Up to Merluna Station

We zoomed up the nice wide road and pulled into Archer River Roadhouse, hoping to get info about the road to Weipa. Rio Tinto had helpfully provided a roads adviser who gave us plenty of info. She said that Piccaninny Plains where thought we might volunteer at for a couple of days, probably would be deserted because the owners would be out working, so we decided that we’d try to phone them on our way south to see if we could help and see what they were doing in terms of conservation. As predicted, we did pass 8 triple quarry trucks carrying gravel from Archer River to Boyd Bay, near Aurukun, approx. 150-200km away, for a new mine with Rio. A long way to carry gravel.

We decided to camp at Merluna Station for the night and as hoped, we were able to have dinner with the owners and other station staff. Cameron was very quiet but opened up after dinner and told us about the new horsemanship of an American horse whisperer that he was trying to emulate with his horses. Michelle was also interesting and told us about the internet and phone complexities of a station. We discussed the 4 corners documentary on the 88 days that backpackers have to do to get an extra year on their visa with the 3 backpackers. One had experienced poor pay and conditions in SA planting strawberries.

We were thrilled to see the Palm Cockatoo again and also the Papuan Frogmouth.

Papuan frogmouth

On the walk around the 3 tracks, there was a dam with lots of birds

Striated  night heron

We were also thrilled to meet Rob, Mel, Jacinta, Mikayla and Aaron Naismith who we had breakfast with, before setting out together for Weipa. Mikayla caught a little lizard that she became very attached to.

Cameron on his runabout