A pleasant night camped in the gidgee a few kilometres east of Aramac, another town being left behind as activity concentrates on the larger centres of Longreach, Barcaldine and Winton on the Landsborough Highway further south.

Aramac is a lovely green town due, I think, to an abundant supply of high quality water from the Great Artesian Basin.

Morning tea at the local service station the headed north up to Lake Galilee and Charters Towers.

A few kilometres out of town was this installation of a stockman and his dogs made from scrap iron.

And a few more kilometres on was an emu and chicks.

The gravel road was is very good condition so an uneventful ride up past the turnoff to the Eastmere sports ground and boat ramp and north over the hill where I spotted a small white lake in the distance. This was the Lake Galilee that I had so wanted to see but which the drought had shrunk to a puddle in the distance.

The night’s camp was tucked up against a pile of logs on a fence line. I thought a bit of protection was a good idea as I had ended up in the steer paddock and the several hundred excited, exuberant teenagers (each weighing 400-500 kgs) could have got out of hand. They spent most of the night forming mobs that joyfully ran from one side of the paddock to the other, occasionally coming over to my camp to sniff around and huff, to invite me to play as well.

Looking at the map I was only 2.6km from Lake Galilee at this camp but I couldn’t see it or a way to get over to it.