Thursday – Mt Isa, Queensland
Just a long day today, with a head wind, yuck!
I knew I was in for a headwind today, so I would need to keep an eye on fuel and I actually stocked up the extra can again, it seemed silly carrying it empty! I had had a good night’s sleep for a change though, so I was prepared and after saying bye to Jason I headed to the Three Way junction where a cache had been hidden, this was a memorial to John Flynn, the initiator of the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
From here it was only 200km to Barkley’s Homestead the next fuel stop and it was pretty much uneventful country at that, long and flat, but for a change I noticed a lot of surface water and there was a fair amount of green around, courtesy of all the rain I guess 🙂
After grabbing tank and tummy at BH I looked around for the cache hidden amongst the old steam machinery and found it after a few attempts, trying not to be spotted by the travelling public.
The next few hours were just hard riding into a head wind, I am sure I have done more than my share of riding into them, surely it is about time I got a break! But, I eventually arrived at the Queensland border where I found another cache before grabbing some fuel, they had a nice sign on the side of the building, a bit of a dig at the NT 🙂
It was another 2 hours to Mt Isa where I planned to stay for the night and on the way I spotted some excavations, I had also seen similar work happening a few hundred kilometres back near the Stuart Highway in the NT. I had seen a few signs and it turns out it is a new fibre optic cable between the states, this bulldozer is unreeling the new cable into the pre dug trench, before it gets backfilled, they have a long way to go to meet those coming the other way!
After a few hours I saw the stack at the Isa and found my way to the caravan park I had stayed at a few times before. I grabbed a donga as my tent was still shagged before heading down to the RSL for dinner, but the kitchen was being done up, so I resorted to the Barky pub, still a nice feed though and cold beer. A couple of takeaways sorted out the rest of the night, tomorrow I had decided to make for Winton.
Day – 688 km and 428 miles
Trip –8,601 km and 5,345 miles
Cheers
TravellingStrom
WORLD 
TravellingStrom 