We left Boulia and headed north towards Mt Isa. We had some camels to get by- one was particularly curious. The road north was a thousand times better than it used to be. Back in 1990, it was a real challenge but today it was sealed the whole way. We went past the Donahue Hwy turnoff that we will be retuning on. The Donahue Hwy becomes the Plenty Hwy once in the NT.
Another big change was the provision of rest stops, which I don’t recall seeing in 1990. One in particular was new and modern. There were less road trains on this section of our trip. I think there were only one or two. The other big difference was how green it was compared to 1990. The brown and red dirt now had grass covering it.
We refueled at Mt Isa and had hoped to fill our water tanks. Unfortunately, the sign said non drinking water. Whether that’s true, or was put there to stop people like us filling I don’t know. So we moved on hoping to fill the tanks at the dam we would be camped alongside. Unfortunately, there is blue green algae in the dam and it’s not even safe to swim in, let alone drink.
Our final option is to pay for the water which the local council sells on Monday morning. We should have enough water to last till then.
While we can access bore water at some locations, the smell of sulphur is pretty strong. We have been warned about deposits in water tanks and never being able to get them out. I do have a filter but I’ll try and get the best water I can.
Once we fill our water tanks, the next night we will use water from them. The night after we will use tap water, which I assume is bore water but it won’t go in my tanks. I will then try and get 50 litres of water in Alice Springs. After that, it will be a case of tap (bore) water or tank water. Maybe there are creeks we can use for water along the way. In any case I expect to have empty tanks when I get home. Water is very precious out here and water quality quite variable.
