Alice, here we come.

Cycling around the Isa was a great way to explore the area. On the last day we were there, we rode out towards Duchess on a dirt road. It was a pleasant ride & we finished off with a coffee and the customary visit to the supermarket for supplies. We met some great people in the caravan park and learnt a lot about life on the road as well as some places to visit on future trips.

The temperature was increasing and we decided to do an overnight stay in Tennant Creek so we booked a cabin.

It was a long drive but quite a good trip once we passed Camooweal because to my delight the speed limit in NT was 130km/h! That was until we saw the petrol gauge drop very quickly & Vinnie reckoned we might not have enough fuel to get us to the next petrol station! Ok, Jules Brabham had to lift the foot.....we quickly learned to follow our fuel consumption very closely as it was a long time between stops.

Tennant Creek was interesting, but at 35C, we weren't keen to stay too long.

The Devil's Marbles 100km south of Tennent Creek, was a wonderful spot & we decided we'd love to come back and do a bush camp here.

On to Alice and the sky was looking gloomy. The road was excellent and we passed lots of caravans heading north. The temperature was dropping.

It had to happen, our first set up in the rain. The Oztent went up quickly and then it poured. I went scambling for my thermals as the temperature dropped to 18C. What a contrast to the previous evening! We postponed our cycle into town and made camp for the night.

Thanks to those of you who have posted a comment. Much appreciated!

Exploring the Isa

With four nights in the Argylla Caravan Park, we've been able to do some reading relaxing and exploring. Isa reminds us both of Broken Hill, quite industrial, a little unkempt, with industries next door to houses and only 2 or 3 streets from the main part of town.

We visited the underground hospital museum which was set up during WWII, because of the threat of Japanese Invasion. Fortunately it was never needed, but with the financial assistance of Mt Isa Mines, was restored and made into a historical museum.

Today we pedalled out to Lake Mundoora, a 50km round trip & blew away some of the travelling cobwebs. It is the town water supply, no camping or fishing but some great picnic areas. Unfortunately it has fallen victim to blue-green algae & a mosquito danger!!

We're running a day behind our schedule but plan to pick up the day at Tennant Creek - we'd planned 2 nights there but travellers tell us it's not a real good place to stay so we'll do an overnight cabin stay and have 2 big travelling days & head to Alice. It might be a while before I can update the blog!

Burke &Wills country - Boulia Mt Isa

After unloading a fistful of dollars to view all the museums & sights of Longreach - oops blew the budget, we left the thriving metropolis of Ilfracombe & headed through to Boulia. I will say that we enjoyed the Qantas museum and particularly the guided tour of the Boeing 707 which had an interesting history. Born in the 1960s, it flew the Queen, the Beatles to Australia and belonged to the Sultan of Arabia before ending up in a scrap yard in the north of England. It was rescued and restored at some ginormous cost to Qantas and the Australian Government and returned as a museum piece. It is still in working order but I think they're running out of pilots qualified to fly it!! We were not allowed to take photos of the inside because no infidel is permitted to view where the Arab leader was seated....!? Imagine Vinnie's response to that!! I did take a photo of him waving where the Beatles stood.

We thought it was a reasonably easy drive through to Boulia & we took our time to view the (free) sights of Winton & have lunch before driving to Boulia, imagine our surprise when we discovered it was 360km to Boulia not 160 like Vinnie had thought! Lucky we had booked the last motel room at the caravan park so we didn't have to worry about setting up for an overnight camp. The road to Boulia was interesting with the landscape constantly changing and we were glad to have taken the road less travelled. We passed little traffic, luckily as it was a single track bitumen road. We did pass a hardy cyclist though, riding a single speed bike heading to Alice. He would have ridden 160km to Middleton that day with only peanuts to eat!!

The Middleton Pub was a classic, the lounge really was the lounge of the people living there!! The publican had a whinge about the multi bucks caravans pulling in to camp over the road & not bothering to have a beer at the pub. Vinnie reckons he needed a marketing manager, beer on tap and I would add a cleaner to that list!! Worth the stop. Yes he was a friendly chap!

Boulia was a village with one pub and an expansive caravan park with a neat but tiny motel room. Vinnie cooked up a tasty steak on the camp stove & we then headed into town to the pub to chat with some locals (it was Saturday night after all!).

Vinnie has been reading the book "Dig", which is the story of Burke & Wills and he has really enjoyed pointing out places of interest and rivers that they named on their travels. He says I have to read the book before we follow their trail from the other end near Innamincka. This tree (not the DigTree) is a waddi tree and was a corroboree tree for the local pitta pitta tribe.

We only had a 300km trip to the Isa so it was an easy day & we set up with little fuss, pulled the bikes off the roof & pedalled in to have a look around town.

Longreach, roadtrains &4WDs

Outback Oz, wide open spaces, road trains, 4WD towing behemoth caravans and lots of roadkill! A chat around the campfire at Mitchell and a recomendation for a caravan park outside of Longreach landed us in a little place called Ilfracombe. We were wedged into a tiny tent site, the second last one available so setting up proved a challenge (more than the usual!).

We had rung and booked earlier in the day luckily so after a long drive with a stopover at the Barcaldine workers heritage centre we were glad of a place to stay & set up for 3 nights. It was our first set up of the annexe and even though it was quite cool, Vinnie managed to work up a sweat! All energy expended, we opted for tea at the pub. What a classic aussie pub - it's called the Wellshot Hotel!

Today it was windy and cold (where is the sun we kept asking ourselves & what happened to the pleasant winter temperatures?) We drove the 27km into Longreach and promised ourselves we'd ride in tomorrow. The Stockman's Hall of Fame is every bit as good as we thought it would be and Vinnie spent ages reading every piece of history he could find.

It has been a lot of fun meeting fellow travellers and hearing their stories. There are certainly some characters on the road. Heard a sad story this morning, two couples towing vans heading for the same places we plan to go had a great trip until one of the couples had an accident and wrote off their car and caravan on the Boulia to Mt Isa Rd - the same road we plan to travel. Boys - don't tell Nanna....

Love to hear from anyone. What's going on in your world? So glad we can avoid most of the election hype....

Mitchell - gateway to the outback

We had a smooth journey with lots of roadkill (glad we weren't on a bike...) and expansive cotton fields. No wonder there's no water in the Darling, it's all up around the north western cotton farms.

We had to call into the winery at Roma only because we missed it last time we were there 18 years ago!

Mitchell is a small community west of Roma with an endless supply of grey nomads escaping the Victorian winter. The warm springs are a drawcard and we intended to make use of them the following day. We arrived close to dark and then had to set up and get organised to cook tea. Of course we entertained the caravanners as they watched amused at the "green campers" set up.

It was a cool night and the sleeping bags held out the cold & the Oztent was comfy.

Tuesday dawned cold & crisp & the early morning dash to the loo was not welcome. After a hearty eggs & baked bean breakfast we decided to ride around the town & explore the area. Nothing like a bike ride to blow away the cobwebs of a car trip. We came across a road train - I don't want to be passed by one of those while I'm on my treadly!

Of course we had to have a spa in 33deg pool - bliss. Then a mandatory trip to the local pub to check out the history and sample the xxxx on tap.

Check out the flannie......Vinnie blending with the locals!

Off to Longreach tomorrow. Really looking forward to seeing the Stockman's Hall of Fame.

Last minute packing

A busy day of farewells and packing. Our Aussie grandchildren & their dad & Uncle Simo came to say goodbye. Our Middle eastern family rang us on skype to wish us a great trip & we've had many friends send their good wishes so we are starting to get excited - just need to squeeze that extra necessity in...(do you really need that much Jul....?) You just never know how cold it might be in the desert do you?
One more sleep.

Trip planning

Well, this is a first for me - creating a blog instead of writing a diary. Only five more days until we set off & we still have plenty to get ready. Vinnie has been preparing for months and already knows where everything will be packed. Not quite sure how we'll fit it all in...guess that means I won't be shopping for the next six weeks!

We began planning our route six months ago, it will be interesting to see how much we deviate from the original plan. We plan to have 2-3 nights in each place depending on how much there is to see. We don't want to set up the tent too often!! We haven't booked anywhere, don't think there'll be a run on tent sites.....

This is it in a nutshell;

Ballina Mitchell Longreach Boulia Mt Isa ThreeWays/Tennant Creek (two weeks to do all this) Alice Springs (two weeks here to explore Uluru, Kings canyon etc) Coober Pedy, Leigh creek Innamincka Tibooburra Bourke Lightning Ridge Glen Innes Ballina.

Please feel free to comment. We'd love to hear from you!