So today is the 8th March, and it is our last day in the NT, and the last 48 hours have been memorable, to say the least!

We have previously talked about NT road conditions, but yesterday, they took it to the next level.  When most people hear the word “highway” they think of a wide stretch of bitumen, sealed,two lanes of traffic, one for each direction, generally enabling you to do a reasonable speed… yes?. But not here, not on the roads into and out of Borroloola. But where the heck is Borroloola?

We left Daly Waters, having been really impressed by their facilities, great showers, shady sites, and free beer or wine… I ask you… who doesn’t like a free drink?

Yep, stay the night, and they give you each a voucher for a free drink in the roadhouse…. tbe back side of that is that then you are then tempted to buy a meal…which we did,..with fish n chips and a steak burger for $38……not bad.

Anyway, we thought we would go see more of the outback of NT, so we headed out along the Carpentaria Hwy, which was new, wide  and smooth for the first 100km, pretty much the best road in the NT.  Then we went through some roadworks, and it got skinny, not quite one lane width of rutted bitumen, that wanted to grab Little Bus’s wheels, interspersed with industrial potholes But it did get slightly better, and we ended up in Borroloola after another 170 km.

Now here’s the rub, we had to come back…… and the shortest route to continue our journey towards Queensland was via the Tablelands Hwy.  It was 377km long (plus 110km to get to the start of it), but to not do it would have  meant doing a round trip of 800km, including going back along the Carpentaria Hwy. The locals classified the Carpentaria as good, and the Tablelands as “rough but OK, you’ll be alright if you just go slow…. you can drive around the worst bits!”

I didn’t get much sleep that night, you see our ground clearance is only 200mm, plus we have our water tanks and taps mounted under the bus, and it didn’t help that it was currently raining, so I was planning rescue and recovery strategies until I finally fell asleep. Jo……slept fine.

We started off early at 7.30 and got to the “heartbreak hotel” by 9, had a quick break, our spirits were bolstered by someone who had just done it towing a van…. admittedly, he was now pulled over having a drink, we presumed it was coffee in his mug.

Then we hitched up Little Bus’s big girl pants and headed off, having been told it’s the last 200km that’s the worst part, and it was.

We started off OK, even had two lanes for a bit, then down to one with water crossing, cows on the road, closed in vegetation but still pretty good. The speed limit was sign posted at 110km/hr, now that made us laugh. We got to some wide sectons, maybe 10km of two lanes, almost a normal highway, except for the “wumpa dumps.” Theye are those almost invisible humps in the road that you go over and everything becomes airborne and you get weightless “negative g” sensation just before you come crashing back down, and it takes that micro second for your breakfast to catch up, but by then you’ve hit the next one. Fortunately, we had packed everything pretty well, so most things stayed where they were meant to.

Then, back to an almost single lane road for the rest of the trip, with “overtaking lanes” placed randomly, we were still allowed to do 110!

The scenery was nice, and the birdlife was amazing , with brolgas, jabiru, kites, heaps of bustards, budgies, and even some pelicans who looked kinda lost.

We hit the really rough spot just after Brunette Downs. And off course that just had to be when we met the triple road train coming towards us. We got off the “road” as far as we could, given the ground was soft here, leaving him just enough room to crawl past, which he did with literally inches to spare.

Our average speed now dropped from about 70km/hr to about 50km/hr over this section, and at times, we simply crawled from one hole to the next. There was no road really to speak of……This has to have been the worst highway we had ever been on….

Barkly Homestead roadhouse is literally right at the end of the Tablelands Hwy, and we sighed in relief as at 3 p.m., we turned left, and pulled in for the night. No question about it. The beer and wine went down a treat that night I can tell you.

I’ll let the pics and videos speak for themselves.

See you soon

Al & Jo