Day 316 – Hughenden, NW Qld (26 July)

Left Townsville heading west towards Mt Isa 904km.  We are travelling on what is known as the ‘Overlander’s Way’.  In the doldrums today as this is really the turning point for us to head home (have to go and sort out our house! who knows what we’ll do after that?)  Anyway we keep smiling.  It seems to be lately that not a day goes by when something doesn’t have to fixed and today we had to stop in Charters Towers to get the roof rack welded where one of the mounting points had two small cracks in it and was at risk of the roof rack collapsing onto the car roof.  Another rattle sorted.  We were very lucky and found a welding service that did it straight away leaving everything on the roof all for a $20 donation to their social fund ;-)  We have seen so many vans today and suspect NT will be busy so think we will have to start planning ahead and booking accommodation - we hate being so organised!   We are over nighting in Hughenden which is about 1/3 of the way to Mt Isa.   Not much here except from now to Mt Isa it’s known as dinosaur country with fossils (dead ones) dotted all around the place. You can buy a house here for as a little as $99K if you want to be in a town with an unsure or limited future, miles from nowhere and hot as hell in summer – then this is it.