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.

Nice day in the caravan park at Mt Isa

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.

FRIDAY 9 JUNE     CLONCURRY

It rained steadily throughout the night. This really put paid to any lingering doubts we had about hanging around waiting for dry roads.

Heard that a caravanner had tried to go north up the Burke and Wills road to Normanton – which is sealed – and had to pull off onto the verge for an oncoming vehicle – the wet, built up verge gave way and he rolled.

Once the rain started, during the night, we’d decided not to move on today, regardless of direction, so I went to the office and bought ourselves another night here.

I phoned Adels Grove and cancelled the booking I’d made earlier, by phone, from Winton.

Phoned Mt Isa and booked us into a caravan park there for four nights. John wants to play bowls there, and visit the shops, and Monday is a holiday. So we will not be rushing around too much in Mt Isa.

The ground had become very muddy underfoot.

We drove to the shops, in the morning, for some oddments. John was looking for a replacement globe for a blown one in one of our bed reading lights – he will have to try in Isa! He did some work on tax figures.

I went to visit with L and her husband, as they’d been on their way to visit us when we were going out. Sat and chatted for a couple of hours. They had a really good book about Lawn Hill. They were inclined to wait for the roads to dry out. He had been made redundant in his career by computers – hence they had the travel time.

I went to have a shower and left John to watch the potatoes I’d put on to cook for tonight’s fries. He had instructions to turn them off after one minute of boiling. When I got back, he was absorbed in the computer and the potatoes were boiling merrily away and falling to pieces. I was cross.

Tea was oven fried fish and fried potato mush, which was not nice.

THURSDAY 8 JUNE     CLONCURRY

Today was a cloudy day, with some intermittent rain.

I washed the bedding, and was lucky to get it dry. I finished a letter to V. John did banking updates.

We heard that, due to heavy rain further north, overnight, all the Gulf dirt roads were closed. I phoned the Gregory Hotel to confirm – yes, it was true. The 4WD Road Trek lot were stuck at Burke and Wills Roadhouse. The hotel man said the roads would be closed for two days to a week, depending on whether there was any more rain. More is actually forecast.

This created a dilemma for us. Would we hang around here, for an unknown time, in order to go north west to Lawn Hill National Park? Or would we give up and continue west, since our main goal for this dry season (ha!) was the Kimberley?

We decided to push on. Next year’s rough plan would probably see us coming back across this way from north west WA, and we could try for Lawn Hill then.

Drove to the shops – John wanted some internet time. I bought some food for tea. We filled the gas bottles and Truck – 95cpl! Big jump in price from Winton.

Pleasant to be on a site with some grass again

Tea was soup, chicken drumsticks, salad.

Then we went off to social bowls – Cloncurry style. A unique and unpleasant experience. It was a drinking club. Social bowls turned out to be beginners’ night, with a few young kids, a very drunk young aborigine, and the usual hard core bowls types. The kids were nice and keen and had some potential. The indigine kept falling flat on his face every time he tried to pick up a bowl. It was awful. At one stage, he fell into the narrow gutter at the side of the green, and was there for some time. It was disgraceful that the kids – ages about 9 to 12 – were witness to it all.

We queried why he was allowed to stay – and why he kept on being served yet more alcohol – and were told that, if the club tried to remove him, or refused to serve him, they would be accused of racial discrimination! Political correctness has gone crazy! He was a drunken fool who should not have been tolerated in anyone’s company. Had he been white he’d have been well and truly out.

I shall be very wary of night time social bowls in such towns, in the future!

SUNDAY 4 JUNE     OPALTON

Last night seemed a little warmer and the sky was blue again today.

John went noodling on the heaps after breakfast.

Another flowering bush on the mullock heaps

The creepy one left – good!

We went for a walk after lunch, taking the back track towards the Outpost. We passed quite a substantial stone house, looking un-lived-in. Thought it might belong to seasonal miners, but B told us later that it belonged to a Winton man. The story was that in his poking about for opal, he dug up some bones by Sandy Creek, reputed to be those of three old timers who had been murdered. He took the bones to his house. He then had a ferociously scary night and since then had refused to ever sleep again in the house, believing it to be haunted by the murdered men! He wanted $25,000 to sell it, though.

So you know where you are…….

We did a bit of specking as we walked. There were lots of old mine shafts on the flats.

Central Opalton – looking toward the Outpost store

As we made our way back, a resident from a camp near the Bush Camp, came across to us and showed us an opal he’d just noodled on the nearby heaps. As he spoke to us, he kept his face turned away from us – not sure if he was ashamed of his teeth, or did not want to be identified! (We had earlier commented to ourselves that a foray through this area and the surrounding hill country would make a dent in various State Most Wanted lists!)

Anyway, the gent said we could noodle in that area. He came back a few minutes later – he’d cracked the stone and reckoned he’d just made $2000-$3000! So he was very happy – obviously he’d needed to tell someone!

We noodled there very enthusiastically, but it was pretty late in the afternoon and we couldn’t really see well enough. Next time!

A low loader trundled in carrying an excavator. He seemed a bit lost. He said he had to go 35kms beyond the airstrip. That was rather vague, but we thought his destination was possibly Devil Devil or Opal Creek, and were wondering how on earth to describe the way to him. Then a 4WD came by and said he’d lead him out there.

I made pumpkin soup. We had that for tea with salmon steaks and salad.

The battery seemed to be struggling to power the fridge now. Some of the things in the freezebox seemed to be softening a bit. Clearly, we needed to revisit our whole solar power system and its adequacy, at some stage.

The kero lamp had given up working too – blocked jets?

This was our last night round our campfire. It was a good. clear night for it – the starry sky was brilliant.

It had been a great stay out here, marred only by the power supply issue.

SATURDAY 3 JUNE   OPALTON

It was another really cold night. The overnight low registering on our weather station in the van has consistently been 3 degrees. The day was sunny again, but the wind was much less today and so it felt a bit warmer.

In the morning, John fossicked on the heaps. I made roti breads. After lunch we both went out onto the heaps for a while and brought back a few rocks to investigate.

Flowering bush growing on the mullock heaps

We talked for a while with an older couple who arrived with an old Toyota and van. They were following a mud map from the Matilda Centre in Winton, to drive a circuit via the Mayneside ruins and Lark Quarry. They decided to push on and camp in the bush – more his idea than hers, I felt!

The last two nights have been very quiet out here, with just M and B, and us in the camp. A young guy arrived this afternoon and he parked at the next hut. He said he drove tracks across from Longreach. I thought he was a bit creepy – not sure about him!

L came back from Winton today. M was keeping an eye on the Outpost while he was gone. L said that he would not be able to cope with the coming GST and would close the Outpost down rather than be forced to try to master it. That would be a pity – he serves a valuable function in this area.

Tea was the last of the minestrone soup, chops, potato done in foil in the fire, bacon, egg for John, tomato for me. We even had a few bits of green veggies.

Our fresh supplies have lasted rather well. I used the last of my fresh milk this morning. We still had some fruit left.

John rad-phoned a couple of relatives. They’ve had ‘flu. There has been snow in the Dandenongs!