Turned the Corner, Heading East
28 April 2019 | Mount Isa
Helen
Watched some tv and movies last night. Saw part of From Here to Eternity as well as the entire Happy Gilmore. Strange movie, but entertaining. Didn't finish until 11 so that is when we got to bed. Let's just say it was not a comfortable bed. Woke up a few times, eventually getting up around 7 when the alarm went off. Had breakfast and got ready to leave. Packed the car and left around 7:45. Our wifi disappeared as soon as we headed out of town. The landscape was once again pretty flat with the odd hill. And also very dry. Temperature early was 23C. Our day time high reached 33C! We drove around 20 kilometers north before turning east on Route 66, Barkly Hiway. There was red soil and some rocks in places but mostly dried out shrubs and grass. Nothing else around. We passed over plenty of creeks but they were all dry. Not much in the way of animals, although they posted to beware of cattle. Stopped for fuel at Barkly Homestead. Mark got some coffee and commented that it was the best he has had in weeks. We filled up with fuel at $1.79/litre. Then continued our drive. There was more traffic on the hiway than we had seen going north. Most of the vehicles we saw were trucks or truck trains. The biggest one had four trailers behind it. I would never want to drive something that long. At Queensland border, the hiway changed to A2. The vegetation looked much healthier. We could see cows and horses along the edge of the hiway. In places, there was an odd building or signs for someone's farm. We stopped at Camooweal for lunch and a top up of our fuel at only $1.74/litre. Mark continued to drive, which was good for me. We turned off for Boodjamulla National Park, but it was another 225 kilometers, so we turned around. As we arrived at Mt Isa, our destination, there was a sign for Lake Moondarra, which was 13 kilometers away. We decided to check out the lake. The whole way along, we saw empty water creeks, so this would be something different. The lake was beautiful. There was a boat ramp and a couple of families putting their boats into the lake. There were also people having a picnic lunch around the edge of the lake as we took a lovely walk. We could see a dam wall on the far side of the lake. It had to be pretty sizable. Headed back to the main hiway to Mt. Isa. Stopped once more to top off our tank as we would just like to get up in the morning and head east. We drove thru the downtown which had several shops. It's Sunday, so most of the shops were closed. We found our hotel and checked in. It's actually two hotels in one. We had a very long walk to our room. I am not sure there was a room further away from our check in desk. The room is quite nice. The bed is much softer, too. And they have free wifi too. We decided to take a walk before it got any later. Needed to get some exercise. We were sad to see more of the flies here and along our travels today. We had to swat them off as we didn't wear our fly nets. Mark checked at the bar area of our hotel, to see if they had a Fox channel with today's F1 race at 10 pm. They didn't have the right channel. So we asked for a suggestion of other venues. We were told the Buffs Club was not far away but they most likely had that tv channel. So, we went for another walk. We did find out that they had the right channel, but not sure if they would be able to play that channel. We will head back there around 9 or so and check. There is a cinema across from our hotel and they were playing the new Avenger movie with a very long line to get tickets. We don't have enough time and we're too tired out to sit another number of hours. Our hotel plus the Buffs both have pokey rooms. So, we will have to try our luck tonight. When Mark checked in, he went by the bar and at least two or three people asked him for money. I think it was for their gambling habits. Not very welcoming to strangers. We walked back to our room and started watching some movies. I posted several pictures today. Mark is planning on working on my phone to see if he could retrieve the lost pictures thanks to the aliens at Wycliffe Wells. Thanks for your emails and messages. Enjoy the weekend!