We stopped at Bitter Springs for our last float, first thing in the morning. It was the best time as not many people there before 10am. The campers from the caravan parks all stayed near the entrance and talked, so we had the springs to ourselves. It was fantastic floating down with the peace and quite whilst watching the steam coming off the water.

Once down at Daly Waters Pub, we booked into a powered site…..Yes we paid $32….but as we were having issues with the fridge, we needed to get the new house batteries charged up. It took all night for them to charge up. We had a burger for lunch at the pub, it was massive, so no dinner that night. We hung around DABUS, so one of us to keep and eye and ears out for the fridge…One of us is getting VERY frustrated.

Happy now that the house batteries have charged up, on our merry way we went onto check out Newcastle Waters. Newcastle Waters is a present day ghost town, with a handful of residents. It was a gathering place for drovers on their grueling overland cattle drives. We wandered through the Jones Stores built in 1934 and now under the National Trust, then checked out the old petrol bowser before having a look at the Junction Hotel, which was closed down in 1976.

Saturday saw us driving down further down south, into Tennent Creek, for a few supplies. We then headed back north to Three-way, stopping and having a walk through 'The Pebbles'. (Kunjarra) The Pebbles is a granite outcrop, sacred site of the Waramungu people and is a 6km drive from the Stuart Highway. Our campsite for the night was again under a repeater tower 30km east of Three ways, picturesque sunset.

We had no phone reception the prior night and one of us missed out watching the Supercars at Ipswich. So we cruised into the Barkley Homestead, pulled out the chairs and sat in the shade of the trees, reading and watching the Army convoys coming in to fuel up. We have seen convoy after convoy since Mataranka. It's like a massive deployment from Queensland up to either Katherine or Darwin. Then after lunch we watched the Supercars through Foxtel, as we had internet. Didn't leave Barkley Homestead until 3pm and went in search for yet another free camp down the road, another repeater tower at Rankin about 60km from Barkley Homestead. We enjoyed this site to ourselves, lit a fire and cooked up some Barramundi and scallop potatoes for dinner.

Monday morning we arrived over the NT/QLD border and onto Camooweal, were we decided to stopover for a couple of nights. Our dinner on this night was roast pork cooked in the camp oven, crackling and meat was cooked to perfection. Whilst at Camooweal we put the net into the water…..but no red claw, did some cleaning duties, went for walks, enjoyed sitting back and reading a good book and catching up on phone calls……and one VERY frustrated person…..fridge is still playing up, but we have an appointment in Mt Isa on Thursday…..Fingers crossed that we get it repaired…… Prior to leaving we found out the Ian and Danielle had camped the night at the first billabong, we were at the second billabong. Stopped off to have a chat to them before hitting the road.

Only driving 140km's to Wealy's Overnight Stop. Great big area with toilet and dump point…..Here we met up with Lloyd and Marg, a very interesting couple who are travelling in a Oka, they are both in their 80's and have travelled every road that crosses from east to west of our fine land. He was a drover in his day and still works their farm, that their son now is running. Information on the first road that was built from east to west in 1941, for Army traffic, as prior it was only a track. The new road is built beside the old road and after leaving here we realized that the old road zigzagged with the new road.

Thursday has FINALLY come around and we head into Mt Isa to get the BLOODY fridge looked at. After spending most of the afternoon with the refrigeration guys at BNS refrigeration and getting a new thermostat, we headed out of 'The Isa' onto Mary Kathleen.

WOW….. What a find is Mary Kathleen…..It's a ghost town now but it was first settled during 1860's. Uranium was first discovered here in 1954 and the town grew during 1956-58. The township, mine and mill were dismantled back in 1984 with buildings being sold off. The area now only has roads and concrete pads. We sit back with drink in hand during the afternoons and watch the cattle meandering past. We have been for walks around town and the next morning we drove DABUS up to the old uranium mine. Absolutely stunning looking down into the mine, the water at the base of the mine was a beautiful turquoise colour. We did a rim walk, as they have placed massive rocks around one rim, which you can hike around.

After the mine walk, we drove another 13km towards Cloncurry and drove into Clem Walton Park. Here you can either camp around the edge of the Corella Dam, which we opted out of this site as it looked busier that a packed caravan park. We went through another gate and camped the night down at the Corella River but unfortunately couldn't get a site by the river. In the afternoon the fire was lit, the camp oven was pulled out and a batch of Bolognese Sauce cooked up. Ooops.. a bottle of red wine needed to be pulled out for the sauce, or course, and the empty bottle got thrown out the next morning.

We headed back to Mary Kathleen for another night, before heading back into 'The Isa' to get the data logger that has been in the fridge for the last four days read. So seating here updating the blog and one of us is still not happy with the fridge that still isn't turning off.