Day 159
Monday
5 June 2017
Camooweal – Mount Isa
6.30am and Paul was out checking on the yabby pots. I was
not ready to see the morning just yet. Loud chatter suggested we might have a
feed and sure enough when he returned to the van, he had a half bucket of
yabbies and about 8 of a decent size, happy days. I crawled out to take some
photos, but was quick to retreat back to the warm and read my book for an hour,
as Paul set about cooking them all.
I did get out at 8am, which was actually 8.30am, when Paul
suggested if I didn’t eat breakfast now I would miss out, as he was ready to
move. 20min later we were all done and dusted and heading into town for a quick
pee stop before continuing our journey of 188km to Mount Isa.
The road was littered with fresh road kill and as a result
so many birds. You could see the masses of them in the distance and Paul would
sound the horn and watch them scatter, usually right at the last minute. Plenty of signs suggested there were hungry
cows loose and wanting to feast on vehicles. We did see some Brahman in
roadside holding pens and inside the fenced areas of the stations. At least
they weren’t loose on the road.
We made good time and at 11.15am we were driving up the main
strip looking for a BP as the fuel light had been on for the last 50km.
Unfortunately we didn’t find it, so we settled for one of the others and then
made our way to Sunset Tourist Park, where we were able to find a site to
accommodate our needs and settle in for the next couple of days.
First on the agenda was a shower, oh boy did that feel so
much better. Paul followed while I set up the inside and then sorted lunch. We
put the washing on, ate and then he started on the water pump, only to have it
start again when he waved the spanner at it. That was an easy fix.
Once the washing was out, we took ourselves into town. Our
first stop was the tourist info centre to once again gather as many books on
Queensland as I could manage. It is hard going into a new state when all their
books are listed with regions you have no idea about. You end up gathering
everything in the hope you get something relevant.
With a small forest in hand, we drove to the Woolies and did
a quick shop before opting to do a walk of the main strip. Rodeo Drive has
paving stones with past rodeo winners, much like the Stawell Gift runners.
Mount Isa is the capital of Australian Rodeo. It is also the birthplace of the
well-known Aussies – Greg Norman, Patrick Rafter, Deborah Mailman and Simon
Black.
When we completed our trip including a quick peak of the
Mount Isa Mine, that sits front and centre in town, we made our way back to the
van. I rang home to catch up on all the information and to let them know we
were alive and well. Paul also rang Jaden to do the same thing. Dad then had to ring me via Skype to check
that he had it all working, a test run for his trip away. With it finally
sorted after the third, try we hung up and Paul and I went for a wander around
the park. Quite a large creek runs behind the vans and of course had Paul
wondering if there might be yabbies.
I went to the office for an internet code and enquired about
the likelihood of red claws and the owner said to try our luck, so we just
might.
We sat outside watching and listening to the park as people
emerged from their vans for Happy Hour. I went through the blog and photos for
the day, as the sun began to set warming the bones. Paul wandered off to be a social butterfly and when he returned he was straight in to sorting out the red claw yabbie dinner.
We ate like kings tonight, it was so delicious, we could have had another course. We sat about enjoying the evening and working out a plan for tomorrow. Paul spoke to Ballsy, catching up on the news from his end.
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