April 21-22
The first part of our dirt road journey was in very good condition for the 100km to Louth.
As we arrived the RFDS aircraft was on the runway next to the road, loading some unfortunate soul into the aircraft on a stretcher! He flew off in the opposite direction so we didn’t get a photo this time
The campground at Louth is on the Western side of the bridge (we traveled down the Eastern side but you can go either way). A reasonably large area there was only a young camper in a tent with his dog and a bicycle camped under the bridge.
It wasn’t long before the feral goats made an appearance, our first encounter with them in a campground.
After lunch on our second day here a Toyota Landcruiser ute with a camping canopy drove in and came over towards us lloking vaguely familiar. Turned out to be Sherrill Ives who was at the Transport Hall of Fame in Alice when we were there!
She had finally left after almost 7 years there and taking up her bucket list again. She was driving over to see if it was a safe camping spot and didn’t recognise our van until she got out of the car and we spotted each other! Sherrill traveled with us for the next six days as she was going down to Wilcannia and then across to White Cliffs.
Louth is best known for either it’s annual picnic races or the memorial Celtic cross to Mary Mathews in the local Cemetery. The cross is located so that the setting sun on her birthday, August 19, reflects to the door of their homestead, quite a feat in 1886!
More information on the life of TA Mathews can be found here.
