You can’t help it, it’s to do with the geography of
Australia. Its 260km from Banka Banka to Barkly Homestead and it’s 260km from
there to Camooweal and then 180km more to Isa. You are more or less forced to
go the whole way and you end up in Mt Isa. We left Barkly at 7am and got here
for lunch at 1.15pm having stopped for a cuppa at Camooweal. As a matter of
interest, we covered our 40,000th km towing the van today. Not bad
considering we started in September 2009. On the way across, for the first few hours you are treated to a 360 degree view of a perfectly flat horizon, interrupted only by the occasional stand of gums standing in the mirage lakes in the distance.
This is our third time here and I still don’t like it.
For one thing, the van park is a sardine tin with vans jammed in cheek by jowl.
But then they start turning vans away at 2 o’clock and the place has heaps of
other empty spaces. I happened to speak to the groundsman and he was adamant
that it was ‘full’.
Anyhow, Isa is the only place for 100s of km around
that has anything remotely resembling a shopping centre where one can stock up
on food. As it was we went into Woolies, where the carpark is underneath the
shops and through which a stream of raw sewage was flowing. The stench! Did the
close the car park? No. Did they turn the fire hose on and flood the thing to
dilute the stench at least? No. Mind you, I felt for the plumber who was getting
his electric eel out as we left.
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