#2: [05-Jul-07]

16-Sep-2005 -- My 84-year-old father, William and myself were on our way to Alice Springs via the Plenty Highway and we thought, why not travel the twenty odd extra kilometres up the Tobermorey to Urandangi Road and knock this confluence off.

We arrived in the area around dusk, so decided to have a pleasant night sleeping on the side of the road ready for a fresh start in the morning; that was the theory. We didn’t count on a wind storm with a good serving of dust, followed by a thunder storm with more wind and then steady rain just about all night, served with still more wind. Our pop-top land-cruiser gave every indication the wind was going to turn it over, so I slept the night on the front seat thinking about my beautiful bed folded away.

The confluence proved to be just over two kilometres from the road. The surrounding land is quite flat and featureless so we were able to drive to the border fence without any problems. This confluence actually forms the border between the Northern Territory and Queensland. However, it is a well documented how the border fence is now some hundred or so meters on the Northern Territory side of the actual border. Luck was with us; we were able to find a nice hole in the fence, which allowed a successful crossing into Queensland giving us the ‘illegal’ feel as we snuck home to Queensland.

The confluence was a snack to find, clear of vegetation with a nice red surface. We took our photos and made our way back to the vehicle, fixing the fence as best we could in a patriotic gesture, before continuing our trip to Alice Springs.

Note the heavy clouds in our photos; it doesn’t happen often enough out here. You might notice the white flowers starting to popup already; they come with the rain.

The demarcation line with the Northern Territory is passing about 240 m west of the Confluence.