Mt Isa to Brisbane

Mt Isa to Winton

09/01/2015

Again we left reasonably early and on the way out of town we fuelled up, (Diesel $1.43 per litre). Then we hit the road and headed for Cloncurry for breakfast, after breakfast it was on to Winton and the country changed to being drought stricken although there had been some rainfall recently and a little green pick was showing through the soil. There was plenty of hawks hanging around the road as we started to see some road kill (animals hit by cars), which is often due to some small amounts of early rain causing some green pick where the rain has collected on the road and run off on the roadsides, other reason is on cooler nights animals come to the road to get the days warmth from the bitumen roads.

(Photos taken by Nancy)

(All through these roads they have signs at each town to let you know if you can go or not)

(This is another warning sign)

As we neared McKinlay a small place with a few houses and a roadhouse we hit a heavy bump in the road and then an alarm on the dash flashed (EDP), which means it puts the vehicle in limp home mode, we pulled into the roadhouse and I topped up with fuel and checked things under the bonnet. I am an ex-diesel mechanic but these vehicles of today you need to plug a computer into it to find out what is wrong. I could not see anything that stood out I checked all oil levels and water levels all were good. There is no phone service so we got going and the alarm had cancelled until a little further up the road and it happened again. This put the vehicle in restricted speeds, on the flat 90kms which was good but going up slight hills 60 - 70kms. After some time we pulled over at a roadside stop for a toilet stop and once again I checked under the bonnet. Whilst there a truckie pulled in and asked if I had a problem, I told him the story and he suggested I disconnect the battery for five minutes. I did this and reconnected it and all was clear, we drove the rest of the day without problems.

(Photos by Nancy)

(The country around here is very poor needs rain badly)

 (AtMckinlay, checking the vehicle to see if I can find a problem, the alarm went after we hit a heavy bump in the road as we entered Mckinlay)

(Walkabout Creek Hotel where Crocodile Dundee was filmed)

 (We thought this was a grave and tried to find out what it was at Mckinlay considering the John Mckinlay story, turns out it is just a decoration that the local grounds worker has put together)

Website. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKinlay,_Queensland

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mckinlay-john-4113

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McKinlay

(It was here we pulled up for a rest and a truckie pulled in and saw me with the head under the bonnet, he came over and asked if I had a problem, I told him what had happened and he suggested I disconnect the battery for five minutes, it did work the alarm stayed off until we got to Winton and we were able to travel at normal speed)

(Blue Heeler Hotel, Kynuna, we stayed at this place some years ago it is a very interesting place)

We arrived at Winton and stayed at Tattersall's Hotel Caravan Park, ($30 powered site and free beer if you have a meal at the pub). The park is across the road from the hotel and after we booked in we decided it was hot enough to sample the ales in the pub. We chatted  to a few of the old locals and some of the young. One old timer was a driver for Buntine's trucking company which was a major company through the outback had a large depot in the Alice in my day there. This fella had driven the old dirt roads in the 50's onwards throughout many states, I just love talking to these blokes. A couple of young ladies came in and the barmaid asked what they were doing back in town as they had left a couple of months ago not to return. One girl said well we drank some Winton water (they are braver than I), and they say once you taste the water you can't leave. The young barmaid was very nice and she had a chat with us for a while whilst it was quiet.

 (Tattersal's Hotel Winton)

(This bloke at the bar didn't talk much)

We decided we would have dinner at the pub tonight so we went back to the unit and had showers before returning at 1800 hours for dinner and we met Paul the owner, nice bloke, he was saying all the tourist areas are closed as all the workers have gone away on holidays, he said he had put 14 staff off when the wet season started. Most of these staff that work the bush areas throughout are backpackers so most are pleased to move on.

The dinner was wonderful the pub has a top chef and the quality of the meat is good.

Winton to Tambo

10/01/2015

(Photos by Nancy)

(Sunrise at Winton)

(Qantas Museum Longreach)

 (Very dry country)

(Hawks leaving as we approach they were having a feed of road kill)

(Ilfracombe and museum pieces along the roadside)

The town of Barcaldine)

(They grow sheep large in Barcaldine)

(Nancy spotted this as we were going along)

As we left Winton the alarm went off again, I stopped the engine and started it again and the alarm cancelled, this tells me I have a faulty sensor somewhere, but where? We continued on to Longreach where we fuelled up and then went onto Barcaldine and stopped there for a cuppa. When we drove off about 200 metres down the road a major alarm came on in the shape of the engine in yellow colour, this means pull over and call Iveco roadside service. I called the1800 number and spoke with the call centre and explained where we were and what had happened. He said he would locate a technician and send him out to us, considering the closest technician is going to be 600kms away I asked if he could ring me back with an ETA. The call centre rang back and asked more questions for the technician, given the distance and the condition of our vehicle I think the technician thought the same as I, we have a faulty sensor, so we agreed to continue in 'limp home mode ' and if we have any major concerns the technician will come out to us, so we continued on targeting Toowoomba Iveco Dealership to solve our problem. Our next stop was a small place Tambo and we stayed at Tambo Hill Hotel Caravan Park, ($30 powered site). A very nice place to stay.

We fuelled up on the southern edge of town and there is a dump point close by in a park.

 (Cleaning the windscreen so Nancy can keep taking photos as we drive along)

 (These are the ponds by the service station and rest area)

(Boab tree)

(Tambo Hill Hotel C/Park) 

 (At the caravan park next to a large boab tree)

Tambo to Chinchilla

11/01/2015

Leaving Tambo we headed towards Roma, it depends how we go today with the vehicle to how far we will go, I would like to get as close to Toowoomba as possible. We are heading towards a more industrious are in Roma and beyond with gas fields and mining companies which also means busier traffic that I am going to hold up from time to time in this 'limp home mode'. When we got to the heavier traffic I found areas to move over to let the traffic pass, they probably called me a silly old fart that should not be on the road. I probably should have put a sing on the back stating what the problem was.

(Nancy took this photo as we passed the creek at 90kms)

(Morven, we stopped here for breakfast, it has the Pick a Box motel, the rooms are separate buildings that are like a square box)

(Waiting for spare parts)

(One of the towns Mungallala)

 (Mitchell, we pulled over here to talk on the phone to Justin who had just bought 'Alana Rose' from the people that had bought here from us)

(No lunch today, cook must be crook)

(Emus in the paddock)

We got through to Chinchilla and booked into Chinchilla Tourist Park, ($35 powered site) very nice place, it has a restaurant there for those that wish to use it. All I wanted to do was relax and have a beer. We only have a short run to Toowoomba tomorrow to get the vehicle fixed.

(Getting into the lush country that has plenty of healthy grasses)

(Sunflowers all along the roadsides)

(Miles just before Chinchilla)

 (Chinchilla)

(Chinchilla caravan park cabins)

Website. http://www.chinchillatouristpark.com.au/

Chinchilla to Toowoomba

We left early again as we wanted to get to Black Trucks the Iveco dealership early. Because it is a breakdown under warranty they are compelled to give us priority service. We arrived there and the staff were excellent, we waited in their waiting room whilst the technicians went over the vehicle. The bad news was that the sensor in the turbo charger had failed and the only way to fix it is to replace the whole turbo and this had to come from Brisbane and the gaskets had to come from Melbourne, they said they would be there by morning and we should be back on the road by lunch time. They also loaned us a car as the vehicle was now disabled. I asked if they could also change all oils and change all filters whilst the vehicle was in the garage and they did this for me.

 (The hills coming into Toowoomba, on the one hill I could only get 20kms in the limp home mode)

(In for repairs)

Iveco Dealership Toowoomba website.  http://www.blacktrucksales.com.au/

We went and booked a motel room for the night and relaxed.

Toowoomba to Ipswich

13/01/2015

(Back to main highways and traffic)

(Lochyer Valley)

We made our breakfast at the motel and left by checkout time and returned to Black Trucks and the mechanic was busy working on our vehicle, they had it all finished by 1100 hours and we were on our way all work covered by warranty with the exception of the oil and filter changes which I asked for. We decided to head for Ipswich Showgrounds where we stayed for the rest of the day and night ($20 powered site). Not a bad place to stay, you can stay up to 7 days although I got the impression some have been there longer.

(At Ipswich Show Grounds)

Ipswich to Manly

14/01/2015

Back to Brisbane or Manly at least, we are looking forward to catching up with a few sailing friends tonight at the marinas BBQ. We checked our mail box and did a little shopping and I got into see our Doctor to tell him what we had been up to whilst away and get a referral to a heart specialist that I have to see about the pacemaker checks.

We had a good night at the BBQ catching up with everyone and we free camped in an area that one is not supposed to.

(Sunrise at Manly)

Brisbane

We have booked into Bell's Caravan Park at Clontarf for a few weeks whilst we catch up on medical appointments  and we will not know what we will be up to until the doctor's visits are over.

As you may notice this journey from the Alice to Brisbane was rushed because firstly beating the rains before roads may be closed and then with the fault in the vehicle we limped to Toowoomba as fast as we could to get the vehicle repaired so the scribbles are a bit rough. Nancy supplied all the photos for this leg of the trip, she does a good job taking photos whilst we are driving along.

Cheers