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Published: August 20th 2009
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Day 115 - Burke & Wills Roadhouse to Mt Isa
Another hot start to the day and with the washing bone dry, us showered and the caravan packed up we were ready to set off again. We waved goodbye to everyone who came to the DASH Visitor Information Centre yesterday and we hope they have a great time wherever they are travelling too!
Back on the bitumen our journey today will end in Mount Isa where we have some menial tasks to do. I need a new pair of hiking sandals as mine have fallen apart plus there’s the normal shopping and alcohol trip and we must buy an Esky! We decide not to get any veggies or much fruit within the shopping this time as we cross the border into the Northern Territory tomorrow and we’re not sure on the restrictions so we’re going to play it safe. We suspect it’s actually NT into WA where it’s very strict but we’ve been told several times that they do check going from Queensland into NT although we’ve not found anything in any leaflets that say this. Still, it’s a good excuse to use all the veggies and fruit then
stock up again once we’ve crossed.
Nothing much remarkable to report journey wise, although we did experience driving through a swarm of what we think we locusts! Gross!
As we get closer to Mount Isa the scenery starts to change and red rocky outcrops start appearing on the horizon. The town itself has developed around the huge mine which gives an interesting backdrop. There’s plenty to do in Mount Isa, you can visit the underground hospital, spend a day visiting the award winning Hard Times Mine or you can use it as a base to ‘catch up’ from which is what we’re doing!
We’re staying at the Big 4 caravan park 2kms outside of town and when we arrive there are two ladies in reception, one is on the phone and the other greets me with a cheery ‘G’day, how you going?’ ‘Good Thanks’ I said, ‘We’re hoping you’ve got a powered site for the night for a 16ft caravan’. The other lady is off the phone now and spins round to exclaim ‘You’re that Alice girl off that Vicar show aren’t you’! News travels far and wide apparently! We have a good laugh about that and
book in for the night.
Down in the town we find everything we were after with a little bit of searching here and there, most important were new hiking sandals for me since my trusty Hi-Tec ones have finally bitten the dust after two years wear and tear! The rodeo was in over the weekend and they’ve drunk the place dry but one hotel had a delivery today so we we’re sent to ‘The Club’ and find they had plenty of my Coolabah Fruity Lexia (very cheap plonk) and we’d already been to the Bottlo for Dar’s beer so we’re all sorted. Funnily enough a lad from Chippenham served us in the Bottlo! He’d been sent to Mt Isa from Brisbane looking for work. Even down in Woolworths they’re short staffed and the girl who opened a til especially for us said that it’s always the case. Seems Mt Isa is a place where finding work wouldn’t be a problem but is it disrespectful if you were gutted to be sent to somewhere like Mt Isa to work rather than bagging a job on one of the Whitsunday Islands or on the Gold or Sunshine Coast.
With the
chores complete and the caravan stocked up we grab our cossies for a cool down in the pool. It’s huge and very, very refreshing which is another word for flipping freezing! Still we’re nice and cool after the swim which is the main thing.
Our neighbours have returned in their Britz campervan and after a few minutes we hear them talking about how they’re struggling with their water container screw top. Dar offers them some help saying that if it’s anything like ours there’s a technique to doing it. I laughed and said he sounded really cocky but of course he was right and in no time at all had shown the grateful couple how to sort it out! That got us all chatting and as soon as they found out we’d been to Lawn Hill they said they’d love us to join them before dinner to hear all about it!
We were just cooking ours, a splendid Thai Green Curry, just gorgeous, so when we finish Dar pops round next door and I finish another blog then join him. They were lovely people and put out nibbles for us to enjoy while we chatted about their trip
so far and where they’re heading next. Lawn Hill was the main subject and more importantly the route to it. Again we can only talk about our opinion of our experience which was a little bit rough in terms of travelling across the sections which are corrugated but that’s only once you’re past the mine and it’s only about 20kms, probably not even that. They’re in a Britz campervan and it’s entirely up to them if they choose to make the journey or not, obviously we do our best not to put them off as it’s just so fantastic that we would have walked if we had to!!! Ok, maybe not but we would have found a way!!
We thank the couple for their company and bid them a good night as they need to cook their dinner and we need to finish more blogs!
With all of that up to date we call it a night, in fact let’s call it Wednesday night as we often forget what day it is!
Sweet dreams, until tomorrow
Dar and Sar
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Emma
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hello Alice Girl
LOL LOL LOL Alice from Vicar of Dibley so that makes Darryl that what's his name bloke Hugo!! I think thats Hilarious! Thanks for postcard keep em coming.