Day 6. Camooweal 2.7.26

We were woken early, 5.40 ish, by a train going past so we went for a walk. The sun didn't come up until after 7am.

Leichhardt River. 

Underground hospital precinct. 

The midwifery ward of the hospital. 

I learnt something new today.  The Japanese printed currency for all the nations they expected to conquer in WWII. 

When the war was over the tunnel entrances  were filled in.  Air ventilation tunnel where some children stumbled on the entrance and used the 'cave' for a cubbyhouse. They'd forgotten to fill in the vent.

Original post were made of Gidgee wood and won't need replacing but the new supports get replaced every so often (i forget 🤦🏽‍♀️).

Medicine cabinet. 

Women's general ward.

Nursery.

Labour room.

On the road to Camooweal. 

We didn't see any cows eating cars 🤷‍♀️

Solar powered windmill?

We are spending the night at the Camooweal Billabong free camp.  There's a huge amount of bird life, lots of other campers and no facilities at all.

We believe these are whistling kites.

Today we travelled 194 kms, total of 1941 kms.

The weather was very warm, range from 17 to 32°

Day 5. Mt Isa 1.7.26

 Woke up to find the moon going down

And the sun coming up. 

Sunrising on the cruiser as we are about to depart. 

We forgot to buy milk yesterday so we decided to head off early ish, 7am, and hope to find coffee or milk at McKinley.  No luck so we pushed on to Cloncurry after taking a few photos. 

Cloncurry was busy for only 9am. We parked up and walked around the block until we found a bakery.  Worms satisfied we headed to Mt Isa. 

A few pics between Cloncurry and Mt Isa 

We refuelled in Mt Isa, 200L @ $163.9.

After we set up we dashed off to get some groceries. We've booked in for a tour of the underground hospital for tomorrow morning before we leave as we just missed the last one for today. We had a nice relaxing afternoon as we'd been here before we decided to just chill at the van.

A few nibbles to relax with. 

We are staying at a free camp associated with the Irish Club so we thought we'd go to the club for dinner as it is pub night afterall. There are no facilities here but we have our own. The area is quite large, there's probably 20 vans here with room for more.

The club was a 700m walk away. 

We both took home a doggy bag 🐖 🐷 

3 planets above the horizon tonight.

From the top, Venus, Jupiter & Mercury. 

Today we travelled a much more sensible 270 kms, total of 1747 kms. The weather has been beautiful today, 16-31°

Day 4. McKinlay shire. 30.6.26

 We were advised in Aramac yesterday not to take the road to Hughenden as it was chopped up. So the plan was to head to Winton via Morella. There was about 90 kms of dirt involved and we'd had rain overnight so decided to go with plan C and head towards Longreach on the sealed road. We popped out on the Landsborough Hwy just north of the township. 

We had a few small water crossing and a little light rain but still a very scenic drive from Muttaburra to Longreach. 

Emus are few and far between. Today we've seen horses, cows, sheep, goats, emus and a snake.

Only stopped in Winton for a quick lunch stop.

Last time we were in the area we climbed the above rock formation. 

For something different we have parked up on the Landsborough Hwy behind a wall of hay bales halfway between Kynuna and McKinley. 

Our dinner view.

 Today we travelled 458 kms, total of 1478 kms.  We  are both a bit weary today. From tomorrow we can slow down and start to enjoy the trip as we have almost caught up to our original plan.

The weather has been cloudy and drizzly and the temperature range was 16-28°