28 May Outback Adventure.

Wow, what a day....we “Made the OUTBACK Connection. Longreach to Ilfracombe, to Isisford, to Emmet, to Yaraka....then back, 400k.
Ilfracombe is very interesting and has established a mile long display of old farm machinery as well as historical sheds of how the junction was formed to transport wool in the early days.
Desperately dry, scrub, mainly very straight road, a lot of single lane with very wide graded verges, very flat except for the consistent signs ‘Road subject to flooding, indicators show depth’ with the concrete dip in the road. It gives a very up and down experience. Quite a bit was gravel, we were going to do the round trip between Yaraka & Isisford but that was all gravel and not by the river like we had hoped. We had lunch at Emmet. One house and a railway station. No railway! Oh, and there was a picnic table even with a cover over it. And what’s more.......we weren’t the only ones there! A couple with their camper & her brother with his SUV & his swag in the back. Nice to have company for lunch. Getting near Yaraka there came into view the Yang Yang Ranges, a complete surprise. There was Mount Slowcombe, a bit like Ayres Rock, a stand alone formation that could be driven up and there was a lookout up there with a 360 degree view of the Ranges and surrounding country. It amazes us that people want to live in isolation. There are big cattle stations out there but we saw very few cattle. A few Emu, kangaroo (mostly dead) a coupe of long legged birds, pink & grey galah and one big lizard, about 18 inches long.
It was a big day and so very worth it. What an amazing country this is.