We left Mt Isa and not sorry to do so. I had looked forward to seeing Mt Isa, I guess because of the similar name to our home base.... Mt Eliza....
Isa as it is to the locals is definitely just a mining town. All the caravan parks are chock full of permanent residents, most of which work in the mining industry. Some we met were pleasant, however others left a poor impression.
There is no real tourism to speak of other than the mine tour. I'm not knocking that, but there ain't much else. We did find some scenery that we thought was spectacular. That was the 360 degree views from the weather station high up on a hill 4 km from Isa. It is not even mentioned in the Tourist information centre. We only found it because I was looking for an interesting ride on the Ural......see track up hill....must follow.
It was only a short days travel and we arrived at Camooweal about noon. There are two caravan parks, and we chose the one behind the pub.
The park was fully cyclone fenced for reasons that became obvious when Sue discovered that what she thought was a car wrecking yard in the distance, was actually an indigenous residence.
This was not a large park and by three o'clock it was just about filled with grey nomads. This prompted me to do a little count. 33 here and a similar number up the road at the other site. There were also about 40 nomad couples free camping half a kilometre away, down by the river. This is a daily influx of around 200 people ( nearly all grey nomads travel in pairs) and a cool $1000.00 per night for just the park we were in. A nice little earner for the pub....not to mention what was spent inside.
A sign on the ablutions block was offering a free powered site and meals at the pub for a short or long term cleaner. There were only 4 toilets and 4 showers, so it would be easy work for someone who was inclined to take it on. It was a really neat little park with plenty of room. I would recommend this one.
We only stayed at Camooweal one night and moved on to Barkley Homestead..........
It was "intriguing" to note that the road kill that was in abundance prior to Camooweal was totally non existent on the western side.
At Barkley I managed some repairs to the support crew accommodation. Utilising some discarded road speed signs, I manufactured and fitted them as guards to stop some of the rock damage we are getting......like shredded brake wiring and smashed shock absorbers etc.
We dined at the homestead pub, and that was quite acceptable, although not nearly the $10.00 pub meals we have enjoyed recently....just multiply by a factor of three and add GST.
Barkley Homestead to Three Ways
We checked the fuel price at Barkley and at 209.9c we decided we should use what we had in containers and try to make Three Ways in the quest for cheaper fuel.
The price at Three Ways was 189.9 so a 20 cent saving made Sue very happy. Wifey and I decided to detour into Tennant Creek because we had never been there and it was only 25 km so another 50 km in total for the day was not much. Our friends had been there before and had no wish to go back so they headed for our next camp spot at Attack Creek and we headed to the "dark side".
Tennant Creek is like Wilcannia on steroids. We toured the whole town and saw 2 whites and 1 Asian. If you were not black you really looked out of place. It was Friday and obviously the first day that the sit-down money is available from the ATM. One of the whites we saw was at the Westpac ATM. He was surrounded by approximately 30 indigenous folk waiting their turn. The town was full of Aboriginals just standing or siting around.
When you see a town like this it really makes you feel sorry for the Abo's because it appears that they have little or nothing to do. Not an existence we would want for ourselves or anyone. No matter what race.
I wanted to go to the AutoPro shop but it's door was not open......it had no windows.....most windows in the town were barred and it did not look a happy town.
We stopped by the BP on our way quickly out of town to check the fuel price....182.9 cents per litre. When wifey went to pay she was offered a .02 cent discount for being an oldie.....ha ha ha. We filled up everything we had and later took great pleasure in telling Sue about the price. This was a whopping 29 cents per litre difference from Barkley just 200km away.
We caught up with Sue and Stephen at Attack Creek where we mad camp and had a late lunch before heading off on a 1.5 hour walk. On our return we noted this free camping spot had almost filled. Later I counted 60 caravans, motor homes and a few tents.
Happy hour started early and was enjoyed by all. It was Friday, and the end of our working week after all.
The next morning we were on the road early for a change and just a few kilometre up the road was a caravan park. Looked like about 60 in there also.
Later in the day I did a calculation of the number of caravans we had seen in the past 500 km and the total was close to 600. We are almost in the middle of Australia and there is more than one caravan for every kilometre of road. The grey nomads must be the biggest industry out here. I had heard on the radio a few months ago that there were 800,000 travellers on the road in Australia at any given time......I now believe it.
We are now camping at Lake Woods, approximately 15 km from Elliot. Plenty of water and an abundance of birds. Sue is in paradise. If I have not previously mentioned it, Sue is a bird watcher, or feather finder, as I like to call her.
Rufus throated Honey EaterJust 13 km of bulldust road to get here from the highway then an abundance of excellent camping spots. We will stay here a couple of days.
Now 35 days on the road. A few clouds rolled in last night making it the first 1 blanket night. They are still about this morning making it quite a balmy morning for a change.
These are the first clouds of any note that we have seen for 30 days.....sorry for those suffering in Melbourne.
Mornings are usually very chill. It was -2.2 degrees at 7:00 am one morning but rises quickly into the 20's by 9:00 each day.
A great stay at the lake with lovely views, good weather and lots of birds. I thought I would try and circumnavigate the lake on our second day there. Headed off down the track on the Ural, zigzagging my way through the trees and trying to follow the banks of the lake as closely as possible. The tracks eventually fizzled out but I continued to follow the bank as much as I could. I had progresses a further kilometre or so when the trees hindered progress considerably. I could not fit the bike through, so ventured onto what looked like dry hard mud closer to the water. Bugger, the front wheel just broke through the hard crust and the rear completed the task. With the rear now down to the axle in sticky grey mud, mild panic set in. I was about 5km from camp and maybe 2 km further into the scrub than a 4x4 could go due to the tight fit through the trees.
I had been just ticking along in second gear at walking pace before the superglue mud grabbed me. I was not game to snatch first gear because to lose any momentum at all was going to be the end of it and I would be stuck for sure. I opened the throttle in second gear to about half and tried to steer back towards the bank without turning too sharply. The front wheel was down about 150mm, the sidecar wheel was just barely breaking the surface and the rear was digging a hole like a mine in Mt Isa, the good old girl just kept clawing away at the mud and gradually we got back to the safety of the bank proper. So glad I didn't have the low exhaust pipes because I am sure I would have sat on them and not got the traction that the rear wheel somehow found from the depths of the mud. Now I had another problem. I had gone almost into the lake because I could not fit between the trees. Now I had now to find my way back through the dense scrub somehow. A few broken trees and a lot of zigzagging, circling and a little swearing and eventually we managed to navigate a course across country back to a track and then to camp. The greeting I received was "did the cops get you"? Yes, I had gone off without helmet because I was only idling around and a bloody police 4x4 apparently toured through the lake camp area. Little did anyone know I was so far off what could be deemed a road that they could never have seen me, or rescued me. Just turned out to be yet another Ural adventure.
Monday 14 th July
Three hundred kilometres further north and we arrived at Mataranka. Booked into the caravan park out of town at Bitter Springs and set up camp. I have just had lunch while writing some of this report and it's about time to go swim in the springs.
30 degrees here today. Just lovely, and we even have phone signal.