King Ash Bay - Brunette Downs - Camooweal - Mount Isa
NT/Outback Queensland

So FINALLY... after fishing the Victoria River, El Questro, Douglas River, Blackmore River, Dundee Beach, Mary River and Daly River, Brian caught his first Barra Keeper on the McArthur River at King Ash Bay on Sunday June 2nd!

This is how it happened. We motored more than halfway to the mouth of the McArthur before turning into a wide tributary where Brian trolled. The fish finder was capturing a fair bit of activity in the water below, so he worked up and down the area for a few minutes. He was just about to pull the lure in when it took a big hit.

The Barra was a fighter. He leapt high out of the water as soon as he took the lure and we could see he was a big'un. Brian got him to the side of the boat and I netted him. What a beauty! We laid him out on the measuring chart...64cm. Brian had his first recordable catch (for this trip) at last. We tied up to a mangrove then and there, and after bleeding him (we knew it was a 'him' because all Barramundi are male until the age of five or so, which is usually around 80cm in length, then they turn female), Brian scaled and filleted him ready for the Baby Q.

As the days went by we became way more familiar with the waterways and we both felt more and more comfortable in the King Ash Bay space. It would be an easy place to spend several weeks, especially if you got rewarded with a good catch every now and then. It is a more extensive and complex river system than we had experienced so far in our travels which made it challenging as well as interesting. There are lots of really huge crocs, abundant bird-life including Jabiru, Kingfisher, Sea-eagles and tiny finches, the camp on the edge of the river was perfect, the infrastructure met all our needs and the people were warm and friendly. Not to mention the weather....17-30 degrees and sunny every day. What a life!

We were back from that morning's fishing about 1pm. I spent the afternoon putting the notes of the previous week's activities together, then had to do the cut, paste, copy etc. bit before transferring it to Brian's laptop, mine still being very sick. Over at the KAB club area we had drinks while going online to get the blog update on our site (that's the last one posted). It sure was a long-winded way of doing it but it was the only way until I either got my laptop fixed or bought new one. Brian texted Blackie the news of his catch. Blackie's reply was "by my figuring that's about $5000 a kg".

While at the club one of the permanents we had met a couple of days earlier joined us and shared lots of information about the river, winds, tides, good spots and more. He said that Brian's catch was the first Barra keeper he had heard of for a week or so. By the time we got back to the van it was dark. We lit the campfire and sat in front of it enjoying a delicious Barra dinner.

The turn of the tide is supposedly the best time to fish. High tide was at 1.45pm Monday so we planned to be on the river an hour or so earlier and head the 20km downstream to where Brian caught his Barra the day before. That left the morning free. We sang "Happy bathday to you" to James and gave him one. He was filthy, but worse still I discovered that between all his pads there were dozens of tiny burrs buried. He was most unhappy about laying on his back on my lap while I removed them....a slow and at times painful process. He was a much happier puppy when the ordeal was over and he was clean and prickle-free.

James didn't get an invite to go in the boat. By the time we were ready to head out the wind had come up which meant a good 40 minutes each way on choppy water. He doesn't like the bouncing or the slapping sound of the water under the bow. He got to stay in the van on the bed with Benton James Bear.

We started out in the tinnie at full speed (about 32kmph, two up), slowed down to troll at a couple of likely spots on the way out, then spent a good hour at the 'lucky spot' with a variety of lures, watching the fish swim under us on the fish finder. They were not in the least bit interested - Bugger! The most fruitful aspect of our 4 hours on the water for the day was wood. We came across a beachy area that had some beautiful gnarly lumps of aged timber so I bravely walked along the sand while Brian followed close to shore in the boat to stop the crocodiles from getting me. We picked up a boat load of wood which, for anyone who knows me and pyromaniac tendencies, was probably as exciting as catching a fish. Our fire was lovely that evening - the wood burned beautifully. Our neighbours, Mark and Wendy came over for a drink and a chat in front of it.

During the night the dew was so heavy we thought it was raining.Through the wee hours we were woken by a loud dripping sound and when dawn broke the river was covered in a shroud of fog. James was ready for a walk but wet, red dirt and freshly-washed, cream fur don't go well together. Time for the boots! Being the princess that he is, the procedure of having shoes put on was thoroughly enjoyable. He happily laid on his back on the bed, compliantly offering all his paws up. He trotted down the track sporting his fine attire, prancing like an Arab mare. I suspect that the constant gathering of burrs in his paws has been a discomfort he's silently endured and shoes alleviated the problem completely.

Brian decided it was D-day. If we didn't catch a fish the tinnie would go on the car and we would head off. Our $83 camp fees for a week at KAB were due to run out next day, so we planned to go for an early fish, trying our luck upstream, then (probably) start packing up camp in the afternoon. Which is exactly what happened. We had lots of bites on bait without actually hooking a single thing. It was a beautiful, calm morning so the cruise up the glassy waters was delightful. On the way back we picked up another load of river wood for our last fire at KAB.

Our afternoon was packed full of activity, the tinnie de-rigged, scrubbed out and put on the Beast, sheets and towels washed, bikes secured back on their racks and stuff generally packed away. We went down to the club at 5 so Brian could ring his daughters (it was Nat's birthday and Ash was picking up her brand new car), so we had a couple of drinks while there. It was $12 Tuesday and by 6pm the place was bursting at the seams with oldies wandering in for their cheap meals. It is a great set up. Back at camp we caught up with Mark and Wendy, I lit a stunning fire, then we barbecued the last fillets of Brian's Barra and sat out under a very starry sky. We both agreed we will definitely come back to King Ash Bay.

By 9am we were on the road out of King Ash Bay. Our destination was a rest area on the Tablelands Highway about 150km north of Barkly Downs Hotel. We called into Borroloola to re-fuel, including an extra 30 litres in containers to get us through to Barkly. We also picked up a few basic items to stock up our food reserves. After a coffee stop at Heartbreak Hotel (where we had overnighted a week prior) we turned south down the single lane Tablelands Hwy. The countryside we initially drove through from that point was a bit hilly with escarpments either side of the road and fairly thick gum tree bush. The road had lots of bends and crests which made for some nerve-wracking moments travelling in the middle of the road with no idea what was coming in the opposite direction. Fortunately there was very little traffic. Further down the highway the terrain flattened out and there was huge variation in the type of vegetation at different points...treeless plains, low, sparse scrub, well-timbered forests...it seemed to change suddenly and for no apparent reason. The road was so full of undulations we almost had our whole rig airborne several times. Brian slowed to 60kph at one stage and it still felt like we were on a roller coaster.

We stopped for lunch at 'Kiana', the first of two rest area options on the 379km long Tablelands Hwy but decided very quickly it was not suitable for overnighting as it had a windmill that emitted a loud, high pitched screech. It was awful. We drove another hundred or so kilometers on to the 'Brunette Downs' rest area, stopping on the way to gather firewood and arriving just before 3pm. We were the third group in, although we had passed an old bloke in a camel-driven car who was also heading there. James and I investigated a track exiting the rear of the rest area to find a lovely spot to set up. It was much further into the low scrub and well off the road.  

Klaus, his car and the two camels appeared some time later. We wandered over for a chat. What a character! He had been on the road for 20 years, the first 10 on a push bike, the last 10 in his beaten-up little Suzuki pulled by Willy. The other camel was Willy's mate. Klaus explained that he only tethers one of them at a time, allowing the other to go and find water. They always come back before dark. He told us some great stories and while he looked like a hobo who hadn't had a bath forever, he was an intelligent and articulate conversationalist. He loves his life, having relinquished all things material including his business as a Fitter and Turner when the recession of the 90's hit and his marriage broke down. He is still a passionate bike rider and traveled to Melbourne earlier this year to do the Great Ocean Road Bike Ride. I hope we come across him again in our travels.

Our night in the outback was stunning. We sat out under millions of stars beside the fire and felt about as contented as you could be.

The run from Brunette Downs to Barkly Homestead took a couple of hours. The Homestead Roadhouse is located where the southern end of the Tablelands Highway intersects with the Barkly Highway. When we arrived at 10am there were caravans and road trains everywhere. It was an absolute hive of activity - vehicles queued at the bowsers outside and people queued inside to buy morning tea or go to the loo. We paid $2/litre for diesel, pulled up in the middle of the massive carpark and with the availability of full network coverage did emails and phone calls. Brian was able to catch up on work stuff.

We weren't sure how far we would travel for the day, but decided it was too early to stop at the Barkly Homestead caravan park, especially given there was nothing to do there. We headed east along the two lane highway with options to pull in for an overnight at one of the three rest areas or go through to Camooweal, a further 270km on. It was easy driving and having our own lane to travel in meant we could push up toward 100kph. The countryside was dead flat and for the most part totally barren. We listened to a new audio book "Bomber" which kept us entertained and found ourselves at the border around 2pm (actually 2.30 local time as we gained an hour crossing over the Queensland border). The NT/Queensland border is about 10 km west of Camooweal and as we approached, from miles away we could see dozens of vehicles stopped and flashing lights everywhere. It was a police roadblock. What a massive operation. There were police everywhere. Brian got breath-tested and sent on, but other travelers were having their vehicles searched.

Mark and Wendy from King Ash Bay had told us about an unpublished free camp area along the banks of the Georgina River a few hundred meters west of Camooweal township, so we pulled in with lots of other vans and set up on the bank of the almost dry river bed. It was quite lovely with trees, plenty of space, views and a fire pit. We still had wood and Brian had chain-sawed up a log that was beside the van at Brunette Downs before we left in the morning. After a late lunch we jumped on the bikes and explored the tiny town of Camooweal - population 310. As we were riding past the servo Brian said "that looked like Doug going in". Sure enough it was! We had not been in touch with Doug and Dione since Daly and it was just pure chance that we ended up in the same place at the same time. We went to their camp at the small caravan park and had a drink and a chat. It is likely we will meet up again at Longreach as we are both heading there to camp on the river for a few days to do a bit of fishing.

Friday 14th June ..... exactly 3 months on the road. It didn't feel like it had been that long. We are both loving the nomad life and neither of us has had any homesickness although we are looking forward to catching up with the kids and grand kids in July. The Melbourne weather has reportedly been horrendously wet and cold so it is difficult to feel anything other than positive feelings about not being there. We left Camooweal that morning around 9 and headed 189 km east to Mount Isa. About 50 km out of Isa we stopped at a rest area known as WW11 Airfield and ended up in conversation with a couple who had spent the previous night at Isa. We knew accommodation could be difficult to get and parks crammed caravans in tightly, so we asked where they had stayed. They had ended up on a great back corner site overlooking natural bush land with plenty of space and privacy at Argylla and suggested we call and book site 23, which we immediately did.

The Isa is a mining town. Population 23000. Diverse, multi-cultural community. Lots of temporary accommodation in caravan parks. Can reportedly be a pretty tough place. Quite different to any other town we have been through. As we approached, the surrounding countryside became quite hilly and from some distance out tall chimney stacks spewing out smoke came into view. It was amazing to drive into the heart of the town and find the huge mining operation pretty much adjacent to the Main Street. We checked in at Argylla, were delighted with site 23, then went into town to find someone to look at, and hopefully repair, our laptops. We found our man, Gerhard, at Dragon Computers. He was pretty confident he could sort them out.

Behind Argylla is a rocky hill, so on our return from town we took James for a walk up there. What a fantastic view of the entire area! While The Isa is certainly very industrial it is visually interesting and there are some excellent things to do including an underground mine tour and a visit to look at the underground hospital which was built in WW11. There is also a good golf course. I am so golf-deprived that I am dreaming about golf in my sleep! We hoped to fit in a game and a visit to Lake Moondarra for a fish too. Not only that but on our first night at Argylla we were invited by the park management to a charity roast lamb and gravy roll night. That was yum and there was no washing up to do!

Saturday morning at The Isa felt freezing, although in reality it was probably about 6 degrees when we woke up. James climbed into bed with us very early. When I went to fire the water heater up for morning showers we discovered we were out of gas, not that it was a problem as we carry two cylinders, but it did mean the fridge had gone off. The broken element meant we had been unable to run it on AC for ages. Brian decided to get up and replace it with the new element that he had got from the fridge repair guy in Darwin while it was off and still cold. It's great that he knows how to do that stuff....the fridge is now fixed!

The clear morning sun warmed things up pretty quickly and after a leisurely breakfast and a walk up the hill for James we went into the visitor info centre, had a chat, went through the gallery and booked me into an underground mine tour for Sunday morning (Brian is underground phobic). We spent the rest of the morning looking at CB radios and aerials, computers (just in case), then a coffee and a drive up to the city lookout. At midday we went back to Dragon to find Brian's laptop good to go, but mine in need of more work. Gerhard was still confident he could fix it but would need it until Monday morning. Most of Saturday afternoon was spent in front of the TV (only the second time it's been out from under the bed in 3 months) watching the V8 Supercar Racing at Hidden Valley in NT. We both love it.

On Sunday Brian dropped me off at 8.45 to do my two and a half hour mine tour. Alone.

The Hard Time Mine has been dug 20 metres under the visitor info centre for tourist purposes and basically replicates how mining was done in the 50's, 60's and 70's. Our guide was Bill, a retired miner who worked at Mt Isa Mines for 35 years, much of it during that era. There were 21 people in the group, all of us provided with overalls, boots, belts, hard hats, headlights and battery packs before being taken underground via a wire cage lift. 

Once underground you wouldn't know if you were 20 metres or 2km except it would apparently be much hotter down deeper. Bill led us through what seemed to be an extensive warren of tunnels explaining and demonstrating various aspects of the mining process. There was quite an array of equipment down there including a huge front end loader which Bill operated. The noise made by the various machines was almost unbearably loud. It was pitch black, the only lighting being from our headlights and in some areas quite stuffy. Brian would have freaked from the moment he got in the lift. I loved it and found it a totally realistic, interactive and informative experience, well worth the old fart price of $44. From what Bill said today's mining processes at Isa are vastly different. Mount Isa Mine is the worlds largest single producer of copper, lead, silver and zinc employing over 2000 miners who work 12 hour shifts, four days on, four days off and get paid well over $100K. It's not a job I could do, that's for sure!

Our afternoon was spent once again in front of the TV watching the car races. Before dinner we wandered around the park, drink in hand and chatted to other travelers. We also booked to stay another night as we hadn't done the underground hospital tour, Moondarra Reservoir, golf or shopping. 

Today I spent hours with Gerhard and my laptop now works. Thank you, thank you, thank you Gerhard! I can't believe, with all the time he spent on it and with me, he charged me $99. It did mean we only had time for shopping before we came back to the van so Brian could install the CB radio and antenna, and I could catch up with my Nomad's Notes and put this blog update together. We are not sure if the park has room for us to stay tomorrow night so we can fit in golf, Moondarra and the Underground Hospital. If not we will be off to Cloncurry first thing in the morning.