11.03.2023 from Daly Waters to somewhere on the Tableland Highway

11.03.2023 from Daly Waters to somewhere on the Tableland Highway

The Carpentaria Highway is our first of 3 options.

We wake up early, in the night it unexpectedly became quite chilly, in the morning the grass is full of dew or rainwater, who knows for sure. The Carpentaria Highway is clear, but the signs don't say whether the Tableland Highway is clear. We are making good progress, the road is sometimes 2 lanes, sometimes 1 lane, which means it's a developmental highway, and there is a section that is a detour with a gravel road, they are doing construction here. The water on the road is negligible. By midday, after driving 300 km, we reach Cape Crawford, which is not by the water, and apart from a hotel, a gas station, and a campground, there is nothing to report. We refuel, get a coffee, and ask about the road conditions. The road closure at the Queensland border is still in effect. The young strong woman doesn't know anything about the Tableland Highway, she says there may be water on the road. The road conditions along the roadside are fine. We set off, the first sections are very narrow roads, calling them a highway seems exaggerated. The cows are by the road, the pastures are not fenced, signs indicate and ask to watch out for the livestock. We take the first larger water accumulations sportively, but then the floods become wider and deeper, and eventually we stop, as I said, in the middle of nowhere. The water level indicator shows about 80 cm, I walk a bit into the water, but I'm afraid, Frank jokes in the car about crocodiles that may not even be here, but who knows?

The water is too deep, the current is strong, we wave it off, one km back we can park on a truck parking lot. Two hours later, we check the water again, it is still at the same level, we decide to spend the night at the truck parking lot. At some point, we hear a helicopter flying towards Barkley Highway, around 6 pm, as we are preparing the fresh barramundi, we spot a drone buzzing above us and observing us, we wave, show a thumbs-up, everything is fine here, when I try to take a photo of the drone, it quickly disappears. We are being watched.

Do the helicopter and the drone have any connection?