5th June 2013
After being on the road for a while now, and with so many sights to visit and experience so far, Sharon and I decided we'd take some time out at Mt. Isa and just do nothing for a day. We drove the short way into the heart of the CBD where we parked the Prado in one of the many sun-shaded spots in the street. We had a bit of a wander around but this is a bit of a strange place with many of the businesses closed up and for sale.
Thankfully, we did manage to find a "Coffee Club" outlet that seemed very popular so, after taking care of some banking, it was straight in for the usual Cappuccino and Long Black. This place has a full breakfast, lunch and dinner menu and was most impressive. It was a bit hard not to notice all the "Qld Maroons" State of Origin Rugby paraphernalia stuck up around the place so I brilliantly deduced a game must be on that evening.
I'd gotten really annoyed back at Alice Springs with the lack of T.V. reception we were experiencing and I'd spent a bit of time there mucking around with the leads and plugs and trying to get our antenna to do what it's supposed to do. When we're away in the 'van we don't usually watch much tele, but we do like to try and keep up with the News, so when I spotted a Bunnings store, we popped in a bought a better antenna.
So, once we got back to the Caravan Park, I got out some tools and set to work fitting the new acquisition. The couple from the 'van behind us wandered past and stopped for what ended up a fairly long chat. They were from N.S.W. and had been on the road for a while and started their trip in a pop-top 'van much like ours, but decided to upgrade to a 19' conventional 'van with an airconditioniner after the weather got unbearable the furter north in W.A. they went. There was also and older bloke that came over and started gas-bagging as soon as I lifted the bonnet on the Prado to top up the washer bottle. He proudly told me he had a Toyota too (a Land Cruiser) that had in excess of 300,000kms on the clock and was still going strong. He and his wife were getting around the country with a camper trailer in tow so it was a good opportunity to get his view on the practicalities of this type of touring.
Getting back to the tele antenna, I finally got it up and the t.v. happily tuned in to a bunch of digital stations. We were good to go.
The rest of the day was spent just sitting around and catching up on some blogging etc.
Later that evening, Sharon and I came to the realisation that we'd made a big mistake being in Mt. Isa during a State of Origin match. This town is rugby mad. There were groups everywhere watching the game and as the match rolled on, and the alcohol was consumed, so the noise level grew. We went to bed not knowing who'd won, but with the car horns blaring out on the street, and the hooting and hollering going on, we assumed it was Queensland. Someone in the street behind the Park was having a State of Origin party, which is apparently the thing to do, and the music blared at us 'til the small hours of the morning. Not a pleasant night.
We later discovered that N.S.W. beat Qld. quite convincingly so I'd hate to be around when they actually win!
Sorry, no photos today.
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