Northern Territory

Northern Territory

Friday, July 8, 2011

Day 9 - Richmond to Mt Isa

Another beautiful day. Temperature was 15 degrees this morning and warmed up to a balmy 25. First stop was Julia Creek for breakfast, Quiver was glad the pogoing was finally over. Whilst yesterday was pogo day, today shall me named bird day. So many birds, especially Kites, literally thousands of them. The Kites seem to hang around the roadside waiting for fresh roadkill. I saw as many as 50 birds feasting on a wild pig on the side of the road.

There were finches and swallows, all in their hundreds. The swallows sit on the bitumen and play chicken, not taking off until the last minute. I spent quite a bit of time hiding behind my screen worried that I would get hit in  the head or the shoulder by one of them. Thankfully, I did't hit any.

The road trains suck you in as they go passed and then you are hit by the wind buffeting for a few seconds afterwards. If I lie down on the tank as they go passed the buffeting isn't as bad.

The terrain is dry with some tea tree and not much else. This continues on until Cloncurry, home of the Flying Doctor.

Between Cloncurry and Mt Isa the landscape becomes hilly and the red rocks shimmer in the sun. The sun reflecting off them makes them look like they are covered in gold foil. I stopped off at the Burke and Wills Memorial, which is a little understated, although it does sit beside a flowing stream.


The scrub gets denser the closer you get to Mt Isa and the landscape is dotted with termite mounds.


A funny sight on the way into town, a huge pink billboard advertising the Adult Shop!. I did giggle to myself thinking about all those grey nomads getting frisky in Mt Isa.

As Mt Isa is a mining town, accommodation is very hard to find during the week. My options were to camp or pay $100 for a donger in town, or $80 out of town. I had just given up on finding something when I saw a man putting a sign out that he had accommodation. Yahoo! last room due to a cancellation and for the price of a donger.

KILOMETRES TRAVELLED - 405

HIGHLIGHT - All the birdlife

1 comment:

  1. You look like your enjoying yourself Karen. Love reading your daily blog. I look forward to hearing of the days events.

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