Saturday, Jul 01, 2023 at 21:31
Whilst the satellite view on Google Maps is shown as 2023, the street view is a little dated, it's from July 2008. I have travelled those roads out there a little since 2008. The road from
Blackall to
Ilfracombe via
Isisford is indeed sealed all the way. A lot of it is single lane to
Isisford but I don't remember much single lane from
Isisford to
Ilfracombe.
However, if you wish to explore to the south of
Isisford, a lot of the roads there have been sealed. A good detour along your way is to follow the closed railway line to
Yaraka. The line was closed in 2005 and subsequently a lot of it has been lifted. There is still a viable community out there. Most of the surviving cottages are occupied, there is a store and a pub still operating. The community centre hosts an RFDS clinic every fortnight. Behind the community centre there is
the Yaraka campground. The road from
Blackall is all sealed. To get to
Isisford from there you backtrack to
Emmet and head north. When I did the trip the road to the north was mainly excellent gravel. It is suitable for
sedan cars and soft road caravans, I travelled at 70 - 80n Km/h for most of the way.
The publican takes guided tours up Mt Slocombe for the sunset when numbers are sufficient. That is an excellent trip and Chris has an excellent knowledge of the area. They can also provide you with a mud map to get to
Michael Mcgee's shanty and the surveyed site of Welford railway station township. If you ring the pub, they can tell you when the RFDS clinic day is and you can observe what goes on. It is worth a few nights there.
FollowupID:
923936