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Published: October 4th 2007
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After the excitement of viewing all the big rocks in the 'red centre' we took a couple of days in Alice to rest and re-stock the van ready for the long trip into Queensland and on to the coast.
The first days drive to Tennant Creek was the reverse of the drive we had already done which made it a bit boring. We really wanted to use the Plenty highway but unfortunatlry the van wasn't hardy enough as you needed a 4WD. From Tennant creek we drove across the Barkly Tablelands on the Barkly Highway. The scenery seemed to change with each 100k and soon we where driving through pool table flat dry grazing land, very occasionally we would pass a ramshackle cattle station. The road was in quite bad condition and very bumpy but it was still fun bouncing along watching the scenes roll by and singing along with the ipod.
We arrived at Mount Isa and the first thing you notice is the Mine, the reason the town is there in the first place. The 2 large chimneys dominate the skyline, but far from being an eye sore they are quite striking and against the rocky red
background of the outback they look especially stunning at sunset when you get a full 360 view of the town from the local view point.
On our first day we headed to the visitor centre which has a facinating section dedicated to the mining history of Mt Isa starting with the discovery of the first minerals through the WW's up to the present day. The mine is one of the few places that they mine copper, iron, zinc and silver in one place, some of which is shipped to England. The main event however was going down the Hard Times Mine! We got kitted out in authentic orange overalls, gum boots, harness belt, hard hats and head lamps. We descended into the mine via a rickety old lift, the group had to be split in two as the lift is quite old and tends to trip out if overloaded leaving you suspended in the air!
Once in the mine the only light was from our head torches, it was damp and cool with thick salt crystals on the wall. Our guide was a bona fide miner who was taking us round the mine for 3 hours on his
day off. He was full of funny stories and interesting info on the mine. He showed us the heavy duty equipment that they use for extracting the ore. We had to wear ear defenders when the drills and diggers where on as the noise was deafening and you could feel it vibrating through you. We had a go at drilling, the vibrating of which made your hands tingle, the extraction fan wasn't working so while we were using the drill the section we were in filled with the smell of earth and hot engine oil, it also got very hot!. After having a cup of tea and coffee at the crib (lunch room for the miners), no biscuits they had all been eaten!, we got driven in the back of a battered Toyota pickup to the surface. After being in the dark coolness we entered into the 35 degree sunlight squinting and sweating in all our gear!
After this we had quick look around the Riversleigh Fossil Centre where hundreds of different fossils had been found in one small area. They had also re-created some of the animals they had found. This whole area of Queensland has led to
A photo of a photo.
They ban cameras from the mine tour and then charge you $10 for this! some very large discoveries of fossils.
From here we planned to drive over a couple of days to Cairns via Normanton. We readied the van, re-stocked, filled with diesel and set of. After about 20km the van suddenly started making a very strange loud noise and the power steering failed. All at 110 km/per hour!! We managed to pull over into the scrubland to the side of the road. Jase had a look at the engine and checked the obvious - oil, water, break fluid, screen wash!! We switched the engine on again a couple of times but it sounded worse each time! We were stuck, no van and no phone!
After a bit of a panic we decided to try and flag someone down who could phone the breakdown service for us. We managed to get a caravan to stop and the couple tried to call on their mobiles but there was no signal so they prommised that when they got to the next town 100k away they would try again. A couple of german blokes also stopped going the other way and said they would call when they got to Mt Isa. After this all we
could do was wait and hope!
After 3 hot hours our recovery truck appeared much to our relief and towed us back to Mt Isa where we would remain for the next 4 days waiting for the parts. Ironically our recovery truck driver diagnosed the problem as a broken fan belt which to fix was a 30 miniute job, which was right, only when the belt has to come from Townsville 1000 km away it takes a bit longer!
For the next 3 nights we stayed in the 3 different hotels and motels which we were lucky to get as most of the accomodation was fully booked. We whiled away the hours mostly waiting at the garage but we also went to the cinema, we can reccommend 'Evan Almighty' and 'Ratatouille' as a good chuckle. One of the hotels we stayed in provided free DVD rental so we watched "Runaway Vacation" with Robin Williams, it was surprisingly funny and we could relate a lot to the mishapes in the RV, toilet backing up (not a plesant surprise, our warning light doesn't work to tell us when the loo is full!!), breaking down, large interior light breaking, running out
of water..... After being inspired we decided to name the van after the RV in the film, The Rolling Turd!! Or The RT for short!
Hopefully now the van has a name our luck will change. Well, it's worked so far, after a 9 hour drive of 760km we stopped over night at Charters Towers. The following day we did a further 600km or 8 hour drive and have made it to Cairns. The roads were the most challenging yet reduced to a single tarmac track just wide enough for The RT which was OK until you had a road train coming at you!! We had to pull onto the scrub at the side very quickly. This continued for about 400km with the occasional short stretch of 2 lanes for overtaking. It was a hard driving but the local wildlife seemed to come worse off, this road was the worst for carnage we saw loads of road kill, roo's, cows, bundles of fur that we thought where once possoms. The local kite's and buzzards where enjoying the carcases so much we had to use the horn to scar them away so we didn't hit them!!!
Once we got
to within about 120km of Cairns the scenery took on a very different face to that which we have seen so far. Suddenly everything was green!! There was actually fields of proper grass! The drive from here on in was quite beautiful with some stunning views across the farmland, it was almost like being at home! There was one very hairy stretch though as we passed over the Gillies Range, a 19km stretch of hairpins and very tight bends climbing over the mountans and down towards the sea. The queue of people behind us were probably not too impressed with our camper crawling up the hills and tip toeing round the corners!!
So we have finally made it to Cairns and have got the hire company to extend our van time for 4 days free of charge and refund all our expenses in Mt Isa. The weather here is quite different to what we have become accustomed to, it is a very chilly 24degress and raining!! Hopefully it will all clear up in a couple of days and it should warm back up!
Updates should be a bit more regular now as we are back in the world
of technology and large towns after a few weeks in the wilderness of the Outback. We really enjoyed the Outback it is a beautiful place in its own kind of way and the people are very friendly. We won't miss the flies though and we are now looking forward to being back by the sea for the next 6 weeks, it certainly seems to be where we are happiest.
Oh total distance now covered 6200km.
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Megan
non-member comment
Jealous!
Hey Guys, Ive been following your progress and I must admit to being pretty damn jealous! You've seen more of the country than I have! Cant wait to catch up with you and hear all about it, Megan