TUESDAY 21 JULY     WEIPA

We did not get to sleep in late this morning, with campground noise all round.

After breakfast, drove round and did some exploring of the town, beginning with – naturally – the bowls club.

We spent some time in the library, looking at historical information and displays. Although there were some missions around the area, Weipa really was established only in the 1960’s, to mine the bauxite. The library does not lend to visitors, unfortunately.

There was no mail for us at the PO! They told us that anything big or bulky would come on the weekly barge – from Karumba. So much for Express Post. You would think they might at least put that category of mail on a plane. No – it goes by plane to Cairns, road to Karumba and barge to here. It could be quite some time before our mail arrives!

At the shopping centre, bought food for lunch and tea and some reading matter from the newsagent. We have had a fairly frugal couple of weeks, so I lashed out and spent $35 on reading matter. They get the newspapers here a day late – by plane.

Weipa is essentially a constructed mining town, so it is built along similar lines to other such ones that we have seen, like Paraburdoo in WA. There is one central set of shops. The hotel is nearby.

There were numbers of aborigines at the shops; the community of Napranum is nearby. We were struck by the number of those with amputated lower limbs that we saw. The effects of diabetes, I think.

We talked with other travellers in the caravan park. Broken vehicles were quite a common theme! Two lots near us were waiting for repairs. Apparently, there is a delay of days to get anything welded, such is the demand. A neighbouring camper “drowned” his Jeep Cherokee in the second creek crossing on the Overland Telegraph Track. He did not have a snorkel. The crossing “looked easy” so he did not walk it first, as he was feeling a bit pressured by vehicles being behind him. He went into a deep hole in the middle and that was the end of that. He had to be towed back to Weipa. He will be here, waiting for repairs, for at least 3 weeks, due to having to wait for parts. So that was a very costly error that has stuffed his holiday plans right up. There’s a lesson or two in all that – check all the crossings, regardless, and have a snorkel. There are a couple of caravans here – a Phoenix and a Jayco. The Phoenix will be barged to Karumba, not towed back south; that was not their original intention, but they have decided against towing it any more on these corrugated roads. That makes me wonder what we are in for, further north!

After lunch, John went to practice bowls. I read.

There was a little rain during the afternoon.

Tea was spaghetti with bol sauce for John. I just had a little plain pasta. Have decided that it is a bug that I am suffering from, not the effects of heat.

Phoned K. He sent the mail last week, so it is questionable whether it will be on this week’s barge, damn it. We have to wait for the Group Certificates that are in the mail, so we can send off the tax stuff John worked on before we left Wonga. Now, I am wondering just how long we will have to hang about Weipa for.