Day 28 Barkly Homestead to Mt Isa

Day 28 Barkly Homestead to Mt Isa

Aaaargh! We are fair weather campers .... we don't like rain!

We awoke this morning to gusting winds and a very bleak and threatening sky. Oops .... better get a move on before it rains. While we were in the showers inside it began to shower outside as well. Oh No! The red dust quickly turned to red mud and our rain ponchos were buried deep in the car.

Sunrise at Barkly Homestead

That sky looks ominous!!

We had to pack up our wet tent and bundle up the muddy tarps in short order. Not an easy task with the wind making the tarps flap around. Our fellow camper trailer friends had fared a little better having woken up slightly earlier than us. They watched us from under cover with big grins. We all met up at the restaurant for breakfast looking like drowned rats. Grrrr! The holiday had been going so well until now. Ah, but we bonded so well in adversity. We didn't shout at each other, not even slightly!

Wet campers

Not happy Jan

We got on our way and noticed that the temperature was still only 12 degrees. The heating was on in the car for the first time in a while until we properly dried off. It was a relief that as the day wore on the temperature started to climb, the wind died down, the sky began to clear and the fuel consumption dropped back to a more normal range. Happier now.

John at Camooweal

Blue skies reappear as we cross into Queensland

Well, only in part! Barb is still not totally happy. She has a re-occurrence of a boil despite two courses of antibiotics over the past two months. Youch! It's not fun to sit for long periods in a car with a boil developing. Don't ask where this magnificence was located! It was a boil. OK?

When we finally reached Mt Isa our first order of business after setting up camp was to find a doctor for Barb. Not easy on a Friday afternoon. After calling two different  surgeries it became clear we couldn't get an appointment until Sunday. Ok. Off to the Mt Isa Hospital Emergency with the expectation of long wait to be seen. To be fair, it wasn't too long a wait. The doctor was very good. Lanced it. Took a swab. Wrote a script for antibiotics. Put on a dressing. We were on our way. Phew!

We're going to take things very easy tomorrow.