April 23rd-25th, 2012- Normanton Tourist Park-Normanton

Monday morning saw us up early so we could be at Woolies when it opened. We dropped the girls off there while Stephen and I picked up a few things at Coles and I grabbed a new step ladder at Mitre 10 Got everything back to the caravan park, packed up, and hit the road by 9:30. Enjoyed an uneventful trip back to Cloncurry where we topped up with Diesel before taking the Matilda Hwy North to Normanton. The first couple of hours were good road and we stopped for lunch opposite Burke & Wills Roadhouse.

Sandra and Carol both took a turn driving after lunch and the road deteriorated rapidly. Grass grew up high right to the edge of both sides of the road and there were several narrow single lane sections. Made it through without any drama as not too much traffic. Stephen and I took over about an hour out of Normanton for the last leg. We crossed the Flinders River which is a very good sized river during the afternoon as well. Looked like a nice camping area there but still a bit wet. At 500KM this was one of our longest travel days and we didn't pull into Normanton until 4:30PM. Got set up in the caravan park which was nice with lots of shade. Has a huge swimming pool which will get a workout as 35 degrees for the next few days. We were all pretty tired so had an easy tea and a pretty early night.

 

Tuesday we enjoyed a relaxing day following a brief tour around town in the morning. The town is well set out with a special bridge over the Norman River which is setup for fishing (shade, rod holders, and cleaning tables). Apparently they are catching lots of Barra here now. Next stop was the Visitor Centre which doubles as a local museum and a library. Very friendly staff with free coffee and tea being served.

We walked down the street so we could take our pictures with Krys the Crocodile. This massive 8.6M Crocodile was the largest ever shot and was killed by a woman. Would not want to meet this creature in the water!!

Next stop was the old train station where the Gulflander tourist train travels between Normanton and Croydon every Wed/Thurs. Train station is also a museum and is beautifully landscaped and looked after. There is a good souvenir store where the lady was very friendly. She has lived in Normanton for 41 years and was friends with the Crocodile Lady. Was able to show us some good pictures and tell us some stories about the local history. She had a number of mobiles hanging in the shop made out of old items. Luckily they weren't for sale as both Carol and Sandra were eyeing them closely. Grabbed some steaks from the local butcher on the way home.

Afternoon was spent at the pool, relaxing and reading. Lovely pool and the water temperature was very comfortable. Even the girls enjoyed it. Had a BBQ Steak dinner to top off the day. Carol joined us again for the last night of blind auditions on "The Voice".

Wednesday morning, Anzac Day, saw us attend the dawn service at 6AM. Good turnout for a small town and a nice short service. Returned to caravan park where we prepared a big cooked breakfast. The rest of the morning was spent giving and receiving hair cuts. A bit cooler today as only about 31 for the high. Still fairly warm and I think the pool will feature in our afternoon entertainment. I am hoping to have the Blog completely up to date before we leave for Karumba in the morning. The rest of Sandra's family has been on the way to Karumba since Saturday and should meet us there this weekend.

April 20th-22nd, 2012- AAOK Moondarra Caravan Park- Mount Isa

Friday morning we headed West to Mount Isa. The drive between Cloncurry and Mount Isa is very pretty with lots of rugged red hills. Not the best for fuel economy as lots of climbs involved. I found it somewhat similar to parts of the Kimberly in Western Australia.

 

We had booked into the AAOK Moondarra Caravan Park as things are getting busy in Northern Queensland due to the annual Grey Nomad Migration. This was an unfortunate choice as was probably the worst caravan park so far. Our first experience was that we had problems finding the place as there weren't proper signs at the entry. Mount Isa is obviously a mining town and 95% of this caravan park was allocated to permanent residents employed in the mining industry. There were about 10 sites available for general public use of which maybe half were accessible and somewhat suitable for a medium-large caravan. We managed to get abused by one of the permanent residents while we were trying to figure out how we would get our van on one of the sites with a bit of shade. We eventually got ourselves on a very uneven site with a small amount of shade. Our nerves were stretched and we all regretted our (my turn on reservations unfortunately) choice of caravan parks.

Once we had lunch we ventured downtown to the Visitor Centre. Here all of us but Sandra booked in for the Hard Times Mine Tour for Saturday. Sandra took a pass as thought it would be too claustrophobic for her. We did some shopping at Coles and Woolies before venturing up to the lookout. The mine is huge and adjoins the town so is visible from just about anywhere in the City. Beautiful surroundings with red hills and lots of green. Unfortunately, you could only refer to Mount Isa as a typical mining town. Service in most businesses was below standard as it would appear most good employees are hired by the mining industry. To top off our disappointment with the caravan park it was a very noisy night filled with parties and arguments from a number of the permanent residents. We complained the following morning.

Saturday morning Carol, Stephen, and I headed off for our Mine Tour at 8:30AM. The tour was fantastic as our guide, Ian Brown, was someone that had actually worked in the mines for 50 years and knew how everything had been done particularly in the older days. Our first stop was to get geared up with boots, overalls, and mining hard hats. The mine itself is actually a replica built on site at the Outback at Isa Visitor Centre. The equipment is all donated from the mines from what they are done using. You go down the shaft in a cage elevator before taking a train to the crib room. From there we toured a number of different horizontal mine shafts. We operated a mining drill (under supervision), saw how the explosives were set, and viewed a number of pieces of working equipment used to remove the exploded ore. Everything was very loud and if you turned off the lamps on your hard hat; completely black. The work would have been back breaking, especially in the old days as the equipment is all very heavy and the work often overhead and repetitious. The tour took about 2.5 hours and was well worth the money. No cameras or pictures were allowed but we had one taken by our guide.

We returned to the caravans for lunch and to pickup Sandra for our afternoon touring. We returned to the Outback at Isa Centre to do two museums located there. The first was about Riversleigh which is an area near Mount Isa where a huge amount of fossils have been discovered. A number of strange creatures which are the predecessors of many of today's Australian wildlife. A carnivorous kangaroo and a huge marsupial the size of a hippo were two of the discoveries. Very interesting short film started it off before viewing some re-creations of these creatures in their natural environment (at least how the scientists perceive it). The final display was of a number of the actual bones and fossils discovered in the area.

The second museum was about Mount Isa and its history. A number of good displays on mining and the development of Mount Isa. Also watched a 30 minute film about the history of Mount Isa. Both museums were well laid out and very good. I would advise doing the film before the Mount Isa museum tour as it describes many of the displays you see. The Outback at Isa Centre is very nice and a credit to the community. Don't miss it and/or the mine tour when passing through.

We spent the late afternoon and early evening, preparing and enjoying a beautiful baked chicken dinner. Yum!

Sunday morning we discovered that the supermarkets are closed in Mount Isa. We had planned on doing our big shop today before heading North for our few weeks in Karumba. Bad luck but we will just do our shopping early on Monday morning before heading off.

We took a drive with the Ransleys out to Lake Moondarra where we had a picnic lunch. This is quite a large lake just North of Mount Isa that is a wonderful recreation area as well as one of the local water supplies. Nice large lake with lots of boats enjoying a lovely sunny day. Would be one of the few redeeming features of Mount Isa in our opinion. Enjoyed a beautiful couple of hours touring and relaxing around the lake and its parks.

The afternoon had us preparing for the next leg of our trip before watching NSW City-Country Rugby League game. I must say; my confidence in NSW Origin hopes was severely diminished by the display. I think Queensland was the only winner of this error filled contest. We had an easy dinner before the girls and I enjoyed watching "The Voice" again. Sandra and I ( well at least partly for me) also watched "Beaconsfield" which we thought was very good. Glad I hadn't watched before my underground tour at the Hard Times Mine.

We have decided to drive through to Normanton tomorrow as we can't picture spending another night in Mount Isa or Cloncurry. We have a couple of extra days up our sleeve before Karumba so will commemorate Anzac Day in Normanton.

April 19th, 2012- Wals Camp- Cloncurry

Thursday morning we were heading North again. Not sure where we will end up today as it is really hot and not too sure about free camping. The countryside North of Winton is beautiful with lush fields, cattle stations, and the occasional plateau. Stopped at Kyuna for morning tea. Met a two nice couples from Queensland there and swapped some stories. A couple of friendly Brolgas were fixtures at the Blue Heeler Hotel where we stopped. They came right up to you and ate biscuits out of your hands. Apparently they wander right into the Pub as well. We got stopped by a train on the way along with a few road trains.

Our next stop was the famous Walkabout Creek Hotel from Crocodile Dundee fame. There was a lovely small caravan park at the rear of the Hotel where we had considered staying but the fellow behind the bar was less than friendly. The place was completely empty when we walked in with the two couples we met at our last stop. The guy did not even acknowledge us and proceeded to make a few phone calls. Eventually we were able to order a drink but decided against staying overnight and from enjoying lunch there as we had originally planned. Such a shame as this place should be a little gold mine if managed properly. The Pub was really well looked after and the amenities were great as was the caravan park which we snooped in. Just shows that you can spend the money to make a place wonderful but it is all wasted if the people don't deliver great service.

We decided to head on to Cloncurry because of the hot weather (and poor service). We stayed at Wals Camp which is a basic caravan park set up for only a few campsites. We did manage to get some shade and had power and water. Cheaper than a caravan park but amenities were basic. Quite funny as the doors were wedged open and the men's/ladies were adjoining with no wall in between the stalls.

We set up camp and then set out to explore town a bit. Not much to see in town itself as is basically a mining town. Did a bit of shopping and again ran into our new friends from earlier in the day. We took a drive out to the town lookout and Chinaman's Dam. Wow! What a surprise. Beautiful setting amongst red rugged hills and everything so green. If you ever travel this way take the short 5 minute drive out to Chinaman's Dam. We crossed the dam in our Pajero before returning to the main road and going down to the boat ramp. Got some lovely pictures and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

We stopped at the old bridge crossing the Cloncurry River on our way back to the caravan site. Enjoyed a quiet and relatively early night as was one of our longer travel days.

April 17th & 18th, 2012- Pelican Van Park- Winton

Tuesday morning saw us make the short trip North to Winton. We arrived early so checked out a free camp at Long Waterhole just out of town. No shady spots and really hot so we decided to go the caravan park route. Fairly basic park but has a few shade trees and power for the air conditioner.

After lunch we did a walk around Winton down town. They have a very nice looking Matilda Museum but we gave it a skip as we were a bit museumed out after Longreach. Winton is the home of Banjo Patterson. Quite a nice little town with quite a few tourist type shops. Unfortunately, we found the majority of places we stopped in had very unfriendly staff. Such a shame in a small country town and definitely the exception to our journey so far. Walked by Arno's Wall which is a cement wall built with everything including the kitchen sink and motorcycles built into it. Quite interesting! Stopped for a cold one at Hotel on way back to the caravan park.

Enjoyed Pizza dinner with the Ransleys before watching "The Voice". The girls have become addicts of the show already along with much of Australia.

Wednesday we took a drive out to Bladensburg National Park. Our first stop was the Homestead which also housed the Ranger Station. Had a bit of a look around before taking a 4WD track out to Scrappy Gorge, Waterhole, and Lookout. Very interesting countryside with lots of wildlife spotting. Rugged country and track but we enjoyed the drive. The Gorge has huge pieces of rock that have fallen off the sides and many large cracks where the next pieces will fall from.

 

Returned to Ranger Station before taking another drive on the River Gum Route. Stopped at the Engine Hole and then Bough Shed Camp. The roads are really dusty. Had morning tea before heading back to town. Lots of Kangaroos mostly resting in the shade.

After lunch we took a drive to the Musical Fence where we had some fun showcasing our musical talents (which aren't too strong). Had some fun before heading off to service station to top up our Diesel.

At the Caltex we ran into about 40 cars from the Shit Box Rally. They are driving from Melbourne to Cairns in about 6 days. The cars are as the name suggests; crap but are boldly decorated. Check out the dirt on the sleeping gear in the back of the van below. All for cancer research!