Thierings on Tour

We weren’t in too much of a rush today, as we knew we just had a huge day of driving ahead of us with not much to see or do along the way.

The girls loved having friends to play with again and it was a nice sunny day – almost too hot actually!

As we were driving we had a change of itinerary to stock up and recharge (both human and van batteries). We have been off grid for 5 days now and our water and power was getting a bit low, so we decided to head to Weipa for 2 nights on the way up, instead of on the way down.

We stopped for lunch at Archer River Roadhouse and caught up with our friends again. I must say though that I am getting over the lunch options at all the road houses, especially for the kids!

There was a yellow snake in the tree above, but it was a bit too far and too small to try and work out what it was.

Then we had a couple more hours of driving ahead of us. The road was probably the roughest corrugation we have had so far and add to that a few stir crazy kids, an overtired toddler who always misses her dummy at sleeptime, it felt like a long drive… but we made it alive and Weipa looked lovely!

Weipa is a huge mining town for Rio Tinto for bauxite, which makes alumina which in turn makes aluminium. I’ve learnt that you need 8 tonne of bauxite to make 1 tonne of aluminium. 

It turns out the Weipa fishing competition was just finishing in town and there were a lot of extra people at the park. There was also a pool and a playground, which were a welcome change for the girls. 

Being so high up along the Cape York Peninsula, there is actually no mainland mass to the west of Weipa, which means you get the same gorgeous sunsets over the water as you do in WA. It did not disappoint!

Bedtime tonight was probably one of the worst nights we’ve had so far on the road and I would not be surprised if the whole campground heard the screams and meltdowns. Somehow it seems even worse dealing with it on the road – maybe knowing that everyone around you can hear it?! Or the fact that you don’t even have anywhere to escape once it’s all done and everyone is asleep. Everyone was looking forward to a reset tomorrow.

Kms travelled – 369