From Karumba we drove back towards Cloncurry, stopping overnight at a rest stop. In the morning I went to put in my contact lenses as usual but realised something wasn't right as I couldn't read out of my left eye, which is the reading contact. Once before I lost a contact in my eye, and it resurfaced the next day even after a doctor checked it , so after trying for a while to find it and making my eye quite sore we headed for Cloncurry and maybe an optometrist or a doctor to see if they could see it.
On the way we stopped at a deserted old pub at Quamby that my friend Jonathon had told me about. He used to work in the area and go to that pub. I took some photos to send to him.
When we arrived at Cloncurry we found a medical centre and got sent to the hospital, which was a bit of a slow process although the people were lovely and it was nice and cool inside. The doctor that looked at me said I was the best person he’d ever dealt with while looking in my eye, but couldn't find any contact lens in there and said that you never know, it might be on the floor. Well, when we got back in the van, I looked on the floor of the bathroom, and there it was!! It must have just slipped off my finger as I went to put it in. I felt a bit sheepish, but glad that it was sorted none the less.
Consequently we had a bit of a late getaway to our next stop - Julia Creek. Everyone we talked to raved about the place and said we must go. They had a huge free camping area by a river not far from town. They had camp hosts, which Randall is not fond of, as it means he is organised. However, he was very polite and did as he was told. We found a nice spot in the much needed shade as it was about 35 degrees! We walked up to the township and had a beer at the pub. I love all the country pubs as they have lots of atmosphere.
There was lots of birdlife in the camp ground including these big tall birds.
We only stayed one night there before moving on. The next stop was going to be Richmond. It was about 100ks further on. The drive was fairly boring as the land was flat flat flat with dry grass and a few small shrubs although it was funny when we saw a camel just sitting by the side of the road!
When we got to Richmond we found the campsite was dusty with very little shade. We parked and walked into town. It had this interesting sculpture in the middle of town.
We checked out the swimming pool but it was shut. We found out at the info centre that is was closed for winter. It was 34 degrees!! We were so hot that we thought it would be better to be driving with the air-conditioning on, than be sitting in a dry dusty camp spot, so we kept going and drove on towards Winton, planning an overnight stop at a place called Corfield. Corfield was in the middle of nowhere and was a one house one pub town. We found out later from another group of travellers that the pub only opened on Friday night, which it was - Friday. So we thought we would head there later for a drink. A couple pulled up in a motor home and we got talking to them for ages, so by the time we cooked tea we didn’t feel like heading over for a drink, so we missed out.
Our next stop was only about 50 kilometre away - Winton, so it was nice to think we only had a short drive to get there the next day.
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