum speed on the dirt roads was
around 80 km/hr and our average below 70 km/hr, so even 100 km/hr seemed fast.
We travelled south crossing
the Tropic of Capricorn again. Arriving in bustling Alice Springs was a minor
shock to the system after a couple of weeks of remote dirt roads with few
vehicles and very small outback towns with very few people. We have been to
Alice several times since our first visit in 1975 – there have been many
changes since then, both to Alice and ourselves, including our mode of travel
which was very basic back then and fairly high tech now.
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