Day 54 - Tennant Creek

After a much needed sleep, we all awoke to the sleepy little town of Tennant Creek. It was here that we had our first real introduction to the Australian Native people. We are certain that we (white people) were out numbered by the Aboriginals here. Whilst they were pleasant, many of them were perceived to be quite intimidating. They all just sit perched on the sides of the roads, all day doing nothing, watching people pass by. We couldn't understand it and found it even more difficult explaining to the children why they do this all day.
Removing ourselves from the main road of Tennant Creek, we headed for the tourist attractions. Firstly winding up to the information center, which contains two museums. These museums, contained wonderful exhibits on the history of  Tennant creek, including its gold mine history and Gem stones. Both museums were fascinating and informative. Krystian even enjoyed both museums.

From here we took a small drive out to visit "the Pebbles" . We had read in literature that the Pebbles were far less beautiful and eye catching than the Devils Marbles but, nevertheless found it important to see for ourselves (and we couldn't compare them to anything else because we haven't seen any other natural rock formation on this journey yet). True to what we had read, the Pebbles are not that beautiful, but still worth the drive to see. The kids loved running around and playing at the lake on the way home and more so loved having the playground. 

Heading back to camp, we ate dinner and headed over to the Famous "Bush Tucker Man" The Jimmy Hooker Show. Tonight he was cooking damper and bush tea. Whilst very eccentric, he was fabulous to listen too. Sitting around the perfect camp fire, hilarious stories were shared and for someone who has struggled through life being illiterate he is an inspiration to all. So worth the $5 dollars we paid to attend his show. 

Trying out the Wattle bud bush soap

it really works!

Retiring for bed, another long day was to be had tomorrow driving from Tennant Creek to Alice Springs. 

Night all...

Day 52 & 53 - Mt Isa

Well Today is day 52 and 53 as we extended our stay in Mt Isa. Maciek barely slept all night, stewing over the car. He got up bright and early this am to go to the Nissan dealer to work on a deal to get the new car. So!..we have a new car!! He bought a new Nissan Patrol special release for the 50th Anniversary which comes completed with some very cool and much needed 4wd bits. After the stressful 24hours of getting everything signed, sealed and drive able towing the very heavy trailer i think the smile on my husbands face tells me he is happy. Needless to say that when he asks he says it is slow! For everyone that knows Maciek, having a slow "truck" to drive won't be a bad thing LOL Never the less he is happy because it is built to do the 4wd that he loves to do with his club mates.

Therefore, most of today was spend doing nothing really. The kids and i spend the morning and some of the afternoon at the campsite while Maciek sorted out all that needed to be done with the car. Emptying the pajero and saying our goodbyes (handing it over to the dealers);
 

Bella thought it was fab being able to dance in the back!

Maciek's new toy!

 

We then headed out for some lunch and attempted a second time to go to the Underground hospital but, again missed out. We headed to the huge playground and water park for the kids to have a run and play. Us big kids had fun too! 

The next morning we were due to head to Tennant Ceek. The car was not quite ready for towing as the Brake controller needed to be fitted so bright and early Maciek headed back to the dealer to take the car for its fitting. Whilst we waited for the car we packed up the trailer and for a third time (lucky)  finally got to see the Underground Hospital. It was amazing!! Maciek opted to sit outside with Bella as  she is super terrified of going underground. Krystian and I headed down to the hospital and he was totally in awe of what they had to display down there. 

No She does not sit that low in the rear there's a ditch on the other side.

Sunset as we pull into Tennant Creek.

Finally, we got on the road around 12:30. This meant for a long drive and setting up in the dark but never the less we pushed on and arrived into Tennent Creek around 7pm. It was silly, but super exciting crossing the Queensland and Northern Territory border. Maciek was super excited because the legal speed limit in the Territory is 130km/hr.

Day 51 - Mt Isa

Mt Isa, what can we say. It was very weird being in the middle of a town with a huge mine and smelter right in the middle.
We started the day with a visit to the look out over the city, just to see exactly what it looked like. needles to say, it's quite ugly, especially with a great big mine hovering over the top of the town.

Shortly after, we went down to the Outback at Isa center, which features a whole exhibition about Mt Isa and how it all came about, along with a GREAT fossil exhibit. We all  really enjoyed ourselves and learned a lot about how Mt Isa came to be.

We attempted to visit the Under Ground Hospital this afternoon but failed to read in the literature that it closed at 2pm (we got there at 1:30) and we did not want to have to rush so we decided to put this off till tomorrow.

This therefore meant that shopping was the order of the afternoon, we really did need to restock the pantry and pick up some fresh fruit and vegetables. 

The remainder of the day saw Maciek sweating over the car saga and after being offered a bomb for his Pajero, he continued to sweat all night! He even went to the trouble of calling the terrible, but only dealers for Nissan and Mitsubishi in Hobart to determine what they could do, but as usual their reception was as if they are the only dealers in the whole of Australia and was totally Ridiculous! Which was exactly what we expected from them.
Therefor, the decision was left for MAciek to make, does he or doesn't he sell his current car mid way through our holiday?? .....after all the saying goes "you shouldn't change your horse mid flight!!".  

Day 50 - Richmond to Mt Isa

Today was a nice short day driving, just over the hill to Mt Isa. We must say we really enjoyed our stay at Richmond, the camp site was great and the people running the park are fantastic.

The drive to Isa was nothing spectacular, we were amazed just how flat the country can be on one side and then have glorious ranges the next

We arrived into Isa at 2pm or so and set up the camper, needles to say whilst the camp site was quite tidy, we were all sitting on top of each other, so much so that you can smell the fart from next door, LOL.

Once we set up, we actually went down to the lockal Nissan dealer to check something, needles to say this part of the story continues on later.

See ya all tomorrow