DARWIN

We headed to Katherine gorge after Mataranka and it got even hotter than before. The top of Katherine Gorge can reach temperatures in excess of 60 degrees centigrade according to the info centre.
It was pretty hot while we were there with the bus sitting at 40 degrees inside all day during the day, and maybe cooling to about 30 - 35 at night. Our fridge wasn't coping too well and was at 18 degrees...

In the interest of our food and our sanity we decided to adandon the upper NT until we came back down with a working air con.

We kayaked Katherine gorge, and it was OK, but still didn't see any freshwater crocs. We saw a pretty cool snake though

Katherine Gorge from a Kayak

Some kind of snake (hard to see in this picture)

On our way back up the gorge we got pulled up by national parks for kayaking in the gorge without a permit.
We honestly didn't know you needed a permit to go kyaking in the gorge, it seemed to be the biggest thing in their day and about 5 guys came down to talk to us and we had to pay $11 each for the privilege of kayaking down their glorified river.

It was nice of them to let us off, but really there wasn't really much special about Katherine gorge, definitely not enough to charge people to paddle around in it.

After that we headed straight to Darwin and picked up a french Canadian hitch-hiker on the way up who had been standing in the heat with no water for an hour already at the bottom end of Kakadu. Poor guy looked like he was about to die. It was really hot...

When we finally arrived in Darwin the temperature was a lot more bearable, it was probably only about 32-35 degrees. We decided the first thing was to get an air conditioner. They don't make them as small as the one in the bus anymore (of course), but we found one a little bigger (And about twice as long) and cut a hole out of the roof and put it in. We couldn't wait to get it started and had it running while we were putting it in.

After that ordeal we went down to the night markets which were awesome (we've been before but they were just as good the second time), but we didn't take a camera. We also went to the Darwin international film festival and watched some international cinema in the deckchair cinema. That was heaps good, we saw a great doco called Tabloid about a beauty queen who allegedly tied down and had her way with her Mormon boyfriend.
It was the funniest documentary I've ever seen, definately worth watching.
The cinema is great too, there were possums running around in the tree's and it was nice being outside in the fresh air. It had a great feel to it and it was pretty cheap too.

We also went and saw the underground fuel tanks under Darwin city and read about Darwin's not so colourful history with all the attacks from Japan. (Apparently Darwin received more bombing than pearl harbour, it's just there wasn't much there to be destroyed. It definitely took some serious damage though).

Deckchair Cinema

Underground fuel tanks (The above ground one's were destroyed in WWII

Typical NT news story

We're having some major difficulties with the old XR 250 at the moment. It's blown it's head gasket and is blowing out heaps of smoke and spraying hot oil all over your leg while you ride it. I reckon this is because these bikes are only air cooled, and probably don't deal with 40 degree heat too well...
I'm gonna have to bear with it for a few weeks and just go to work with engine oil on my leg for a while until pay day and we can get a reliable vehicle.
That would be the day...

The bus is also making some alarming squeaking noises which sounds suspiciously like bearing squeaks.
I sprayed fish oil all under the chassy in the hopes that would miraculously fix whatever's squeaking, but it's never that simple...


Otherwise everything's great. Darwin is a great town, I think we're gonna have a really good time here.

Mount Isa to Mataranka

Haven't updated for ages. Not because of a lack of want to, but because there is no reception between Mount Isa and Mataranka.

There have been the usual bus drama's, but everything's looking sorted now.

We made it back to Mount Isa by taking short trips and then stopping and watching T.V for an hour while we let the bearings cool, thankfully the bearings didn't crack and no grease got into the wheel hubs.

We then asked around for a good mechanic in mount Isa, and found a real good one. .. In fact, the best mechanic we've ever had (And there's been a few...)

We also ordered some new bearings from supercheap auto (after mount Isa toyota lied and said that you couldn't get bearings for vehicles that old, even though it's never been a problem from other toyota dealers...)

While we waited for the bearings we went to a few more of the local landmarks, we headed out to the 'poison hole' (an old abandoned open cut copper mine) which was meant to have super green water you can swim in. (It turned out to just be a dam...) We also caught up with some of Rachael's old friends from Armidale Uni, and got a personal tour of the town and it's surrounds and the mine site. We were also disappointed over and over again by the mount isa dining experience.

Here's a photo from main street mount Isa showing the view of the open cut mine from the streets

Mount Isa and the mine and smelter from above


After staying in mount Isa for a week we were getting pretty over it, it's a pretty depressing town with the smelter overlooking it, and you can't walk barefoot anywhere or you get black dust all over your feet from the copper smelter, which might not be a problem for most people but was driving me crazy.


The mechanic (Kev, from Kev's Automotive Mt Isa) was amazing, he went through everything really thoroughly, adjusted all the brakes (which were way out) and replaced the bearings. He was brilliant. The old bearings were quite heat damaged so it was good we got on top of it.

But, after driving another 180K's to Camooweal we stopped for gas, and the bearings were still heaps hot.

Apparently that is just how hot coaster bearings get when driving in the outback heat, and we were being hypochondriac's... It's hard not to though with our track record.

So, we bared on through the hundreds of K's to 3 ways then up to Mataranka. And on the way we passed 'Hobohome'.
These are a couple of Kiwi's I've been following online for ages at www.hobohome.com . It was cool seeing their bus in the flesh, they are kind of celebrities in my mind.



Mataranka was very nice, it was a bit of a paradise after travelling through the red centre. We stopped at the Mataranka thermal springs first thing in the morning and braved the flying fox shits dropping down from the palms above (There can be up to 300 000 of them hanging around the springs during the dry season) and enjoyed a peaceful swim in the springs before all the backpackers started to arrive.

Rach and Me in the Thermal Springs

The springs were apparently a balmy 34 degrees Celsius, but they almost felt cool compared to the heat around Mataranka, and were very easy to stay in.
We've been struggling a bit on this trip with no air conditioning. It is first thing on our list of things to get done, especially now we're in the Northern Territory, it's killing us...

After the springs started to fill with backpackers we decided we'd have a crack at kayaking up the roper river on our inflatable kayaks and try spotting some croc's
We went up a few K's and then hit some rapids caused by some tree's blocking our path, I almost got sucked into the rapids being a retard and lost my snorkel gear which was on the back of the kayak and my paddle (Which I managed to retrieve at great danger).
After that we headed back down the river, trying the kayaks over the smaller rapids (They did really well). It was a good trip in all, but we didn't see any croc's (Apparently they are breeding this time of year and making nests, so are hard to spot on the shore). We did spot a water monitor, a baby snake, and a bunch of fish though so it was a good trip

Tree

Baby Snake stuck in a hole

Water Monitor - Notice it's flat fin tail for swimming.

After that we headed over to bitter springs to cool off. They were amazing. after all this time inland I've been getting badly snorkel deprived. It was good to spend a bit of time underwater. And diving around in the fresh water was pretty cool. The lower specific gravity of fresh spring water made it easy to sink to the bottom.

The springs didn't have a huge amount of life in them due to the low oxygen in the water from high temperature and the underground source of the water. But a surprising amount lived in there. There were long necked turtles, A lot of plant life and about 100 000 guppies.

Bitter springs were well worth the visit.

Here's a photo of Daly Water's pub for no reason

And some spoonbill's eating some innocent fish trapped in a puddle


The bus looks like it might take us to Darwin after all, we just need air-con. It's killing us...
Tomorrow it's off to Katherine gorge to see some crocs. It's a hard life...

Mount Isa

Well haven't updated for a while, as per usual.

After the breakdown in Normanton we took the bike out to Karumba to see the seafood festival (very underwhelming but the town was really nice), and on the way back the front tyre blew!! We hailed a couple of people down and they helped us reinflate our tyre and we got another 10 K's or so and then it went down again. Eventually a ute with a few jackaroo's around our age pulled over and helped us put the bike on the back and take it to Normanton. They were pretty interesting guys. The driver was probably younger than we were and had worked in the mines as a diesel mechanic for a while and then when he saved enough had bought three properties at Mount Isa and became a cattle drover.
We've been hearing stories like that all over the place of miners who are 25 and own 3 houses or are on 190K a year. The starting wage for a miner is 85K a year!!! I don't think I was even on 60K when I last had a job and I've got 2 degrees..!


When we were getting the motorhome fixed up we ran into a few people travelling round on a 1976 moto guzzi. It was pretty cool, and they were having just as many mechanical problems as us which was comforting, and actually also had a failed rear wheel bearing at the next free camp we stayed at. If you want to read their blog it's www.guzzioverland.co.uk
It's not as good as this blog though.

Very Modified Guzzi

When the motorhome was eventually fixed up we went down to Mount Isa to see the town. On the way though we noticed the rear wheel bearings were also getting heaps hot (Scalding hot). At one of the free camps on the way though we met a nice ex truckie who taught us how to loosen wheel bearings on truck axles.
The bearing nuts were literally fused on they were tightened so much, I had to actually chisel them off the bearings...

When we got to Mount Isa we took the underground mine tour which was pretty interesting, and got a good insight into the lives of the miners and the layout of a mine. I'm not really into mining but it was actually pretty fascinating.
We got a real miners insight on how to flog free fuel and tools from the mines and learned about one of the locals who managed to make a whole excavator from flogged spare parts from the mine (he got caught though). At the end of the tour the guide kind of ruined it though by giving a 10 minute spiel on why the carbon tax is a bad idea and how it's going to ruin the mining industry. (I don't think they are doing too badly by the look of it). Then everyone started paying out Julia Gillard. The whole town hates her, it is truly a town of bogans...

After this we took the bus to the mechanic in Mount Isa to check over the wheel bearings and brakes (I also adjusted the brakes because the wheel bearings were still getting too hot after adjusting them, the brakes were also on way too tight).

While the bus was in the mechanics we headed over the the underground hospital which was pretty cool, more just because we got to see all the dark ages surgical equipment and machines and cat gut sutures they used back then.

Underground Hospital

When we got back from the tour the mechanic gave us the thumbs up on the bearings and brakes, with the advice that we should add some more grease at the next stop, and we headed for the northern territory.

We made it as far as Camooweal Billabong (180K's) when the bearings started squeaking. So we set up camp and over the next couple of days proceeded to repack the rear bearings (They were still getting heaps hot). This took us ages as we have never done it before, and it is way harder on truck bearings. We also visited the nearby caves on the bike and tested out our new tyre on the dirt road out there.

We repacked the bearings eventually, but might have damaged the seals which stop grease from leaking onto the stub axle and drums when we were removing the hub.
We made it 60 K's down the road to Avon Downs to check the bearings and they were still extremely hot.

The lesson here is never trust a mechanic, ever...

So at that point we headed back to Camooweal billabong and tomorrow we're gonna limp back to Mount Isa doing 30 K's at a time then resting the bearings. This is gonna take all day (It's 180Km's to Mount Isa). We'll then order in some new bearings which will take about a week and try and contact our friendly mechanic in Cairns to try and weasel some money out of him after he destroyed our bus.
It's kind of a plus going back to Mount Isa, even though it's full of Bogans there was still a lot which we didn't do in the surrounding area, and with a fixed up bike we can visit all the off road spots now.

Shade tree mechanic repacking the bearings

In the mean time we're just soaking it up at Camooweal billabong. It's a real nice spot with HEAPS of native birdlife (Being the only water around) there's a lot of native cranes, native budgies, Brolga's and all sorts of other stuff, a lot of people spend weeks here and I can understand why.