MONDAY 12 JUNE     MT ISA

Today had clear skies and it was sunny, but not really hot. Of course, now that we have decided to keep going west, the weather has become fine!

It was a public holiday, and thus quiet in town.

I read and sewed for a while, then we drove to the shops and bought a paper, and wine.

On the way back, as we came up to a traffic light Truck shuddered and shook and made clunking noises in second gear. It sounded like a nasty gear box disaster! John stopped and I looked to see if anything was caught underneath – couldn’t see anything untoward, like the innards hanging on the road! We started off again, and John let the handbrake off after we’d started. I asked if it had been on all along? He said it could have been!

We drove around for a bit – no more nasty noises, so we hoped it was only a case of the handbrake being left partly on. John explained to me that the brake acts on the gear system, since the vehicle is constant 4WD.

In the afternoon, we went for a long walk around the streets – more for exercise than any sightseeing.

I discovered that there is a really feral area of “permanents” down the back end of the caravan park. It was the most slummy looking such area we had come across ,to date, in our travels. The structures looked very run down. The police visited there this afternoon.

Tea was soup, cold pork, mashed potato and coleslaw.