On to Mount Isa

May 3rd to Daly Waters 590 km

Departure from the Darwin City Edge Hotel was set to 0630 we were as usual a little later. Drove off at 6:45 from the hotel. By then, three Healeys had already started. We drove after the GPS and stopped for refuel at the first gas station. After that it was just to put cruise control on speed and head in the direction of Katherine.

We made a stop at a memorial to Forrest who managed to pull telegraph lines to this point from WA in 1873. When we were out on the road again, David and Di came running. They drove ahead of us right into Katherine. We rushed to the cafe we were at last Friday which was so good. It was just as good today! Tasty sandwich and coffee.

Then Cecilia bought a linen in a store next door. Talked for a long time with the girl in the shop who was very nice. On the road again after refuelling. Just such a monotonous road. So far it has not been as hot as last week the temperature stayed quite long below 30 degrees. We made a stop in Mataranka where we went down to the hot spring to bathe. Mataranka Thermal Pool is very fine in a palm forest. Lovely hot, guessing just over 30 degrees. This area belonged to Elsey station in the Never Never region. The book I ran into in Katherine is an autobiography written by a woman who in 1902 travelled from Melbourne to Elsey station where her husband had been offered a job in some higher position. Fun to actually have been there too. After the bath we went on to Daly Walters.

Well the highways are tiresome but when you meet this kind of vehicle you have to be on the edge.

_{Well the highways are tiresome but when you meet this kind of vehicle you have to be on the edge.
Mataranka hot springs- the shadows are not fish.}

The woman in the store in Katherine had told us that it would be a rodeo in the weekend tomorrow night in Daly Walters. It is strange, you drive and drive and it is nothing more than the road, and then suddenly you come to a town with lots of caravans, horse transport and people. It feels very much like new builders' spirit. But nice! There is a pub that also handles the gas pump.

You have to remember how much fuel in AUD in order to be able to pay at the bar desk in the pub after having fuelled up. Everything is based on trust. The pub itself is filled with abandoned bras and Panties hanging above the bar counter. In the outdoor room hangs the abandoned Flip flop shoes, etc. As well as a lot of number plates, preferably from AU, but I see some from Germany and someone from Hungary. Have they brought these from home to decorate the wall here? One wonders. We take an early Sundowner and then go on happy hour in the pub and also have dinner there.

Entertainment is provided by a woman singer who is staying there too. She sings well and many of the songs are well known. There was a sudden rain shower as well and it has apparently not rained here for eternity. In the evening another shower came.

Daly Waters Pub is an old pub that was built in the 1930s and has seen many things happen. Typical of a pub in an area with livestock husbandry is that the herds can be driven through the town street and that the cowboys drinks and fight as well as fire their weapons. Even against each other. The station owners in the area have also threatened to burn down the pub. They served beer and spirits to their employees.

It was good food and good entertainment when we were there. Funny that such a genuine old jam can look like it would collapse anytime and serve very good food. We are on the border of the prairie. At 590 km we have moved from the tropics, hot and humid, to hot and dry. The fall is coming and it becomes noticeable at night.

May 4th to Tennant Creek. 400 km

Raoul has a poor alarm on the phone so he woke me up at six when we could have been sleeping in until seven! It was intended that we would leave at eight, but pictures had to be taken so we left at 8.25.

_{Nice cars in front of Daly Waters Pub.
Why have the ladies left these hanging in the pub?}

It feels cooler in the air and the temperature shows 24 degrees. We roll on and first stop in Elliott after a couple of hours of driving. The majority, we understand, of the population are Aborigines. As you drive through town you are struck by how some plots look like garbage heaps. All the debris is out in the gardens, empty cans, empty bottles, yes everything you can imagine.

_{Driving 400 km in one day - not much traffic. Burnt areas occurred some bigger.
The landscape was always shifting.}

At the supermarket we bought coffee. Of all the appropriations in the store, it is understood that they are not easy with these people. For example, it says that for health reasons they do not sell alcohol to pregnant women.

We continue down to Tennant Creek. We are there at one o'clock. Check in at the motel. Then go down to a lunch spot called Memories restaurant. Reminds us of an RSL where you have to sign up to eat. Raoul ate a beef sandwich which was a great burger but with a beef steak in.Raoul enjoyed this different burger.

The thermometer started with 27 dropped to 25 before ending at 31 while driving. Lower temperatures in the morning due to clouds. Lots of flies in Tennant Creek because it hasn't rained this year. The dung beetles have not been able to bury the cud dung in the hard ground. The cattle suffer from drought and die. Both parts are good breeding grounds for the flies.

After lunch we sit for a while and talk to the restaurateur who is Indonesian. He has been in Australia for five years and is doing well in Tennant Creek. He works hard and hopes to become a permanent resident here. He has two children at the University of Sydney. He also has extra jobs and cleans up business. Really a diligent man.

There is a very interesting exhibition on the living conditions of the families here during this period and until the sixties. Very much based on photographs and letters written by the women. The men did not write any letters. The nationalities were many. There was a difficulty of transporting people and supplies to Tennant Creek from larger cities such as Alice Springs. At one point, it rained so much that the roads and the railroad were washed away and disappeared at 40 km. It caused the inhabitants to live on meat and bread. Livestock existed and the baker had a stock of flour/cereal. Fruits and vegetables did not come in for a long time. The highways were inaccessible south of Tennant Creek. New suppliers from the north had to be sought.

Exhibited items were mostly rusty scraped machines from the mines. There were a large number of mines. The gold rush caused many seekers, some of whom failed. The rush ended at the outbreak of World War II. After the war, it was the company that continued but now mining of gold ore has ended.

Afterwards we drove back to the hotel and it is stated that Saturday afternoons it is stone dead here. Few people hanging outside IGA. Sundowner at the hotel. We also ate a light dinner here at the hotel, a dessert for Raoul. Chocolate Brownie with ice cream and cream. Good ending to the day. Driving today was easy. Most traffic found during the last 20km south of Threeways.

May 5th to Mount Isa. 700 km

Woke up 05:30 am and departure 06:30 am, at dawn. We almost succeeded. Cecilia took the keys the room in order to leave it at the front desk but there was no place to leave it so she had to go back and leave it in the door instead. That made us last to leave.

First stop in Tableland after 200 km for coffee and sandwich then in Camooweal after another 270 km for lunch. Now we were back in Queensland. There are still a few days drive to Brisbane and 8 days left. Just over a week left of our 7 week tour. We are almost "home".

_{A perfect day to ride a Healey! The highway will never end.
Three Healeys resting in the shade.}

When we got to Mount Isa we went with Neil and David R to Lake Moondarah and watched. It is a dam from the Leichhardt river to guarantee the water supply for the city and the mines. It is very beautiful and serves as a recreation area. There is also a rich bird life.

Finished the excursion by going up to a lookout point in the middle of the city and looking out. From there you could see that the smoke from the chimneys had damaged the landscape. The smoke has been sulphurous and made the soil acidic. The result was that the vegetation killed and is now on the way back. Neil was the area manager in Mount Isa for a couple of years during his career. Sundowner and dinner at the hotel.

May 6th No driving today sightseeing in Mount Isa

Spent the morning at the tourist information which also has a demonstration mine, which is shown to tourists and others for a fee of AU$75. It was an interesting display of how mining worked a number of years ago. Hard, dangerous and vibrating work. There are fewer in the mine nowadays with larger and automated machines. Much from Swedish brands. It is also interesting that fans and mining machines were also operated with compressed air.

_{A common size of a vehicle in the outback.
Lake Leichhardt and a boat on tour.}

A great way to get energy down into the mine. Electric machines then came. Better ventilation and cleaner exhaust gas have now made use of diesel engines. Nice guide. It was interesting but sometimes a little difficult to keep up with the jargon. Among other things, they tell about the different population groups who came there and worked in the mine. It became like little colonies. Among other things, there was a group of about 1,000 Finns who worked at the mine in Mount Isa.

_{Calcium cemented 'sandstone' not yet fully dissolved in vinegar.
Teeth and parts of skeletons after dissolved.}

After a break and some lunch we got a guided tour of fossils. A station in Northern Queensland called Riversleigh has found numerous fossils in various stages of sandstone. Everything from teeth to large parts of animals that lived on Earth 30 to 40 million years ago.

We got to look in microscope at "small grains" that turned out to be teeth! Absolutely fascinating! The finds are unique. Many animal species that have not been found elsewhere, have been recovered. The sandstone contains mixers with small tooth parts and leg parts. Everything is stored in sandstone which in turn is a stored rock. Every winter the archaeologists are in the area knocking, blasting stone. The stone is placed in weak vinegar solution to dissolve the sandstone and obtain bones and tooth residues. Whole animals have also been found, ie the legs have been in the same place. Sundowner as usual and dinner at the RSL club in Mount Isa.