Day 54 Tuesday 31st of August 2010 & postscript

A slightly subdued morning as we realise tonight is our last at Lawn Hill. I took a quick spin up to the internet café to check if our site was free and take a couple more days but alas it was booked.

I paddled Titanic II to Indarri Falls while Susan walked. We then carried it above the falls and paddled through the next gorge and up to a shallow run where we decided not to attempt to climb the very minor rapids and paddled back to the falls. No crocodiles sighted. However at one stage a small snake about 60cm long swam under the boat and out the other side with its head under water and popping up now and then for air. Susan again alighted and I paddled slowly back and of course sighted a small croc on a branch which appeared in no hurry to swim away. My camera was with Susan on the walking track.

The weather here has been a bit tropical today with heavy broken cloud early with a few drops of rain giving way to bouts of sun between the clouds and quite breezy. After lunch we took the opportunity to do a bit of housekeeping. I cleaned both cameras and the laptop and took the opportunity to read both camera manuals! Susan had a nap, well tried to, the ants kept biting her.

For the ichthyologists among you species I have sighted at Lawn Hill are as follows,
Archer fish, Black striped grunter, Bony bream, Sooty grunter, Barcoo grunter (very pretty), Long Tom (sort of like a sabre toothed garfish, but with 2 bills).

Tomorrow, packing and on to Gregory Downs most probably.

This is a very nice spot and we will be sad to leave.

Cheers Simon



……POSTSCRIPT


Captain Simon


Lawn Hill Upper Gorge


We have now added a couple more names to our list of travellers met and stories shared with…. Bob and Jenny from Kingaroy who we met on the Dwidarri walk and have since shared a couple of chats with, came past this morning for a final farewell before they set out for Gregory Downs and ultimately home, a cup of coffee is on offer if we get to visit Kingaroy. The couple were quite knowledgeable about birds and finally managed to get a couple of shots of a purple capped wren which Simon got some shots of yesterday, I offered to share one of our shots and will send via email. We also farewelled Alice and George from Perth who we shared drinks with last night, George kindly giving Simon a can for tonight, note to self, VB for reciprocal drinks when we hit the west.

Today’s paddle up the river showed the rock colours at their best, a superb trip, the paddling was a little ordinary, I am ok as long as I get directions, interestingly I am interpreting left and right correctly when shouted from my enthusiastic coxswain…. I was going to paddle the Titanic II back to camp but just could not get coordinated to do it, my rowing style backwards is reasonable, but I wanted to row looking in the direction of travel, after exasperated mutterings from Simon on the bank and some giggles from other onlookers I was actually relieved to walk back to camp.

Another book finished, I like this idea of book swaps in the laundries of caravan parks. Here in Queensland they seem to involve a gold coin donation to the RFDS as well though.

Susan

Day 53 Monday 30th August 2010

Purple Capped Wren


Grey Capped babbler with nest


Another freshie (water crocodile)

Once again we arose just after dawn, breakfasted and proceeded to see if yesterday’s crocodile had returned, no luck. We then did the wild dog dreaming walk with ancient rock art and middens and an old camp of more recent vintage. Returning via the bottom end of the billabong hawkeye Susan spotted another crocodile which I managed to photograph. As I ventured to get a clear shot it sprang into the water with a huge splash. After this the walk got a bit more serious as we ascended the steps to Island Stack which is the plateau bounded by the 2 outlets from the billabong. Great views and a 1.6km round walk under the intensifying sun. We then descended and went to the cascades a lovely spot of flowing water which was saying “take off those hot clothes and plunge in” to me. Thankfully for the 2 other couples present I was able to resist this call for now. Once again in the heat of the afternoon we pottered in the shade doing the usual tasks, video, photos, blogging, lunch, shaving legs, cooking prawn crackers, boot repairs, survey filling out etc.
Later in the afternoon we ventured in bathers back to the cascades. Glorious 40 minutes in the water. The water is around 25 so I am told.
Back at camp the young girl in the next camper was showing me 2 great croc pics she took today from an inflatable canoe above Indarri falls so will have to paddle there tomorrow to see if we can match them!
This place is paradise. Ok must get back to camp for drinks and nibbles

Cheers Simon

Island Stack Lookout

Day 52 Sunday 29th of August 2010 & postscript

Grey Crowned babbler red breasted form


Grey Crowned babbler red breasted form


Double Barred Finch


Bloodwood Gum for obvious reasons


Freshwater Crocodile

The perfect weather continues. Whilst we were up early we lingered and had breakfast before walking to say good bye to our neighbours John and Wendy. Hopefully we will catch up with them on the Sunshine Coast on our return journey.
Today we headed east from the campground and walked the trail to the top of the Constance Range. This afforded a good view back into the gorge of the rock walls and the path of the creek down to Adels Grove. Also visible in the very distance was the Century Zinc mine. An ultra light aircraft presumably the same one that flew over the camp this morning was seen to land on the road adjacent the Riversleigh turn off. We meandered back down the trail pausing to take some more bird pictures. However the highlight was spotting a freshwater alligator sunning itself on a bough. I managed to get one picture but of course when I tried to get closer it disappeared with a splash! In the midday heat we generally sit in the shade and avoid the sun spending our time relaxing, resizing and sorting pictures, charging batteries, having lunch and trying to type the blog.
After the sun abated somewhat Susan took command of the Titanic II and paddled around the billabong, anchored and relaxed in the shade with the light breeze wafting. Very relaxing. I took my turn later and the view reminded me of the relaxation thought where you think of a smooth pool of water. Before dark we drove to the internet café alias the side of the road and caught up with our blogging. After this thirsty work we had to go to the bar at Adels Grove and avail ourselves of a bottle of beer and dry cider for $13.70. There are no cheap drunks here. Per usual we sat randomly with people we had never met before. Alice and George are from Perth and are coming to Lawn Hill tomorrow. George has intimated he will supply beer! Since I only have one left for the next 3 days. We returned to camp and Susan prepared another gourmet feast of fried rice flavoured with bacon and vegetables.


Constance range Lookout



Ignore the narrator this is not a Taa Taa Lizard



This is the real Taa Taa Lizard unfortunately he waves straight after he moves and stops before i can video!

......POSTSCRIPT

I am enjoying this hot weather it is much kinder on my arthritic fingers which have been extremely painful at times.

Our walking pace is somewhat slower than other people and of course Simons GPS keeps track of our overall average speed and our moving average. The slow pace is due in some part to my caution and painful knees (2 falls at work a couple of years ago have really impacted my poor old knees) anyhow there is a benefit to the slow pace... one sees more.... like the bower bird lairs in the bush. These are really interesting birds. The male collects green and white objects to lure a female the objects in the two nests we have found consist of glass, plastic, seeds, and bones!


Bower Bird 1


Bower Bird 2 - bones!


The strenuous walks of the past 3 days are also producing fitness benefits, aided by my excellent hiking stick. It is an “Original Tobacco Stick” brand purchased by my dad for me several years ago which has assisted many a climb and steadied many a descent. Thanks Dad

Day 51 Saturday 28th August 2010 & postscript

Pondering at the Upper Gorge


Upper Gorge Lookout



Stick Insect


Kapok Tree


Kapok Tree


Buff sided Robin


Great Bowerbird


Hi All,
The intrepid campers were up and about before sunrise. No this was not because the tent caught fire or was invaded by bull ants. We desired to walk in the cool of the early morning. We walked the 3km to the upper gorge lookout, enjoyed the view and scrambled down to the stream bank before returning along the creek via Indarri falls. While on the walk we met Ingrid and Dieter from Germany who spoke very highly of their Cape Yorke tour with the same company we are going with. We also saw many of the yellow flowering trees pictured above. Not quite sure yet what they are.
We returned to camp by 11am whereupon I had breakfast! The rest of the day was spent pottering. I had my first shower (cold of course) in several days. I was a bit pongy and Susan did some washing getting rid of more of the red dirt! I also hooked up the water heater seeing as we have carted it all the way up here. It works fine.
Another day of full sun saw us fully charge the battery including recharging both laptops. It’s funny how the things that make a good day change when you are out on the road. I also wiped most of the dirt off the bikes although this will probably be futile since we have 200-300km more dirt before we are back on the bitumen.
I leant a helping hand with our neighbour who is changing a blown fusible link in his Prado. An example of how not to design for ease of replacement. Just out of interest I checked the ones on the Pajero which are much easier to replace. Fusible links are generally heavy duty slow blow type fuses designed to stop electrical faults causing fires. Will be interesting to see what happens when he has replaced his 100 amp one as the cause of it blowing is not known. My assistance consisted of lending tools and staying well out of the way. There is nothing worse than doing a job with someone leaning over your shoulder.

Ahh Lawn Hill beautiful one day perfect the next. That could be a tourist jingle.



......POSTSCRIPT

While Simon was up the road uploading the blog I joined neighbours John and Wendy (from Sunshine Coast) for wine and nibbles, having cooked up some garlic crackers (similar to prawn crackers) and assembled a plate of dolmades, cheese, pickles, carrot sticks and biscuits....

Our 5 o’clock drink finally ended at 1045 after several top ups of food and wine. Several parallels between John & Wendys story and ours, shared with laughs and a plan to visit them on the Sunshine Coast.

You meet some really nice people on the road, I’m sure there are such people are at home too, it’s just that you wouldn’t generally walk up to someone in the street and strike up a conversation like you can On The Road.

Susan

Day 50 Friday 27th August 2010 & postscript

Hi folks.

A breezy sunny morning at Lawn Hill with lots of sun, great for battery recharging. An early morning loop walk up to the lookout where we discover yes it is possible to get phone reception just. If you had to run up there to make a phone call you would be bloody fit. After returning we attended to some chores around camp. I managed to drop my laptop in the dirt. It is still working apart from the shift key which makes it a bit hard to insert exclamation marks. I am not sure if it is a mechanical or a programming function so will investigate later. We then inflated the Titanic II and rowed up to the falls. The inflatable is nowhere near as aqua dynamic as a canoe so most people were passing us. Still we did save 20 dollars an hour on canoe hire. A quick trip to Adels Grove to investigate the possibility of work proved a red herring but we have contacts for next season. I have included a video below from the last couple of days.
Cheers Simon



......POSTSCRIPT

The trip to Adeles Grove to enquire about jobs for a couple of weeks was unsuccessful due to the tourist season almost ending, we were asked to contact the managers and were given a business card with a view to work next year. I suggested it was time to look at the WWOOF Book and see if we could do something for a couple of weeks prior to the Cape tour, can’t seem to get Simon interested, although he has promised we will do some WOOFING after Cape York, couldn’t see if his fingers were crossed though.


Simon the explorer resting at the lookout

Day 49 Bonus pictures

Indarri Falls



Yellow flecked honey eater



Great View

Day 49 Thursday 26th of August 2010 & postscript

Hello again from Lawn Hill. Pictures top to bottom, "tata" Lizard", Lawn Hill Gorge, Black Kite, Black Kite, Peaceful Dove. A cool cloudy evening around 20C with a fresh southerly breeze. It is nearly 10pm, Susan is tucked up asleep and I have been leafing backwards and forwards through a recently purchased Slaters bird field guide fruitlessly trying to identify some of the species included in today’s blog pictures and trying to get the blog typed before the laptop battery expires. I find it much easier to identify birds from photographs than the illustrations in most field guides. Unfortunately I left my best book (Readers Digest) with photographs at home so have to blunder on the best I can.
We walked this morning to Duwadarri lookout and then on to Indarri waterfall, pictures of both are included. Along the way we encountered other walkers and observed several canoes. The views were magnificent and we are looking forward to getting Titanic II out and paddling the course ourselves. I think it might be a bit more strenuous than a canoe paddle. We returned for lunch and spent the afternoon catching up on various tasks. The sole of one of my expensive Italian Aku hiking boots decided to separate this morning so I spent time gluing it back on with contact cement not with expectation of success. They would only be 7 or 8 years old with not much wear. If this repair fails next stop will be shoe repairs in Cairns to see if they can be resoled I have emptied ants out of one of our food boxes twice today and Susan had to shake them out of the bed sheet. We trundled up the road to Adels Grove the nearby commercial campsite to see if we could get some surface spray. No luck, so we walked around the campground and bumped into the people we met initially down the mine and then at our campsite in Broken Hill, small bloody world this. After a catch up chat we returned to camp pausing to collect our electronic mail along the road and send some too. Tomorrow more walking and paddling depending on the wind. Hopefully lots of sun as a cloudy afternoon has left the battery less than fully charged.
This is a lovely spot.

......POSTSCRIPT

On arriving back to the camper after our walk we found evidence of theft, can’t be annoyed at the resourcefulness of some creatures though.



The birds did it

Day 48 Wednesday 25th August 2010 & postscript

Hello All from Boodjamulla (alias Lawn Hill) Gorge camping ground. We were awake early this morning and must have set some sort of record leaving Miyumba camp this morning at 805am mainly because we slept in the swag and had all the gear packed last night.


We were the only the people in the campground and were up at dawn to beat the heat. Must say they had the best composting toilets I have ever experienced absolutely odourless!

A short distance up the road we stopped at the Riversleigh World heritage fossil site which is actually 100km2. We took the short walking tour and pictures are posted above.

We continued on along a fairly rough road with one more shallow river crossing until we reached Adels Grove a commercial campsite with shop and fuel outside the park. We fuelled up at $1.73 per litre plus 3% surcharge for EFTPOS.

I noticed that Susan’s bike now in the front position had jumped out of it’s slot on the carrier with no damage and was replaced. Unfortunately it appears I left my trusty Sidchrome shifting spanner on the trailer as it has now disappeared, sighs. I drove the 8km back later but it was not in evidence.

It was warm in the park which is a basic national park camping site. It does have cold showers and rainwater (but no power) so it’s not totally primitive. The park is on a waterhole and gorge and is a delightful spot. I am glad we have 7 nights here. The canoe hire is $20 per hour so I am also glad we have the inflatable since one of the sights to see is 3 hours return by paddle. As mentioned earlier it is hot and a bit of a change after the iceberg at Peterborough.

The birdlife here is abundant and I have been delayed in my typing to stop and take pictures and sip on an ice cold beer from the fridge. We did a short walk to the cascades an area where the water leaves the waterhole. Very pretty.

Apparently last week there was a 2 meter freshwater crocodile in residence but not seen since before the weekend. The waterhole has abundant fish life since fishing is prohibited. The landing adjacent to our camp has a native fig tree overhanging the water. When a fig drops the turtles rise up and proceed to eat it.

3G reception to publish these posts is about a 6km drive up the road. More news tomorrow eager readers.

Cheers Simon

......POSTSCRIPT

As you would all be aware Simon likes to share my foibles with all, well revenge is sweet.....

I don’t think my shortcomings can top this one earlier this evening....

We were buzzing about getting things together to head up the road so Simon could post the blog, its dark by now and I was not wearing my head torch and neither was Simon. Simon is also known for being a trifle forgetful so it is usual that he asks me where he has put things – means I have to be forever watchful ....... anyhow

SIMON “have you seen my keys”
SIMON “I just had them a minute ago”
then frantic searching of pockets, the table, the car, back into the camper etc
SIMON “they were just here”
ME “I haven’t seen them”
round two Simon rechecks all previous locations then
SIMON (voice raised) “Bloody idiot, they were in my mouth”

Simon also has a habit of holding things between his teeth generally his glasses, which he also invariable looses several times a day!

Day 47 Tuesday 24th August 2010 & postscript

Moonrise out the back of the caravan park Mount Isa

Hi Folks don’t know quite when you will get to read this. We are sitting at the Miyumba camp site adjacent Riversleigh/Lawn Hill Park and the Gregory River crossing. It was a hot morning in Mount Isa which didn’t help the packing up. By the time we had gone into town for a coffee and left the city it was 1230. We trundled up the Barkly Highway towards Camooweal with our new addition a big box with Susan’s old new bike in it strapped to the tool box on the front of the trailer.. We turned off the Barkly Highway towards Lawn Hill and around 185km into the days journey were on the gravel road. The road was moderately rough and we travelled fairly slowly encountering a few other vehicles on the way. After a 100 km of dirt and fording the Thornton River which was quite low on the car wheels we crossed the Gregory River which was flowing more vigorously and we had arrived at out Bush Camp. We selected our spot seeing as we are the only people here we had a choice of all of them. We wandered back down to the cooler air of the stream and drank in the ambience. Had a great chuckle when a Coaster bus from Adels Grove showed up with a party of sightseers. We had a chat with a few of them and presently headed back to our campsite. One chap was an oyster farmer at Nelson Bay so Susan memorised his name so that we can call on him when we are visiting her sister. The road was quite dusty and although the car was reasonably clean the trailer and bikes were covered. We set up the swag and Susan knocked up bacon, eggs and tomatoes which we washed down with beer and wine. It was a warm day and even now at 8pm the air is quite balmy with no breeze and a near full moon. It’s a bit odd being 50 km from the nearest campers since in many camp grounds we have been less than 5 metres! We shall mostly pack up tonight so we can beat the heat of the day tomorrow. The days travel will amount to about 56km of gravel road which is just about enough for old people.

Cheers Simon


......POSTSCRIPT

Ahh bush camping again, Miyumba must be one of the smallest official campsites, it has only 5 sites, one a drive through, which we had booked, but settled for another which was most shady.

We have seen many of these trees along the roadside, no idea what they are but the red flowers are quite striking against the endless green.

After tea we sat in our chairs listening to the babble of the Gregory river, and the increasing volume of the night critters, then all of a sudden the sound of a car, through the watery crossing, gathering speed, then slowing, I was hoping they would drive on by, then relief they did.... I did not want to share the park with others.

After settling into the swag, I was hoping for a night of starlight, but an almost full moon washed away the stars, I fell asleep thinking “turn down that moonlight, I want starlight”

Day 46 Monday 23rd of August & postscript

Another scorcher well pretty hot (34.8) at least in the Isa today. A pleasant 26 as I type this at 2100. We didn't do much today as it was hot early so we took stock of what we will need in Lawn Hill and went shopping in Woolies. We were given a 10% discount voucher in store so that was a bonus. Returning to camp we pottered. I wrote some postcards and tripped to the post office to buy stamps to make up denominations of Susans stamp collection to the required 60 cents. She has 33 cent and 35 cent (how long ago was that the standard letter rate?) 40 cent and 45 cent Xmas stamps. Plus 50 and 55 cents. Anyway i got a good laugh telling the story at the post office. They don't have 15 cent stamps so some will have a 45 ,10 and 5 on them. After posting we started packing for the morning. Kitchen put away, Food packed into boxes, awning and kitchen walls packed. We are getting much more organised these days mind you the only way we could go was up. I swear i heard the "Dance of the Cuckoos" playing in the early days.
We had tea at "The Buffs" a club. Was all you could eat italian night was ok an honest meal and only $17.50 a head plus i got a free beer.
Bye for now Simon

PS We will be on the edge of Hellstra reception for the next week so you may have some merciful relief from the blog!

......POSTSCRIPT

While Simon was in town I had a chance to try out my new bike, and did several laps of the caravan park and ventured on to the road but realised my helmet was in the roof bag and decided to keep to the park.

Apart from the strange location for the drink holder I am delighted with the replacement, sincere thanks to George.

Day 45 Sunday 22nd August 2010 & postscript

hello readers,
Today was another warm one in the Isa around the 34 mark with no change predicted in the near future. Beautiful sleeping weather at night 12 - 15 degrees. This morning we toodled out to Lake Moondarra with the Titanic II loaded in the Pajero. Initially it was quite windy on the lake and being a fair weather sailor it looked like we might not get out. However we drove to various vantage points on the lake and looked around and the wind died so the decision was made to launch! The videos are posted below. The weed in the shallows was a bit of a menace but the motor started about third pull after i remembered to turn the fuel on! Susan had a short ride but is still a bit nervous on the water. I was cursing i didn't take a rod as i could have had a troll for the elusive barra since the lake is stocked. On our return we had lunch and beer and drove to the town lookout and after a fashion located the Irish Club with Irish food and Irish pokies :-). Susan has been chatting to the neighbours and got lots of helpful hints and information about finding work. We will investigate further after our Cape York trip. Tomorrow will be spent pre-packing and buying supplies for Lawn Hill Park since it will be 7 days away from civilisation although we may have internet coverage. No fishing is permitted in Lawn Hill creek and neither are outboards. So we will be rowing and walking. Just had another magnificent tea prepared by gordon blue. Tuna patties heated up from last night plus a salad containing roast pine nuts all washed down with semillon sauvignon blanc from the Yalumba cask. I must now go and complete my task, the dishes :-)
cheers Simon

P.S. these videos are shot in bluray resolution 1920x1080 and recoded to enable them to be published using Sony Vegas Pro and my trusty Dell E4300 laptop

......POSTSCRIPT

Simon was finishing the blog at tea time, and I noticed he was uploading 3 videos shot by me earlier in the day.... ME "you don't need to put all 3 up" HIM "yes I do because I'm the star" what could I say to that?

Interesting day for me from the perspective of thought processes and observations:

* 100 years ago camping in the creek bed and being as self sufficient as possible = poor and down and out..... today = rich (Winnebago or similar, satellite, solar, towalong car etc)

* The pace of life is different on the road, not slower just less complicated, everything observed and commented on, but also lots of reflective silence, people talk more, strangers walk up and spontaneously start chatting, its wonderful....

* One of our neighbours has not been in evidence at all since we arrived but materialised this morning - Ryan 22 years in the army now 4 on 4 off in the mine, had just driven back from Townsville and time with his wife and 4 year old son, we had a great chat sharing tales and a coffee for an hour or so....

* Gavin and Sue 3 "homes" down have been on the road two and a half years originally from Brisbane spent 2 years following Harvest Trail working in South Australia, gave use the Harvest Trail Book 2009 edition (I will get govt to post 2010 to Normanton for us) shared valuable tips for getting work, they manage to holiday 6 months and work 6 months.

* Simon posted a few days ago about my navigational skills it was rather unfair I actually navigate well its just that I don't know my left from right (I am sure there is some sort of dyslexia in the family, too long a tale for here though). Having finally sent an email to friends and family I awoke with a view of the computer screen in my minds eye...... yes that LEFT I directed people to is actually RIGHT, and Mary full marks for the BIG text in the email earlier, I enjoyed the laugh.

Susan

Day 44 Saturday 21st August 2010

Hi folks,
Quiet day today. We toodled into town and returned an ill fitting velometer sensor, purchased postcards and I stumbled across the local BCF they actually have one! The rest of the day was spent commissioning Susans new bike. The old one is packaged up in an old box scavenged from Sportpower. The bike is up and running and Susan has done a few circuits of the park. She says it feels better than the old one.

I went into town to buy milk and booze and had one of those North Queensland moments....
I placed my 6 pack of VB and 2 litre Yalumba cask on the counter
She:"Do you have a card?"
Me:Thinking hmm must be some sort of club card for the pub "err no... a card?"
She :"yes a card"
Me:" well I will pay by card"
She:enunciating clearly past her tongue stud " A CAR"
Me:"Err yes it's out in the street" thinking gee do I look so frail that they will carry the grog out for me
She" I have to ask you else I will get into trouble"
Me: with the light starting to dawn.... "Strange things happen when you cross the border."

I presume this is some brilliant local measure to stop people walking the street carrying flagons fresh ...from the bottle shop ... gosh what a brilliant measure it's thinking like this that made this country what it is today.. I am laughing thinking of some great fun you could have with this rule.. 20 indigenous people lined up buying a cask each with a car 2 blocks from the bottlo.. what's the girl to do? a lot of running ..grins

Another lovely warm to hot day here today..anyway it's tea time catch you tomorrow,
cheers Simon

Day 43 Friday 20th August 2010

I can’t believe it this is the third caravan park under the towns' flight path, first Marree, then Longreach and now Mount Isa, no need for alarm clock when you can have a plane roaring overhead.

Seems our decision to have a longish stay in Mount Isa was not the best decision, there is not much to see here. The tourist info centre visited yesterday was much less informative than those in the smaller towns already visited in Queensland.

We have had an offer for replacement of my bike as the sourcing of parts and shipping them is just too problematic, I am very thankful that there are honourable business people like George. After a bit more comparison and searching on the net I decided to purchase a bike here in Mt Isa, truth be told I am dying to have a ride, in several previous towns I have suggested to Simon we go for a ride... brain not fully in gear!

A few chores attended at camp then into town. Simon has talked about an old school mate who moved to Qld years ago so he took the opportunity to visit the electoral office. We were greeted with “which town?” Apparently there is quite a rush of travellers wanting to cast their vote, which we already attended in Winton. The AEC computer in the foyer found Simons’ mate David with one search, hopefully Simon will make contact.

The new bike is a Giant brand in a nice pastel blue, tomorrow we ride! . The rest of the afternoon was spent removing bits off the “old” bike which can be salvaged for the new one. I filed the rough bits off the carrier rack and Simon has applied some plasti-bond and will smooth and paint it tomorrow.

Had nibbles and a very small glass of red wine, Simon has very aptly posted on facebook beer 0 red wine 0 white wine 0 port 0, actually we have had an alcohol free day this week! How easily we have slipped into the 5 o’clock wine and nibbles, and to think only a few months ago I wasn’t even contemplating home time at 5 o’clock!

Cheers Susan

Ohhh and I have finally uploaded my commentary from word as postscripts for the days that I had something to say...I know that is most of the time

Day 42 Thursday 19th August 2010

Camp at Isa. This is a flattering view!

Hello from Mount Isa,
It's 740pm and a balmy 28 degrees. Tea has just been eaten, smoke from the citronella candle and incense stick curls upwards and the dishes await me. This mornings mission was to investigate cycle shops. The first shop no longer existed which left the local Sportspower shop which had a smallish range of bikes and parts plus a bike mechanic. The bottom line was that it would take a few days to get the parts so I emailed George the bike rack man the list of parts we would need. George responded with an offer to cover purchase of a new bike as the purchase, shipping and rebuilding is a bit of a logistic nightmare. We will respond to the offer and check out what is available in Isa tomorrow.
As previously mentioned it was warm today and the heat affected the navigators sense of direction several times. viz
"Turn left" "Dont you mean right" "yes right" and repeated again.
"Drive in that driveway there" "That's actually the pedestrian ramp to the road" "oops sorry"
Finally "watch out for that car on the right" "err.." "sorry left"
However the extra set of road angel eyes are always welcome especially in strange towns. There are plenty of them in Queensland. They have great parking signs here i.e none existant. I saw the parking inspector taking regos when we parked and i asked in the shop as there were no signs. The salesperson advised yes there are no signs except on the outskirts of town and right at the start of the street and the limit is 2 hours. Her view was "it's bloody bullshit"
From the bank where thankfully my Visacard worked after being tempremental out in the sticks where the EFTPOS machines are full of dust we went to Woolworths for food and fuel and back to camp for lunch.
After lunch we toodled to the tourist information centre and had a coffee. From there back to shopping central where i purchase a bird ID book and Susan 2 audio books, 40 hours of listening.
Tomorrow we go and look at bikes! Also we will take the boat and motor 15km up the road to give it a try at Lake Moondarra make sure the motor still runs after having the 5000km of vibration in the horizontal position before we head to the sticks again.
Also noted this is day 42 so tomorrow is the start of our 7th week. Where has that time gone?!
cheers Simon

Day 41 Wednesday 18th August 2010

Hi Folks a short post today. We packed and left Winton this morning about 1030 and drove the 350km to Cloncurry. It was pretty early when we arrived, about 2pm so after a quick consultation we decided to head through and 130km on to Mount Isa. The road between the 2 towns was quite undulating with enough road trains and tail gating courier drivers to have the road angel chirping merrily. After some map reading/gps confusion we arrived at the Moondarra Caravan park which sounded the best out of the book. It has a slightly out of town location next to a nature reserve and stream with grassed areas. All true but they didn't mention the 767's roaring down the runway on the other side of the main road! The vans are packed in here but after several laps of the park we managed to find a reasonable spot. There are a lot of small units here built into what look like shipping containers. These appear to accomodate workers in the mines/smelters etc. We ventured to the "restaurant" for tea which was actually more like a works canteen complete with overalled men who looked as if they had just come from the mines. For $20 there was a three course feed. The food was surprisingly good. We have done the full camp set up as we are booked for 6 nights. No 1 priority is to get Susans bike up and running. The bike rack man has indicated he will freight parts from Melbourne if required so that's good it's just a matter of if they are available. I took some more pictures this morning to id parts and actually had a ride to assess if there was any undetected damage. It appeared ok so fingers crossed. We will also be attending to items such as post cards and washing and other chores. Just because we are on holiday doesn't mean the mundane things of life vanish that's for sure. Anyway it's a nice balmy night with a few mossies around and we are getting closer to tropics! Mount Isa forecast tomorrow 36C with chance of a late storm and cooler Friday.
Huddle round your heaters southerners :-)

cheers Simon

Day 40 Tuesday 17th August 2010

Mesa at Lark Quarry


Display building at Lark Quarry


Walking track at the Quarry

Hello from Winton where it is warmer than yesterday! Officially 30.6 today after 25.3 yesterday. Early blog today since we want to catch the entertainment on site later. We took a 110km spin down to the Lark Quarry Conservation Park to look at the fossilised dinosaur footprints. The site was excavated 30 years ago and the present building constructed in the last decade to protect the exhibit. The display is interesting because of it's uniqueness and the exact course of events required for them to be preserved 100 million years ago. It displays a dinosaur stampede where smaller dinosaurs were attacked by a local tyrannosausrus rex like creature and their footsteps were preserved as fossils in the mud adjacent the lake. It is the only find of it's type in the world and was the inspiration for the stampede scene Jurassic Park (so the story goes). On return to Winton we had a late lunch and visited the musical fence the video of which is shown below.
While having lunch i noticed on a map we had passed the Tropic of Capricorn at 23.5 degrees south of the equator. It passes through Barcaldine which we passed through 4 or 5 days ago. I mention it because it reminded me of a discussion we had in the car several days ago about what latitude we were at compared to some point previously. For some reason i foolishly made the statement that which ever way you look at the south pole you are always facing north. I spent some time then explaining why there is no west or east at the poles. A good example of the different thought processes of men and women.
Tomorrow Cloncurry!
cheers Simon

Musical fence

Day 39 Monday 16th August 2010 & postscript

Winton Caravan Park a bit cosy!


North side of tent


Gordon Blue at work


Hi Folks,
We packed very efficiently at Longreach this morning aided by the third day in a row with no dew! and ventured northwards without incident the 175km to Winton. After a generous serve of chicken and steak burgers and expresso at the Winton Coolabah Cafe we chose a park fairly randomly and to say the sites are cosy would be an understatement. After some precision reversing camp was erected. I hauled the battery out of the box to accompany the solar panel since the rear of the trailer faced the sun to the north. The weather was warm, 28 degrees maximum as recorded by the trusty fridge thermometer. We toodled to town, perused the opal shops and voted so that is one thing we don't have to worry about. The park prooved to be a great choice. Entertainment commenced at 430 with an hour of live music from Graham Rodger. We prepared tea between acts and returned after 7 to catch the bush comedienne/poet duo of Melanie Hall and Susan Carcary for one and a half hours of hilarity. Susan bought 2 more CD's to go with the ones from yesterday.
Tomorrow we are off to see the dinosaur trackways at Lark Quarry and the Age of Dinosaurs Fossil preparation facility although some might suggest these caravan parks do the same thing ;-) It's great to finally have some warm weather.
Cheers Simon

......POSTSCRIPT

The grass picked yesterday was faded and nothing like the pink colours of yesterday, so the few stalks were disposed into the bin, recalled there is a campaign to “rid Longreach of “XXXX”” some weed...... me hopes it isn’t this grass....

Melanie Hall and Susan Carcary were fabulous, have made a time to catch up with them tomorrow to get a copy of the "Piddle Riddle" poem. I am sure the ex RDNS girls will appreciate this one, particularly thought of Maggie and her previous job, unfortunately the poem is not on CD yet. Melanie Hall

Susan

On the Road Video Extra 15/08/10

QANTAS Founders Museum


Boeing 747 Cockpit


Stockmans Hall of fame


Milton Taylor Bush Poet

Day 38 Sunday 15th August 2010 & postscript

DC3 at QANTAS Founders Museum

Insdie the Stockmans Museum

Wood carving in the Stockmans museum
Greetings,
Another warm sunny day at Longreach and not quite as breezy as yesterday. The day opened with a pancake breakfast at the caravan park and a bush poet Milton Taylor. Milton was great and even an old reprobate like myself enjoyed it. Most of his poems were humorous however one about his father and Alzheimers was very poignant. Susan purchased 3 of his cd's so we will have something more to listen to on the road.
After the poetry Susan attended to some more trip accountancy so we now have a fair idea of when we will be destitute.
We returned to the QANTAS Founders museum and finished off a few things we didn't do yesterday including lunch which finishes at 230. We missed out yesterday since it was the same time as our tours finished.
After lunch we toodled over the road to the Stockmans Hall of Fame. This was also full of reading material and some neat video presentations. The building was quite spectacular but i felt its title didn't really reflect the content and i see it now has "and Outback Heritage Centre" added to the title. The gallery's were titled Discovery, Pioneers, Outback Properties, Life in the Outback, and Stock Workers. The museum was good but we both thought the QANTAS Founders was the better of the two.
We returned to camp and had the $13.50 spit roast which was tasty and of good proportions. Fortunately we were outside the building behind windows so the live entertainment was muffled.
I was going to upload some videos tonight but the Telstra 3G network has been running at dial up speed most of the day yesterday and today apart from 30 minutes this morning so that will have to wait.
Tomorrow we move on to Winton 175km up the road.
cheers Simon

......POSTSCRIPT

Now that the weather has warmed up I opted for mid-length pants today which meant time to shave the legs.... nice warm water lots of soap, I was thinking this was a great razor so smooth, wait a minute does it have a cap, no surely not must be superior quality of these 3 blade razors. Leg 1 finished, but still bristly, damn razor did have a cap! Simon was right about the glasses, not sure if it is normal to wear them in the shower though!

Later back at the Qantas Founders museum I had a look at the Animals in War display which was arranged under letters of the alphabet, presumably to interest the kids. A number of exhibits were of particular interest – gas masks made for dogs and horses in WW2, a belt made for his daughter from butterfly wings from Papua New Guinea, and embroidered cards for loved ones – see pics. Apparently there was quite a problem with the returned servicemen smuggling their animal mascots in to Australia including monkeys, dogs, mules and horses, dire warnings were posted by the quarantine authority but our boys found ways to circumvent the law.... wonder what the consequences of these foreigners has been?


Gas mask for dog


Butterfly wing belt


Embroidered card - this one shows colours of allied nations




We took a short drive out of town and I was able to get a picture of the pinky gold grasses on the roadside, took a sample to enable a close up shot – will do in the morning.

Susan

Day 37 Saturday 14th August 2010

Captain Susan


Another historic relic


The original plane!

Hello all or few,
A nice warm day in Longreach today with no dew this morning. After a spin around the main streets we proceeded to the QANTAS Founders museum a non profit organisation which is a separate entity to QANTAS. We took the Museum, Boeing 747 Secrets and Boeing 707 Restoration Tours. Total cost was circa $100 for 2. The Museum looked to be sparsely populated with exhibits, however this was deceptive as there was a wealth of information to be examined and many extensive video presentations to be viewed. The 2 plane tours went for a combined total of one and a half hours. The 747 was donated by QANTAS and actually flown in to the Longreach airport. At the end of its service life it had made 18000 flights, carried 6 million passengers and travelled 83 million km or about 100 round trips to the moon. The 707 was the first one that rolled out of the Boeing factory in 1957 and was manufactured for QANTAS. It was discovered in Essex UK in the late 90’s and was restored by volunteers and flown back to Australia also ending up in Longreach. We ran out of time so instead of heading off tomorrow we will stay an extra night and return to the museum with pass outs garnered today and also visit the Stockmans Hall of Fame.
Cheers