Tuesday 23rd August

Well finally Electricity and Internet at Mt Isa.  We have travelled about 2,500 kms in just over a week and it has been an interesting week. We were very tired as we were doing a lot of driving to try and get to the top end of Qld to see places that we hadn't seen before and finally took 2 days break at Adels Grove to have some RnR.
For those of you who are following on a map:
Day 3 Barcaldine
Day 4 Kynuna
Day 5 Gregory Downs
Day 6 & 7 Adels Grove
Day 8 & 9 Mt Isa

We have seen kangaroos, emus, galahs, cockatoos, budgies, dingo (1), lots of cows, sheep and wild cats, luckily most of them alive!

We had a bit of short break at Longreach so Paul could find the local bakery and rate the cream donut (only 7/10) but we had a look around the Qantas museum and the main street. We stopped also at Winton as I wanted to go into the local Arts and Crafts shop as the ladies make the best 2 double hand towels! We were lucky outside of Winton as Paul saw the Hot Water Cover fly off the van, so lucky we found it and it is not damaged and now stuck on by tape, but it works.

We ended up at the famous Blue Heeler Pub at Kynuna which was a sight to be seen, people have put their names all over the inside of the pub (to me it looks like graffiti), so we had a couple of beers to keep the economy going in the local population of 20. Next morning we headed towards Cloncurry and we thought we would get some diesel at McKinley, where the famous Walkabout Creek is (didn't look like much so we didn't stop). Well never assume, it is 80kms from Kynuna or 106 kms to Cluncurry and their diesel pump was broken and we only had 88kms of fuel! Luckily I have a husband that drives me nuts sometimes, but he knows his stuff about his beloved Landrover and figured it we drove at 75kms an hour and keep the revs down, we could make it into Cloncurry. So that's what we did, luckily for me i fell asleep so I couldn't keep looking at the fuel gauge. We made it with 6kms to spare. We now carry 2 jerry cans of fuel on the roof!

We then drove another 325 kms to Gregory Downs and bedded down for the night at the free campsite. We left early in the morning to head 100 kms up the road to Lawn Hill National Park. A nice easy drive I thought, we passed a couple of Cattle road trains and had to pull over on the side of the road as they are so big, we ended up going for an hour and the road started to get very small and we thought this can't be right. The GPS Co-ordinates didn't even work in the GPS. We did the safe thing and turned around and went all the way back to Gregory Downs to be told we were on the right track, so back we went again and 4 hours from when we started we got to Adels Grove, but it was worth it.

We went on a Sunset tour to Harry's Hill and got some nibblies and Chardy/red wine and watched the sun go down over the range it was beautiful. Next day we went to the Gorge and hired a canoe for an hour and it was absolutely beautiful, the red of the Gorge, green of the palms and gorgeous blue sky, it was heaven. Trouble is I don't like water and keep watching the water for the Crocs! (shouldn't have watched Swamp People for the last couple of weeks about Croc hunting in the Bayou). Paul even had a bit of a fish in the local stream and we ended up the afternoon in the hammock..bliss!

We set off the next morning for Mt Isa and took 5 1/2 hours drive to 330 kms on a dirt road, gees the red dirt has got into everything, it has even got into the braking system and stuffed up the electronic handbrake on the car, so Paul is trying to blow the dust out with his compressor, but to no avail, we will need to hopefully get it fixed in Alice Springs as no one in Mt Isa can fix it, but at least there is a Landrover Mechanic in Alice (who would have thought). So yesterday afternoon was a day of washing and cleaning to get the red dust off everything. We have found that one of the seals on a back window has come loose due to the corrugation on the road and it sucked in the dust.

Also we have broken the cupboard shelf, a stone has chipped a chunk out of the step into the van, bolts have come off the internal speakers, the external shower lock came loose and we were driving with the shower head dangling (what a sight). You don't realise what damage the roads can do.

So we are staying another day at The Isa and head off tomorrow across to Tennant Creek. Take Care all...love P & J