I'm here!

20º 43’ 31.0”S 139º 29’ 48.3” E

Hello from The Isa (as us locals call it)!

Yes, I’m finally here, sitting under the air conditioner in my motel room. The drive was very long and tiring today, but I’m here safe and sound.

The Editor of the paper, Tahnee, is going to come meet me and show me around tonight, so for now it’s a chance to rest a bit, which is much appreciated and needed.

Again, I was pretty surprised at how green it was today, not the Outback experience I had expected.
And this is why. There has been big water puddle on the side of the road since Moree or so, but this was the road past Longreach that was closed recently. The road was on a levy bank and the water was particularly close, but there were a few cross roads that I could see were cut off.

As I was coming into Longreach I could see this big red thing that I thought looked like the tail of a Qantas jet. But that would be silly, I said to myself, it would have to be a 747 to be that big, and what would a 747 be doing in the middle of the desert?

Well, it was at that point I remembered that Longreach is the birthplace of Qantas! This jet was there, and you can see an old jet behind. I would have liked to have stopped and had a look, but it was only eight thirty in the morning and I didn’t really want to stop for long. I guess it will still be there for another day.
I have stopped to look at a few interesting things along the way, but I’ve tried to balance seeing what I wanted to see with not wanting to make a long trip longer. I would have liked to stop and learn more about the dinosaur fossils at Winton, and have had a look at the Workers Heritage Centre in Barcaldine. But again, I guess they’ll still be there another day.

I also went through Cloncurry, which is famous for two reasons. One, it was the birthplace of the Royal Flying Doctor Service (I remembered that from my days working there!) and two, it has the record for the hottest recorded temperature in Australia. Something like 53.3 (from memory). Not quite that hot today, but hot enough.

A lot of very straight, boring road again today. Except for a while it looked like I was in a roadrunner cartoon! There were a few ranges around every now and then, and occasionally there was this weird formation.

The road from Cloncurry to Mt Isa was very different from most of the trip. It was mainly over hills, with a turns and ups and downs. It was much more interesting!

Okay, that’s it for today. I guess I’ll put up some more about Mount Isa when I explore a bit more! I’m going well though, am very happy to be here safely and to not have to drive anymore.

On a last note, all those naysayers who were bagging my car can now go get stuffed! Russel (my car’s name) passed with flying colours!

CORRECTION: Qantas was actually founded in Winton, but for some reason the museum is in Longreach.