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.

Normanton

Well we were originally intending to head to Karumba (One of Australia's 50 or so self proclaimed fishing capitols). We've been getting complacent with the bus lately, thinking that we've fixed all the major issues. We made it about 10 K's out of town when we heard a bang and the bus veered off to the left. We managed to stay on the road and pulled over. And thought we had blown the front left tyre.
When we got out everything looked fine, the tyre was OK, everything to do with the steering looked OK (Except finding the steering swing arm bushes are worn practically to nothing and will need replacing real soon).
So, confused, we drove back in to Normanton to continue testing.
After driving around slowly with Rachael outside listening for weird noises (to the amusement of the locals in the pub) Rachael diagnosed that the front left wheel bearing had exploded. This being because it was making metal screeching noises and the metal was so hot after driving you couldn't touch it...

Here is the damage, the grease cap has exploded and the bearing has chewed itself to pieces


Is it coincidence that this has occurred in less than one week after the mechanic at Cairns re-packed all the wheel bearings? We've contacted him about it and he's sending a wheel bearing kit to Normanton which is good, at least he's taking some responsibility. It just means we'll be staying in Normanton for at least the next week. (There's not much in Normanton, it is the biggest town for about 5 hours drive any direction, with a population of 1300...) Hopefully we might get lucky while staying here and see the morning glory cloud phenomenon (although its not due to start until next month.)
Normanton is also the home of the biggest croc ever recorded, which was a whopping 8.63 metres long (crocs this size don't exist any more after mass culling, the biggest getting to about 6 metres)

Tomorrow there is a fish festival on at Karumba which should be worth a visit, so we'll take the bike (Our only reliable vehicle) over to see the sights.

Before breaking down in Normanton we've had a pretty good time being back in Oz. We stopped in at Etty bay on the way down, which is a beautiful coastal town where we had a BBQ on the beach. The town has 5 local cassowaries and they've obviously figured out that anyone having a BBQ is a prime target.
These are really big birds up close, their feet are probably the most impressive and dangerous aspect of them.
After harassing us for about half an hour this cassowary attacked a nearby teenager's car for being too shiny..

After that we stayed at a few free camps as we crossed the great dividing range and stopped in at Undara volcanic national park, home to the longest lava tube system in the world.
You couldn't explore the tubes unless you went on a guided tour, which cost $50 (which was more than we could afford after the brakes incident). We broke the budget and took the tour and were a bit underwhelmed. We also climbed the rim of one of the volcanoes (the kalkani crater) which was pretty amazing, more simply to see the landscape than for the crater though.

Trees growing out from one of the cave-ins in the lava tubes

Kalkani Crater from above

Also in lemon news we also lost the awning while parked at a free camp on the Gilbert river (or gilbert stream in the dry season). I had just started setting ut up when one of the people at the camp stopped to chat to me. stupidly I didn't finish clicking in the struts and while we were chatting a very slight gust of wind blew the awning upwards and pulled it clean off the roof.

After inspecting I found that the previous owner has, for some reason, only screwed the awning into the fibreglass section of the roof, and not bothered drilling into the metal beneath it. I just can't understand how he thought that would be OK....

Anyway, putting it back on ended up being a small issue thanks to the help of our new friends Sharon and Bruce who we've met up with at some of the free camps along the way.
We were meant to meet up again at Karumba, but the bus has struck again...

We've also had some blown fuses due to a dodgy lighter socket and the exhaust pipe has come undone due to my shitty welding. (I think I should just get welding done professionally in the future, or do a course on it..) But these all pale into insignificance compared with the exploding wheel bearing...

I've also put some very tight fencing cable on the bike rack to help attach it to the bus a bit better, to prevent a repeat from the last time it came off....