Mt Isa to Cloncurry

By the time we left the Irish Club last night it had cooled down to about 22 degrees. We drove back to our odd overnight setting and had a good night’s sleep. We even needed our quilt as well as the sheet by the morning. I didn’t get a photo of the setting, pity. But, here we have one of Stephen at the Irish Club.

We decided to spend the morning at the Visitors Centre/Museum. This fitted in with our next destination of Cloncurry, only 120 kms away.

Stephen went into the fossil museum, whilst I enjoyed sitting in a lounge chair in the reading nook and visiting the garden.

It was pleasant all morning, so we decided to walk over to the shopping centre. Stephen bought a new fitting for our hose and a pair of plyers, plus we replenished our pantry and fridge.

Afterwards it was hot in the van, so we had lunch at Outback at Isa where we had spent the morning.

Often when we park somewhere (we were told it was OK to be on the lawn), another motorhome or two or three will join us. As happened today.

The scenery on the drive to Cloncurry was wonderful. We could only stop once where there was a view and here are a few of the photos.

There were other wonderful sights, but the first half of the drive was very challenging, very windy, curving up through cuttings in the hills, sharp downward parts, and roadtrains travelling both ways to add to the difficulty.

At one point I was watching a roadtrain coming around a curve towards us with the rear carriage (no. 3) fishtailing. I slowed, to the consternation of the road train driver behind me who must have found it very difficult to avoid going into me. I don’t know why he was travelling so close behind me – we were about 3 kms from a passing lane. I pulled over at a rest stop and had to go in very fast because I knew he was just behind. He gave me a serve over the two way, on reflection, I was impressed that he didn’t swear as the experience from his point of view must have been as frightening as it was for us. Also, he did wait until we were safely in the rest area before saying anything.

But why he was travelling so closely behind an RV? Stephen was about to say something in return, to try to explain, but I stopped him. The man had got his feelings off his chest, and really, I should have held my ground when I saw the fishtailing because slowing down wouldn’t really have helped us if it had got worse.

We were told when we bought the Winnie to pay attention to what was in front of us and ignore what was happening behind as that was the next driver’s business. The whole thing of cars and RVs sharing the road with road trains is a mess, we have such different aims and shouldn’t have to deal with each other.

We had about half an hours rest, then drove on. We were about half way and the road did get easier, if less spectacular, as we went along. We had rung up the caravan park at Cloncurry in the morning to book, and were told not to worry, they had plenty of places. When we arrived, they we full, but managed to squeeze us into an overflow section. What we really wanted was to have power so that we could use the airconditioner. The evening is still very warm and humid, and would be very uncomfortable without. Like the other RVers in our section we are very grateful to be squeezed in together with power and water.

We enjoyed one of our standard RV life meals, vegetables and tuna. We also had some salad bought fresh today. We have to shop fairly frequently to keep us in bananas.

We had our showers early as there is the threat of the water being cut off between 9.00 p.m. and 3.00 a.m. for upgrades. In sticky weather having proper showers, rather than just washes in the van, is quite lovely.

As the number of photos suggest we have quite fast internet here.