Wednesday morning we had a good look around the old hospital site at Birdum. There are actually big areas of concrete still there, we think the buildings were actually tents on the concrete.
Went into Daly Waters, it's really a set up for tourists now, worth a look though. We checked out the old aerodrome, nobody about but you can walk through the old buildings and read all about it. We're surprised how big a part these air fields played in the old days and especially during the war being so far inland
Then went on and turned in to Newcastle Waters, again a bit off the road. A lot of water as you get near the old town. There is no one at all about and the old buildings haven't been done up. We spent some time checking them out. We're particularly interested in the cooling efficiencies they used to have, think we will need to get back to using some of their design ideas.
We stopped outside the hotel at Elliott (toilets within). Lots of aboriginals about and their dogs.
Fueled up at Three Ways ready for the 600 odd klms to Mt Isa. Then went on a bit further to the free camp at 41 Mile Bore. A good night.
After a good walk around this morning we headed off stopping for a shower at Barkly Homestead ($5 each) very nice after being in the paddock for a couple days.
Kept going, stopping at Avon Downs rest stop for lunch. There were about 30 older bikers also lunching there, they have a back up ute and trailer with their sleeping gear etc. They made their own lunch too. They are from McKay and are heading for Darwin, the round trip of over 7,000kms in 17 days. We passed a lot of Variety Bash cars coming towards us, they are all staying at Barkly Homestead camp grounds.
Checked out Camooweal just over the Qld border, a pretty dead looking small town.
In with a whole lot of other free campers about 50kms before Mt Isa.