Woke up to that delicious smell of bacon cooking on an open fire, Dean is out with his new toy, a swivelling grille for cooking and is whipping up breakfast.
Its so simple but really does the job.
After breakfast its time for Dean and Tammy to pack up and leave us as Dean is off on a huge stag that afternoon.We say our goodbyes and thank them again for looking after us like we were family and as they leave (Down that steep drive) we are left, on the top of one of the highest peaks in Queensland with no phone reception.
We both take full advantage of this and have a day of relaxation, sitting in the sun and generally pottering about.
The only thing we had to attend to was 'lighting the donkey' a strange and cruel Queensland ritual where you find a donkey and basically set light to it......
Of course its not that, its just getting the hot water going by lighting a fire under the boiler.
Anyhow once this was done it was back to relaxing and another glorious sunset
and as if that wasnt enough it was apple pie and custard for desert.
Day 91
Todays the day for the big 'turn left' that we have been talking about since we left, time to head West into the unknown. Also time for my last shave for a while as it is day 1 of growing a beard.
Everyone else in the Storey family has now or has had in the past a full beard and moustache except 1.
Thats me.
Time to redress the balance and carmen is over the moon at the prospect as well (watch this space)!!
Our first task is to get Polly down the hill and back on to the tarmac. no small feat and Carmen is out taking action shots as we descend the mountain.
A 2 hour drive away are the Undara lava tubes and a shaky start as we are both paranoid about Kangaroos, Cows and Road trains but the road is good and we get there just in time to catch the last tour of the day at 1pm.
The tubes are formed when rivers of lava cool and form a crust and the middle is still molten and flows away.
Undara is famous for having the longest network of tubes in the world so we were both looking forward to this.
The tubes are brilliant, like big tube-caves and go on for miles apparently but a lot of it was still full of water from the last wet season and we even had to wade into one of them.
The tour lasted 2 hours and was over all too quickly and we had a quick sandwich
and headed on another hour and a half up the road to Georgetown and an overnight stop.
Day 92
Big drive today so we are up early (usual time) and with a full tank of fuel we are on the road to Normanton and finally to Karumba.
The road is a development road and starts off well with two full lanes of tarmac but there are also long stretches of single lane tarmac, so if something comes the other way you either share the road with him or get off it completly depending on who's bigger.
We drove for quite a way behind one of the road trains, which was good because everybody in front got out of the way but when he had to move onto the gravel for another road train you couldn't see at all for all the dust and gravel.
Stopped in Normanton for a quick look at the 'Purple pub', couldnt have a drink as we (I) were driving and so had a sandwich across the road and talked to a girl who was travelling around with a carnival!
Continued on the further 80kms to Karumba (Aie Karumba!) and excited to check into our camp site as they apparently have mobile reception (something we haven't had for days). Switch our phones on to tweet, check updates, text and all that but still no service, not one bar!!
Others around us are chatting and texting away we can see them!
Think it is either our sim cards or handsets and will visit the Telstra man in Mount Isa at the weekend to find out.
The campsite is nice, pretty tightly packed with caravans, 4Wds and tinnies but we find a spot for Polly and go to the beach to watch our first proper sunset over the water.
Day 93
Wake up to our 3 months on the road anniversary today and although it feels like yesterday that we were in Sydney it also feels like a long way away.
For those of you interested in the KM's challenge we have our first update picture (notice how well we are doing on 1 tank of fuel as well).
We will let you work out the total so far (check post No.1)
Still no phone reception so turn the computer on and plug in the dongle (perfect reception) and call Mitsubishi in Mount Isa to pre order the indicator replacement but after giving him the VIN number and waiting on hold he comes back to say that there isn't one in Australia and it would have to be shipped form Japan and would take 3-4 weeks!
'Shit' Carmen tells me i said.
So thinking ahead we have ordered the new part (from Japan) to be fitted in Darwin, hoping that in about a months time we should be there or therabouts and that is all we can do.
By the time I had got off the phone with Darwin Carmen arrives back at the van and informs me that she has just booked us on a fishing charter, leaving in an hour! It seems there really isn't anyhting else to do in Karumba (Which suits me)
So with not much time we head down to the boat ramp and await our boat, the 'Sandy Belle' and the skipper Daryl.
Looks like there area few others waiting to board as well but when he arrives just 4 of us climb aboard (1 bloke is doing a full day and is already on the boat) and we are off.
We motor out into the estuary for about 10 minutes and anchor up, we all cast in and wait.
The other womans line goes first and shes got a nice sized Blue threadfin salmon. Then Carmen is off and shes got another good sized bluey. The other woman is in again and so is Carmen, who catches a catfish this time (so he is put back).
Well me and the husband of this woman are looking at each other in disbelief here, 'outfished by the women' he says. Time to raise our game and then we started catching as well, all of us were reeling them in, and then I hooked a King salmon and what a whopper he was too, biggest fish of the day!
We carried on but the fishing died off and we returned to shore faced with the prospect of cleaning all those fish. The campsite is well set up for it with an area with benches and hoses for cleaning your fish, but as soon as we arrived, put the fish out and started taking pictures the two old boys in the background were over offering to help.
Well i did use to work on the fish counter in a supermarket but that was a long time ago and was happy to let the old boys show us their skills. Pretty swiftly, the fish were filleted and the job was done and we packed some in the freezer and kept a whole fish out for our dinner which we cooked in foil on the BBQ with lemon and herbs.
Delicious.
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