We had another trip up to Lake Moondarra this time for a quick fish then sunset BBQ tea. No luck with the fishing , due to the weed that forms a skirt all round the edge we could only fish 20sqm of water. This was trawled and baited to death with no success other than one BIG bite . There are freshwater crocodiles in the lake somewhere but we didn’t come across any. As we cooked our tea (we had back up steaks in case the barramundi didn’t bite) wild peacocks came out of the bush which was a bit surreal.
Dusty bin.
The caravan company received the quote for the dust repair $4500 ! Needless to say they had bit of a problem with that (it appeared to be a case of opportunism and profiteering). Our neighbouring vanners had a quote to fix a cupboard hinge for 170 buck from the same company ! After a fair bit of discussion with the manufacturer of the van we agreed that he would fly someone up to us when we were in Cairns in a week or so . To be continued …..
Con Air 
The aircon judder raised its head again . We called the refrigeration repairers out for another visit. Now this is an intermittent problem and normally it follows that age old pattern of not happening when you have the expert in front of you but on this occasion he saw, heard and felt it when he had the covers off the unit on top of the van. Its an inverter controlled model and the compressor was shaking on its mount when moving into its middle phase. He checked what he could, rang the manufacturers technical helpline but there were no adjustments he could make. I then rang the manufacturers who told me that this is a feature of the aircon and that there is a little noise due to the inverter. After a wordy scuffle that involved me getting my phillips screwdriver out and depositing the aircon into a showroom we agreed that we would take it to see one of their specialists in Cairns To be continued ….
Its good to talk
In the research for travelling around Australia one thing that never caught my eye was mobile phones . We both have contracts with different providers so we though we would do ok. However in the outback towns if you get coverage at all it is Telstra which uses the old ex state masts etc. Of course nether of us had Telstra because they are the most expensive for Melbourne. In the end we cancelled Kates Skodafone (i think it had coverage in one town over the 4 weeks) and set up a 10GB contract with Telstra and we aim to share the data . Kate spent 24 hours with her head down and thumbs clicking away like an addicted teenager as she caught up on the social media world.
Satellite phone. Now we plan to be in areas where there is no mobile signal at all. This combined with the fact that we are travelling alone and not in a convoy helped us decide on a satellite phone. These are not cheap to say the least , the second hand handset , with a 12 month contract with a heady 120 minutes of talk time comes in at around 1300 bucks ! But it is the one thing that can literally save your life if you get in some strife and of course if there is an emergency elsewhere others can get in touch with us.
The phone however didn’t hold its charge and the cable pretty much disintegrated from day 1. So it sits almost permanently on charge in the car . The seller off eBay however has offered to send replacement batteries and chargers to Cairns for us to pick up when we pas through . To be continued…….
I mentioned before about the free lead health checks in the local medical centre. As elsewhere in Australia the Sunsmart plan is posted in public places. This one was on a local school gate .
However its the first time i have seen one of these ! There is clearly a real risk of living in such close proximity to these mines and works.
Mount Isa is the self proclaimed Rodeo capital of Australia . It has a huge event in xxx. When we were in Boulia one old guy at the bar welcomed us to Hillbilly country (we think thats what he said as it was hard to tell). It would be a great time to visit with all the “hillbillies” from the outlying stations and towns come into town to test themselves against each other in the rodeo ring and in the bars !
I went for a walk into town early one morning as one of the challenges on the road when it is so hot is keeping your exercise levels up. Found a great coffee shop – this is more of an event that you may imagine . I have been surprised at the lack of coffee and when you get it just how bad it can be – we have been truly spoiled in Melbourne ! On the way back i took a detour and wandered up the hill that sits between the campsite and the town of Mount Isa.
one point I had a wedge tail eagle above me , whistling Kite below me and a Wallaroo scrambling on the rocks nearby. I need to get out on more walks like this
In the end we had six nights in Mount Isa as we tried to get the van fettled. It has lots to see due to its recent history and it presents itself well ( the visitor centre/museum/mine is fantastic). It clearly has some industrial and social issues too that are evident when walking around the town but overall we really enjoyed our stay . It was also great finding diesel under 1.80 a litre , beer under 65 bucks a slab and the aforementioned good coffee. I strangely find the beautiful landscape juxtapositoned with the industrial structures really captivating – maybe Im getting nostalgic for Grangemouth !
