Karumba to mount Isa

Day 94
A red letter day today (and as im sure you all remembered) its Carmens birthday!!
What a lucky girl, she got a new basket for her bike and a shiny new pair of flip flops (thongs for the Aussies) and a lovely card, decorated with sea shells.

Well, after the excitement of all that had died down we decided to head in to karumba proper for a look as we have been staying out at karumba point, a 10 min drive away.
Theres not a great deal to it really, a small main street along the river.
We pick up some fresh bread and birthday cake for later and go to the dock where the prawn trawlers come in and get a kilo bag of cooked prawns for $15.
Head back and make a little picnic with the prawns for lunch, what a size they are too when we open them. Must be the biggest prawns we have ever had, about the size of your hand!!

Now a kilo bag of prawns is not to be undertaken lightly and by the end of it we are both stuffed to the gills and can hardly move. I do manage to get a picture of the kites that have been circling for ages, probably looking for spare prawns.

Spend the rest of the afternoong relaxing and head down to the sunset tavern for.... the sunset!

As its a Birthday tea we decide to have a nights break from fish and both order the steak.
When it come out it must be half of a cow, 500 grammes I am told.

We both manage to finish it and are rolled home afterwards just in time to enjoy (force down) the birthday cake. We both opted for the humming bird cake and delicious it was (we should be eating more cake).
What with the Prawns, the Steak and now the cake you could say we had been well fed today and retire to bed feeling slightly overfull but happy.

Day 95
After all of yesterdays eating we woke up full this morning and so only a light breakfast (and just the 1!) and were off fishing down at the riverbank (there really is nothing else to do in Karumba).
After about half an hour it is far too hot and we vow to come back later and retire to the coolness of the pool for a dip and head out on the bikes to look at the mud flats where the tide has gone out.
The beach has been compressed into a hard almosy rocky surface, which is especially good for mountain biking and so we enjoy riding up and down for a bit.

Back down at the waters edge later, Carmen has decided not to fish and is reading her book on the beach. I however am intent on catching something and so (with much bigger hooks (Bigger hooks equal bigger fish)) throw a line in and wait.
Before long I am in and it feels like a reasonable fish but when I get it to the bank its a Catfish and has sharp spines sticking out all over the place so back he goes straight away.
With no other fish we head back for fresh caught King Salmon and chips from the chip shop. We eat at the camp kitchen and run into the grey nomads who have been slowly adopting us over the last few days and the ones who helped us fillet the fish. For the second time in the last few days they feed us some of there desert and tonight it is baked apples done in the camp oven, stuffed with sultanas and spices with custard!
Its good to make friends with your neighbours.

Day 96
Time to pack up and head off so up early and on the road at a good time, back through Normanton and stop briefly to see a replica of the largst croc ever caught which was shot by a woman in 1957 in the river we had been fishing on yesterday!! It was a monster as well, over 8 1/2 metres long and could swallow you whole easily.

Where's wally

Excitement out of the way it was a 250km drive of nothingness to the Bourke and Wills roadhouse where we stop to fill up (pricey here) and have a sandwich in the stinking hot dustbowl.

Troy is this your creek?

Carry on to Cloncurry and arrive having covered another 467KM today.
Not much going no in Cloncurry but it does hold the record for the highest ever recorded temperature in Australia, clocking in at 53 deg! That's pretty hot and although it wasn't that today it felt like it had to be up there.
The man at the van park told us they were having a Sausage sizzle that night and invited us over.

Brilliant we thought and strolled over. Turns out its $2.50 for a small sausage in a bit of bread with a few onions on it. What a rip off.
We had 2 each....
Two sausages not being enough for a growing boy I needed a further meal when we got back to the van so went over to check out the kitchen.

Fridge in a phonebox

Lets just say they were not the best facilities we have encountered.
We enjoyed a beautiful sunset with a glass of wine and laid back and drifted off to sleep to the soothing sound of road trains passing 10 metres from our heads.

Day 97
Get up and out of road train central (I actually got a good nights sleep) and its only a short drive to Mount Is and what a nice drive it is, along a sweeping highway weaving through the Selwyn ranges and before you know it you see the huge mine on the far edge of town and you have arrived.
Hot is how we feel as we step out of the van into the dry dusy heat of Mount Isa, we do the now obligatory lap of the town and stop at the information centre to pick up all the leaflets and the like on the area and the next leg of our journey.

Its a mining town

We had spotted a Telstra shop and so head there to sort out our reception issues but would you believe it as we arrive the shop is closing (1pm on a Saturday afternoon!) and they wont let us in so that means nothing until Monday morning now.
'Bastards' Carmen said and we walk away annoyed.
Call in to get Polly an orange contact lens for her dodgy eye and a spare one just in case and Carmen insists on getting a 'Roo whistle'to scare them off as you drive so they don't jump out in front of you (We shall see if it works).
Checked in at our van park and popped over the road to our local pub for a cold one. The Overlander hotel and (We are told) it is legendary.

We have brought some of our frozen catch from Karumba with us and so whip up a  fish curry in the camp kitchen before getting an early night.

Day 98
A lie in this morning and after breakfast head over the road (next to the pub) to do some grocery shopping and stock up for the next couple of weeks in the remote outback with shopping opportunities few and far between.
Another milestone today as its 1 week on the beard growing ladder.
Not really a beard yet but getting there and notice how I have gone to the trouble of dying some of them grey to add a bit of age to me.

Jump on our bikes and go for a cycle ride around town to see the sights.

Ride up to the mine and look through the fence at the monstrosity that dominates the city and see the flying doctors base with a (restored) plane that crashed in Western Queensland in the 40's.

The mine

The plane

Deciding its far to hot again we cut short our bike ride and nip into the pub to cool down. Still not cool enough we decide to jump into the pool for a swim and this does the trick nicely.
Its Fish for tea again tonight (Again!!), the rest of the King salmon on the BBQ and we get an early night in preparation for another big drive tomorrow.