Hann River to Archer River

The road to Archer River was about a  200km stretch of either decent bitumen or indecent corrugations.   The temptation is to speed up on the bitumen, but with lower tyre pressures, you can't because the tyres heat up and could blow out.  So slow and steady is the way to go...  

Plenty of roadworks, well organised

There were long stretches of roadworks along here, so several stops, with plenty of time to admire the amount of work and infrastructure that is going on under very difficult, hot, dry, dusty conditions.  It is all very well organised, and people are patient, because there is no point getting annoyed about it. 

We stopped for morning tea at Musgrave Roadhouse, then on to Coen where we stocked up on groceries.  We checked the pub to see if there was a TAB in town, as we had been given a hot tip on a horse when we were in Cooktown and we wanted to make our fortune.  Unfortunately no TAB, but we did give the publican the tip as he had a sportsbet account, and he was very happy with us.  We would try again when we got to Weipa.

Starting to collect a little red dust

Then on to Archer River Roadhouse for the night.  This was a huge open dusty (and prickly) area on the edge of a river, also with resident emus and plump guineafowl.  Again, the facilities were rustic but welcome after a hot, dusty, bumpy ride.  Rio Tinto had a 'welcome tent' with a guy distributing maps and he gave us a good overview of the current road conditions, roadworks and general info about the road to Weipa and the telegraph track.  He advised us on protocols re roadtrains - if they're on the dirt coming towards you, get off the road;  if you're on bitumen, call them on channel 40 to let them know you're going to pass.  A very good PR exercise for the company.