Northern Territory

Well since the last blog we have travelled into NT and South towards Alice Springs. It was a lot of travelling and high fuel prices, reminded us of travelling on the Nullabor.

We went from Mt Isa, diesel $1.55.9 woolworths 

Camonweal  $1.99

Barkly Homstead $2.09

Tennant Creek $1.78

Barrow creek $214.9 we only picked up 30 ltrs here, expensive and leaky pump

Aileron $2.10

Gem tree $2.30 again only small amount about 15 ltrs.

We stayed 2 nights at Gemtree Caravan Park which is about 140 ks north east of Alice Springs, enjoyed ourselves, the first night we were there it was Territory Day?? Never heard of it but an occasion to celebrate. They had a burger night and fireworks. We asked about a chicken burger for me and the answer was " it's cattle country, no chickens or lambs here love, it's it beef, BEEF, ok got that, any way we had tea organised, Thelma cooking and we went over for a drink and the fireworks, great night, a bit hairy with the fireworks as one shot out into the crowd instead of up into the sky, but no damage done. We went on a tag along tour into the gem field the next day, about 5 cars, they showed us how to dig, pick and shovel job, wash, sieve and find Garnets, back at camp they sorted through our gems and we had about 12 cutable Garnets, but it cost $40 per stone to cut them ..........

That night was a campfire roast $15 each, ok no chicken, it's cattle country..... They showed us how they cook this roast in the camp ovens, there were about 10 camp ovens the size we have and we had Roast Beef, pumpkin, roast onion, potato, cauliflower and broccoli cheese and gravy, I had the lot and kept the beef for Bentley...... A great stay there, lovely bush camp setting.

We moved on today to Alice Springs and we found a caravan park about 10ks out, $21 a night but you pay for the power you use, so we will see how much that works out at.

Into the Northern Territory

We had a stop at Devils Marbles on the Stuart Hwy, we had hoped to camp here but sadly no dogs

Bentley is getting tired of the red dirt and no grass....

Campsite at Gemtree

In the Gem fields

Our little claim

You had hold the sieve up to the light to see if you got a red glow which meant a garnet

 A quick stop for coffee

Not easy to photograph the garnets as you need light to show the red glow, so we used a mirror and torch 

Billabong at  camp with camp kitchen in the back ground

Camp Kitchen with the fire ready, later on there were about 10 camp ovens lined up with coals on top.

Quick photo of roast as I was eager to eat, was yum, another great evening.

Driving out today we met cattle slowly walking across the roads, it is cattle country...

I took these photos from the car.

Mt Isa

Over the last couple of days we have moved up to Mt Isa, we enjoyed Longreach but it was time to move on. First we stopped at Winton but we were both disappointed with the town for one reason or another so we stayed one night in the Caravan Park and moved on, we had to stay in a rest area before we got to Mt Isa, but was good because quite a few vans doing the same, eventually we got to Mt Isa which is a mining town and the mine or a least one of them is close to town, I would imagine if you lived here it would be because you are employed by the mine. There are a good range of shops and clubs, we had morning coffee and vanilla slice at The Buffs Club and lunch at the Irish Club, a shop at Woolworths and a quick hit in Kmart. It was hot about 28 degrees when we arrived but a bit cooler today, cool at night but dusty all the time. From here we will move across the border to Northern Territory.....

Last shots of Longreach

From our free camp looking across to the town of Longreach

Sunset on our last night there

We had a busy day travelling.... Bentley had to have a nap, so tired .....

A view of Mt Isa with the mine in the background, there is a highway running between the mine and the town. Not sure what is mined here but they do mine Copper, lead, zinc and silver in the area 

Another view with a mine in the distance

Still a long way from WA

Lake Moondarra, the towns water supply, as you can see it looks quite low,  the Mt Isa Mining Co created this lake in1958 by building a dam on the Leichardt river.

Looking down on the dam wall

More views of the lake, used for fishing and boating

There may be a lost Grandad on the dam wall

 

Qantas museum

Yesterday we spent the morning at the Qantas Founders Museum. Qantas started in this area in 1920, the original hanger is here plus, vintage planes and 747 and 707. They have different tours to take and we opted for the jet tour which allowed us the museum, and access to 747 and 707, also had our photo taken in the jet engine of the 747. We could have gone on the wing walk tour, which was extra of course and had a photo on the wing of the 707, but photo in the engine was enough for us.

We got a pass to visit the museum today and Brian went back and spent the morning there.

747 aircraft, donated to the museum in 2002 when it was getting to old to fly, it was a big day when it flew into Longreach in Nov 2002 as the runway was a lot smaller than what they usually land on, when it did land on the first try it took 19 turns to turn around as it's wingspan is 60 metres and the runway 30 mtrs

This is the 707, an older plane and type that John Travolta flys as his private jet, it's a lot older inside, with wooden fittings etc

The red and orange boxes are the Black Boxes.

Inside the 747, no individual movie screens and ashtrays on the seats, showing its age.....

Inside the cockpit of 747

Inside the galley on the 707

Inside the cockpit of 707

Old Catalina aircraft, used by Qantas to fly mail from Australia to Sri Lanka in WW2

Brian in WW1 fighter flight simulater he crashed through quite a few trees, houses etc but did land safely 

DC3

Photo of a photo, Brian and I in the engine of the 747

Longreach

Well I think I forgot to say where we were camped on my last blog. It was Sapphire. There are three towns around this area, Emerald, Sapphire and Rubyvale. Emerald is named after the Emerald Isle, nothing to do with Emeralds, Sapphire is defiantly named after the Sapphires found in this area and Rubyvale, well it seems Ruby is a red Sapphire !!! Very rare. We did have another fossicking day at Rubyvale before we left, slightly different washing and using a double sieve so that all the small heavier stones, the sapphires fall into the second sieve, we got lots if sapphire chips and a couple of bigger ones, all good fun.

After Sapphire we travelled to Longreach, arriving on Brian's birthday..... Longreach is an outback town in Western Queensland and the Qantas Founder Museum is here and we plan to visit there tomorrow. Today we went to the Stockmans Hall of Fame and went to an outback show, great fun, run by a stockman, he had his horses, whips, dogs, sheep and ended with a bullock, bit of singing, bad jokes, lots of fun.

We are camped in a free camp area, by the river about 4ks out of town, would be about 50 vans here tonight, so not lonely

Different washing for the sapphires

And once we sieved and washed all the sapphires are in the middle!!!

Sunset at our camp at Longreach

A Brolga, like a large Crane in the scrub near our van, about the size of a small emu

The Outback Show

This is his Quarter horse, well trained, every time he put the saddle cloth on, the horse would take it off

His Stock horse

Showing his riding skills

 Ended with standing on the horse

His Pack horse, he hobbled this with the leathers around the front legs and gave him a feed bag and then packed him up with his bags and swag

He brought his dogs out to round the sheep

One didn't think much of that idea and came into the audience and sat next to Brian, would rather watch the show...

He finished the show riding the bullock and singing, great show really enjoyed it

The Stockmans Hall of Fame, well I think that might be a lost Grandad in that photo.

No photos of Bentley, he stayed in the van today, too hot to leave him in the car