Mataranka

Did the tourist stuff today. Mataranka is the home of "we of the never never" so went to see the replica of the Homestead at the Esley National Park.It was ok and the Mataranka Thermal pool is there also. It is the most famous of the pools but I think I like bitter springs better.

Being the Northern Territory I cant buy booze until 2 in the afternoon. Wll be a dry night tonight.

Here are the photos:

Part of the Thermal pool

Thermal pool

Flying Foxes on the way to the pool

Inside the Homestead

More inside the Homestead

Outside of the Homestead

Daly Waters to Mataranka

Eventuall got going as I didn't have far to go. Arrived at Mataranka around midday and went straight to the place I am staying. The town is nothig much but the park is ok and is about 3 k's from town.
 Had an interesting drive, as the roads are pretty rough. I was travelling along and the gps fell off the screen, happens when it gets really hot. Anyhow the gps fell off, so while I was trying to stick it back on I wasn't taking notice of where I was on the road. Found my self on the wrong side of the road and in trying to get back in a hurry to the right side I managed to get the van to start swaying. Not a good feel doing 95kmh and having a van swaying behind you. Hit the accelerator and managed to stop the swaying. This was a lesson for new players, be very careful when you are towing a 3 ton van.

Mataranka is the home of 'we of the never never', so as I am here for 3 days I am going to do the touristy things. Will have quite a few photos to post. Mataranka also has thermal ( 33 degrees) springs and one is just 500mts from where I am staying.
Went to the springs and it was well worth it. The waters is absolutely clear.

The photos show the springs and what you see in the photo is white rocks etc. That is the bottom of the springs, and I tested the depth and it was around 2mts deep.

There is 2mts of water and the bottom looks like you could put your hand in the water and touch it.

Here are some more photos

Here is todays travel

Banka Banka to Daly Waters Pub

Had a good night with  a breeze coming through at about midnight which really cooled down the temp. Was probably my best sleep since leaving Mt Isa. Met a couple from Murray Bridge who travel in a bus. Nice people. There was a fair wind blowing from the south east so was good for me travelling north. Had it been blowing from the north I would have stayed put until it had eased. The fuel cost of driving into a head wind is enormous. I have noticed that since I have had the new tyres my fuel consumption has increased by about 10%. I guess it is because thay have a larger footprint or maybe it is because of the wind over the last couple of days, time will tell.

Left  Banka Banka to head to the Daly Waters pub. Had heard a lot about it, so had to see what was what.Got to Daly Waters around 1pm and set up in the carvan park they have. Daly waters consists of about 10 houses and the pub is the only thing in town. I was hoping for an experience like the Prarie Hotel but unfortunatley it was not to be. All the workers seemed to be Irish backpackers and they were not the most friendly people I have come across on this trip. A real pity because the pub has an interesting atmosphere. Had one beer at the pub and went back to the van and spent the night there.

Here is some photos of Daly Waters

here is todays travels

Camooweal to Banka Banka

Enjoyed my time at the billabong but it was time to move. Got up early in the morning and decided to have a big day travelling. The trip was reasonably interesting considering that the land was pretty flat. All along the way, people have been putting shirts etc on ant mounds. Haven't got a photo yet because with the caravan it difficult to pull up on the side of the road. Geez, it is a long way between places in Australia, it's a big country.Filled up with fuel at Barkly Homestead at 2.09 per litre. About 20c a litre more expensive than I have paid anywhere. Prices are really high once you are in isolated areas.

Here is a photo of the iconic Three Ways Roadhouse

Continued up the Stuart to Banka Banka station. Good value at $10 a night unpowered. Did about 590k's for the day so I have set myself up for a couple of easy days. Glad I had big day.

Photos of Banka Banka Station

Todays travel

Mt Isa to Camooweal

Left Mt Isa yesterday with new tyres on the car and headed to Camooweal. Quite a interesting drive and I still hate road trains. Coming up to a bridge an oversize load and pilot vehicles was coming in the opposite direction. Got on the radio to tell them I would move to the side of the road but they said go for it and then thanked me for contacting them, I wil take it back on my rant on truck drivers.

Anyhow arrived at Camooweal which is only 14 k's from the NT border. Took a while to make up my mind as to whether to go on for a few hours or stay here as planned. Decided to stay and found the Camooweal Billabong free camp area. Would be really spectacular here just after the wet, with the billabong full of water.

Parked up, in a great spot right on the edge of the billabong. The billabong has water lilleys growing in it and plenty of birdlife. Was sitting under the annex and only 40m's from me was 2 Brolgas in the billabong. My first brolgas in the wild. Pretty good.

Bloody hot but I can run the generator to run the air con so not too bad. With not running the genny at night it was pretty hot last night and not a real good sleep. Today is forecast to get to 40, so here we go again. Will stay today to watch Bathurst abd start heading to Katherine. Plan to hit Katherine on the 17th, so will make contact tomorrow with the farm. It is getting close. Here are the photos of where I am setup.

Brolga

 

Mt Isa

Mt Isa is a great town. Weather is pretty good with the temp topping 37 but it's dry so not a problem. Went to tyrepower yesterday to find a secondhand tyre to replace the destroyed one. While talking to the guy we noticed that the current tyres were getting side wall distortion. So instead of a second hand tyre I am up for 4 new tyres. I was going to replace them in 6 months when I had some extra money, but not to be. So there goes another $1100. Getting skinny now with money.
I will leave tomorrow and head to Camooweal Billabongs.

Here is some photos of Mt Isa

Richmond to Mt Isa 2 days

I left Richmond early (as usual), I seem now to wake around 6 in the morning and by 8 to 9 I am ready to move on.
Leaving Richmond at least made me feel better and went through Julia Creek ( seems like a pretty nice place ) then onto Cloncurry, another pretty good looking town. Planned to stop at a place called Corella park about 50k's east of Mt Isa.
At least in this country there is hills, first I have seen for a few days and they are a deep red and Craggy. Really nice scenery for someone like me who has not seen this type of country.

Got to Corella Park and while stopped to look at where I would setup, apparently a rock punctures one of my rear tyres. As I drove off to go to the site I had picked the car sounded really strange. I had only gone about 20 metres and when I had got out to look the tyre had almost come completely off the rim. It didn't look good. Luckily there was another couple there and he helped me change the tyre. It is not easy to change a tyre when the car is sitting on the rim. The temp while I was doing this was bloody hot.
Corella Park is by a dam and should have been nice but there was rubbish everywhere from previous campers. What a mess some people make and I would assume that the council will give up and not allow camping there.

Here is some photos of the place:

It was bloody hot here, at 10.30 at night it was still 36.5. Topped at 39 while I was in the van. The interesting point in this weather is that the solar panels pump in plenty of amps, however the fridge runs almost all the time to try to keep to temperature, so you get lots in and lots out..

I was going to spend a couple of days here, but as it looked like a tip and the tyre had been stuffed I decided to head to Mt Isa so I could get the tyre sorted out and to get to a caravan park and power and airconditioning. Yeh!!!!!!!.

Sitting here now in the reasonable cool and feeling a lot better. Got a really good deal at only $25 per night for a powered site. Will stay here for 3 nights and do some cleaning and maintenance. It has been quite a while since I have had a shower  that lasted longer than 2 minutes. What a luxury. I will also do some washing and fill the water tanks before I leave. 

Will take some photos of Mt Isa tomorrow.

Here is a photo of a monument to Bourke and Wills just outside of Cloncurry.

Prairie to Richmond

As per my last post , I spent the night at the pub to watch the NRL Grand Final. It was a great night, there were 3 of us who were traveling that stayed for the night. All the locals were happy to have us there and everyone joined in. Definately a place to stay at if you are passing through.
This morning I headed off aroubd 10 to head to Richmond. It is only just over 200k but the roads are horrible. It is like driving a boat over chops. Very flat landscape and not very interesting. When I reached richmond I was expecting it to be like Charters Towers but sadly I was mistaken.

Here is photos of Richmonds main st.

Interesting isn't it. 

Went to the information centre, which is new and quite nice. They have the fossil museum there. I didn't have a look as it was $20 to visist 3 rooms of fossils. Didn't seem reasonable.

Anyway off to Julia Creek tomorrow, lets see what that is like.

Charters Towers to Prairie

Had to change over the tail lights on the van as 2 were not working on one side and two were working on the other side. Now I have one working each side. Cheap way out and will fix properly when in Brisbane..
Left anabranch around 10 to 10.30 to head to Prairie. Saw this on wikicamps. It has a really good rated country pub and you can stay behind the pub as long as you have a beer or two.
What can I say, great pub, great people. Had a couple of beers this afternoon and will go back for dinner tonight. No menu, you just have what they are serving for the night. Tonight is crumbed steak and chips.
Have decided to spend an extra day here to watch the NRL grand final with the locals. That could be interesting to say the least.
It was an interesting drive here, not many turns and all straight. I have learnt to dislike road trains as they blow the rear view mirrors all over the place.

Here are some photos of the pub and where I am parked

Here is my travels for the day

Charters Towers

I spent the day having a walk around Charters Towers. Well what a great town this is. With a long history starting with gold mining to being a major centre for the military in the second world war, it has progressed and progressed. They maintain there historic buildings to an extremely high standard and keep the town neat and tidy. Being only 90 minutes to Townsville, it is not that far from the coast. Talking to one of the women from the info centre, the town is prosperous and no great problems ever seem to happen. I have taken some photos of the old buildings and one looking down the main street. If anyone is coming this way I suggest you stop for a couple of days as it will be worth it.

Here is some photos.

By the way , on my way back to the free camp I found my own street.

Tomorrow I am heading to Prairie, which apparently has a great pub to visit. It will be interesting