We tore ourselves away from Oma Waterhole as it happens to be too easy to stay at each waterhole and let time just pass....and pass.

We like to travel the bush roads and not the bitumen clad main roads because on these "minor" roads there is virtually no traffic...some DAZE we only see 2 or 3 vehicles if that. This means that we can take our time and stop for a look and a photo should a "Kodak Moment" present itself. Also these roads are usually more interesting from a historical point of view with old ruins of buildings, mine sites and stockyards from yesteryear....great to kick around and see how the early inhabitants lived. Another big advantage of these quieter back roads is the abundance of wildlife close to the road...yes the roads are unsealed and the rig gets dusty on the outside...Our Bushtracker doesn't get dust inside at all.......sure beats belting along the bitumen with a "B Double up ya clacka" glimpsing empty paddocks as you gobble up the fuel. Our fuel consumption drops by 8 Litres per 100K when we just poke along these quiet back roads and we get to see more with less stress...isn't that what a holiday is all about??

With this in mind, we headed across to Yaraka to get fuel and then on to Welford NP. We were going to fuel up in Isisford where you can get fuel 7 days, but it's not a servo...just a bowser in front of a house and they serve fuel only 4 hours a day...9.00am-11.00am and 3.00pm-5.00pm. Yep we missed out and the map showed fuel available at Yaraka which we should make on the main tank.....our last fill was Blackall.

On the way we saw tons of wildlife and also found a waterhole off the road...you can't see it from the road, but it showed up on our Garmin Nuvi GPS and we found a little used track going to it. According to "Nuvi" it's called Green Lagoon. We towed the BT in there and 6 pigs jumped up and ran away....lot's of birds here too...we fought the urge to stay, but it shows you there are camps everywhere.

Well we got into Yaraka and the main tank was getting pretty low so we found the shop and the 2 fuel bowsers.....closed...Oh Oh....we parked there for a few minutes wondering if the shop would ever open again and then we noticed a Landcruiser moving off from the school and making in our general direction. The pretty young lady informed us that the shop owner had gone broke and now the council was endeavouring to keep it open as a community service...staffed by local volunteers...sort of. Anyway, she said it was fortunate for us that she spotted us from the school and was able to come over and open up for us....We could have gone on to another town if we had to, but it would have put us a few hundred kilometres out of our way.....always have plenty of spare fuel when traveling the bush.
Our Landcruiser has as standard a 45 Litre second tank an we always carry 40 Litres of fuel in 2 jerry cans on the draw bar of the van....you just never know.

On the road again...hey that would make a really good song title...and these back roads look like tracks on the map but when you try them out they really aren't what they might first seem.

Welford National Park was a grazing property before being declared a NP, so the ranger lives in the old homestead and he was really helpful with info on the different landscapes and scenic drives. He suggested we camp at Little Boomerang Waterhole and unhitch the van and drive the desert dunes track for some Simpson desert like scenery. Welford is home to the most Easterly Red Sand Dunes of the Simpson Desert. We camped at Little Boomerang where the only facility was a little bush dunny...still we had our Bushtracker with full ensuite and 4X82 Litre water tanks...so no problem for us. The water side campsites here are limited to about a couple, but plenty of flat, open ground a short walk back.

The next morning we had a dust storm that lasted most of the morning.....wow how quickly things can change....

We decided to do the Desert Track as it brought us out well on our way to our next stop at Jundah. The rangers advise to unhitch our van was meant well but we decided to give the desert a go towing our Bushtracker with the option of turning back if we had to. It was no problem at all and the track was easy to navigate...although a little narrow in places.

What a contrast this park provided ......near the waterholes you could see hundreds of kangaroos under every tree, but out in the desert dunes region not a roo to be seen...lack of water here.