To complete our Outback Way, we travelled the Plenty Highway - another bucket list item now crossed off. Day 1 was mainly bitumen, some pretty good dirt road and a couple of sections of very rough bits which tested out our vehicles and drivers!
The scenery - especially at the beginning, was spectacular with the Hart mountain range dominating. It was much like driving along the Flinders Ranges in SA. Our original perceptions of inland Australia being flat, red, dry and boring were quite wrong.
We fuelled up at the very pretty Gemtree roadhouse and caravan park. It’s a very popular location for folks who like to fossick for gemstones.
We spied some beautiful cattle along the way - but once again, not any other wildlife - not even road kill! Our first night was a free campground by the Marshall River and near Jervois station. We enjoyed another beautiful clear night - and awoke to an unexpected mild and sunny morning as we thought the nights would be very cold.
Day 2 was another wow day! Driving along in brilliant sunshine with flocks of budgies wheeling above us, fat cattle standing contentedly along the road and even a well fed dingo standing for a photo shoot, we were feeling so happy. The scenery was amazing and we’ve been blown away with how picturesque the landscape is - mountain ridges, Mitchell Grass plains, and tree lined creek beds. We learned that all of the vegetation has the ability to survive seasons of floods and droughts and the Mitchell grass especially can survive up to 30 years due to their dual root systems. One root is shallow and the other very deep. We’ve been fortunate to see everything after some good rains - no doubt in drier years things wouldn’t be as lush.
There were still patches of water lying along side the road - indicative of why the road closes after a rain.
Our last stop in NT was at Tobermorey station which was a pleasant oasis where we fuelled up and had our picnic lunch in their grounds. 
Once we crossed the border into Queensland, the landscape changed to be more open prairie like areas, interspersed with some wetlands and the beautiful Georgina River. This river has a huge floodplain and would be amazing to see it in flood. We noticed on the flood marker that the 70’s were particularly wet!
Our 2nd night was in another free site some 50kms from Boulia. We were hurried on a little as a shitbox rally was planned to travel from Bedourie to Tobermorey Station and we didn’t want to meet these 250 cars on a dirt road. As it was we met them on the narrowest section of road out of Boulia!
We have completed the Outback way and have travelled through Boulia and Bedourie and are now camped at an artesian bore 80km from Birdsville. These artesian bores continue to amaze us - the water comes out at 80 degrees - very very hot! As it runs to different ponds, it cools and if you were tempted, you could enjoy a hot bath! Not us though as it’s actually quite cool this afternoon! We had a 100km detour around Lake Machattie which looks like an inland sea - and has ruined the road! Driving though the area, it’s hard to believe we’re in desert country - it’s so lush and green. 
We continue to acknowledge how fortunate we’ve been to tick of these bucket list items - and we've been blown away by the magnificence of everything we’ve seen and have loved it so much! We are probably going to run into colder weather as we head south - we have been so blessed with beautiful sunny days and mild nights. We’ve travelled about 13000km, through 5 states and past the Tropic of Capricorn 4 times - quite a big trip! We hope it’s not too cold at home - and hope everyone is keeping warm and well. Till the next blog, love from the grey nomads ❌❌❌❌
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