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...
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