...read the sign we passed between Cloncurry and Normanton. And boy, do I support this initiative! If they had installed a little donation-box under that sign I would have given money at one! 'Cause, believe me, the so called Matilda Highway is no highway at all.

Where I come from we'd call it a "minor road" - at best. You see, the sealed part of the road is too narrow for two cars to pass each other by, meaning that you have to leave the bitumen with two of your wheels, going onto the dirt/gravel to let the other car pass. And unfortuantely there are tons of big, sharp rocks lying next to the road - noone can tell me that that is good for the tyres. And since the Matilda Highway has quite a lot of curves you sometimes only see the other car a hundred meters before - ehm - "impact", so you gotta break hard, get off the road, try to avoid major rocks and hope that he does the same. And it's even more fun if you encounter a road train. Because these babies don't go off the road. So you have to get the hell out of their way and stop next to the road, else you - or at least your windscreen - are toast.

Good car. Nice car...

But yes, at least we were driving again! There were no problems whatsoever at the garage and the waterpump was exchanged in about an hour (total costs 179 AUD). After they were done with the repairs the guys at the garage told me that apparenty my pump hadn't been working for quite some time: When they took one of the hoses off they just found rust. Dry rust. So there couldn't have been any water in there for quite some time. They said that they reckon I was simply luck that it is winter. Else I would have cooked the engine a long time ago. Good car. Nice car... Btw: If someone was to ask me what the Outback smells like I'd have to say: "It smells of rotting animals". It's true: During the whole drive, the slightly sickening smell of road kill lingered over the road. I've never seen so many dead animals on a road in my life: Wallabies, kangaroos, cows ad even a horse (I think) were lying along the road, each cadaver no more than 200 meters from the next. You can bet that I was very eager to get to a place to stay before it got dark!

Croydon

We spent the night in Croydon, in the historical "Club Hotel" (16.50 AUD/person in dorm) and if you should be going that way can really recommend staying there. Its a nice, clean and friendly place and you get to know the locals a bit as well. Croydon is an old goldrush town that - as the local tourist office puts it euphemistically - "has found a more tranquil pace once the gold ran out". I.e.: There is not much to do, but I probably saw the oldest buildings I've seen since I came to OZ. It still looks like a gold-diggers town.

Welcome to the East Coast

The next day we made it to the East Coast. Yeehaa! Cairns! I can't really say much about the town yet, but so far it seems quite pretty. Tomorrow or the day after I'll probably go to the Great Barrier Reef and then I'm on my way again down to Townsville and Brisbane. Unfortunately the weather is miserable (well, I suppose there is a reason wh they call it rainforest), but hey, that's life. The last 150 km of the road were quite different from anything I've seen in Australia before. Steep hills, serpentines and ferns the sice of big trees. Quie beautiful, really. They also have two more animals here you have to watch out for when driving: Ostriches and Tree Kangaroos.

Need 4 Speed Australia?

For some reason the latter made me think of a video game. You know, a first-person driving game where in level one you have to avoid wallabies, kangaroos and livestock, in level two they add cars, caravans and road trains and then, in level three, they add more animals and this time the kangaroos are not only coming from they sides of the road but even from above! Might actually make a good game. Though some people might call it unrealistic. I mean, seriously: Tree Kangaroos? Nature certainly has a sense of humour...