Day 2: Blackall to Mt. Isa (923 km. Total now 1,886 km)

Simply put; Day 2 makes Day 1 look like a ride to the neighbourhood grocery store!!!

A good start this morning. Weather was a bit chilly but the storm has cleared up and the sky looks clear. I was hoping it stays that way today. Anyway, I shouldn’t complain – it’s a Monday morning and I don’t have to go to work! While packing, I realized most of the stuffs I brought were untouched. Well, it’s only Day 2 and most of it are “just in case” stuffs anyway. My back started to ache a bit but nothing that a painkiller can’t fix. A group of guys in the next cabin were also packing up their 4WD and getting ready to depart. A customary “G’day” and “Hi, howya doin, mate” was all I can manage at this point.

First stop, I decided to check out some local historical place. Visited the “Black Stump”. Long story but basically this was the original place used by the surveyors in 1887 to locate their theodolite in mapping of Australia. At that time, anything to the west of the stump is known as “beyond the stump”. Fascinating story; for a surveyor, I think… At 5:30 am, I was obviously the only visitor around…

Then when I was about to make a head start I realized that the bike needs a fill up. And I also found out that the gas station in town is not open until 7:00 am! [Note to self: Fill up in the evening next time]. I asked an elderly gentleman who’s one of the town council cleaning crew (you got to admire these guys who started working while everyone is still in bed) and he told me there’s a BP station as I come into town yesterday and it’s already opened. He was right. I also managed to get myself the routine double espresso. For whatever reason, I decided to just sit there on a rock in front of the gas station and decided take it easy. It was my second “moment” in this trip. Yes, I’m going to do more pondering and less rushing. I’ll try…

Then off heading Northwest towards Barcaldine. The road was just as bumpy but not as bad as the Roma-Mitchell stretch. I stopped counting dead kangaroos though – it’s too depressing. The scenery is just all the same except this part the tarmac is red. I shot a video of it from the mounted camera. Perhaps one day when I’m bored, I can just watch it and pretend… Anyway, I still don’t see any life roos so I assumed that my shoo-roo is working. But there was this emu who just stood there by the road side watching me curiously. I thought the shoo-roo works for all animals? [Note to self: Look for a shoo-emu?]. At one time I also had to swerve to avoid a hawk who was just standing (do birds stand?) on a roo carcass. He was just staring at me in a very intimidating way. It was his neighbourhood, so I had to show some respect… 

Arrived Barcaldine still a bit too early, even on a Monday morning. Decided to visit their “Tree of Knowledge”. See what it’s all about. I stopped for a quick chat with an elderly couple who was setting up their stall for the pink ribbon charity then head off to Longreach. I noticed that the stretch in this part is getting longer and longer in between towns. I started a new habit of customary wave to passing highway buddies. I was wondering before why people do that; now I realized that it was so lonely, you’d be happy to see another fellow travellers passing by! I also did a survey; you will most likely get a wave back from people in caravan, closely followed by road trains drivers. You get less percentage of wave back from locals especially those in cars. I will do some more analysis later. I also noticed that all the towns here call themselves “Gateway to the Outback”. I was wondering how many gateways are there… Then it made sense to me. The towns are the gateways to the Outback on either sides of the road! I think…

I stumbled upon this funny place The Bottle House just between Barcaldine and Longreach. It has old car rims hung all over its fence! Hundreds of them! Weird. A must-stop for car rims fans! I decided against actually visiting inside the house for fear it could be even weirder! By the way, every now and then I get a “where are you now?” message. Someone at home is missing me, I know… :-)

The thing about riding a bike is that I couldn’t do anything else but ride. I couldn’t even eat or drink while riding. I had to memorize all my ideas and at the next stopping opportunity wrote them down in my little notebook. Maybe a Bluetooth voice recorder would be handy next time… At stops, this is typical. A working toilet (they are surprisingly clean – for a Malaysian like me - and even have toilet paper!). You would have to use a foot pump to flush. Maybe I should get a picture of it next time.

Another wonder of the Outback are the road trains. [Note to self: Get a pic. Maybe not all have seen a road train before]. Some are 3 trucks long and up to 50 meters! After a while you’d have a love/hate relationship with them. You’d hate them when they come towards you (they would shake the whole bike!) but after a while not seeing them, you kinda miss their presence. There’s only one thing worse than road train – road train carrying livestock! The smell!!! I couldn’t roll up my window though…

Hey, I had more to write than yesterday! Read on…

Here’s a pic at the Qantas Museum in Longreach. Nice patch work, huh? I read first that the birthplace of Qantas is Longreach, but then when I arrived in Winton, they also said they are the birthplace of Qantas. Need to check which one is correct.

In Winton, I decided to crank up the adventure a bit. I took a detour to the Australia Age of Dinosaurs Fossil Preparation Facility. Sounded great but it is what it is; a warehouse full of fossils. The best part was that it’s 11 km into the outback. See pics below. I even recorded a video as I climbed down the steep gravel path from the mountain top. Not easy on an RT! Now, THIS is Outback!

The journey to Cloncurry was really torturous. This would really define “ludicrous”. This is the part I meant in my opening statement. Even I am beginning to think that I’m crazy to make myself go through this. Long lonely stretch and the temperature is now up to 38°C! At every stop, even the tiniest shade is a blessing!

But I still have time to take out my tripod to capture my biker look…

One last event for the day was a quick stop for lunch at a roadhouse in Kynuna. It was attended by an elderly couple and their dog. They were very friendly. The dog was sleeping, thank god.

Finally made it to Mt. Isa just before dark. AND, another cabin night. Oh, come on; I deserve it after a long ride like this. The tent and the foam mat can wait. Besides, I’m already one day ahead of my plan. Tomorrow I’m staying here and will be touring the town. For some reason, the town’s tagline is “You’re not a real Aussie ‘till you’ve been to Isa”. I guess I’ll have to find out tomorrow why they say that…