Boulia to Mount Isa 28-8-12

I seem to have duplicated the photos in the photo album.  I am trying to clean it up, but it will take some time.

Stayed last night in motel – felt very pampered.

Boulia is a lovely little town, it is a bustle today there is a big event in town, a Supreme Court judge has come to hand down a land rights decision.  Tony was talking to a couple of aboriginal ladies at our motel, I was dying to join them but too shy.  Tony called me over and I met the elder of the Pitta Pitta mob – female.  Her parents were the King of the Diamantina and the Queen of a neighbouring area (can’t remember what it was), that gives her authority over a very large group indeed.  She was a very vigorous and dynamic woman, responsible for some of the tourist infrastructure in her Diamantina region.  That is her in the photo with me.

Yesterday Tony noticed that the shop over the road sold Tyres, so Michael went over this morning for a look, after some unsuccessful calls to Mt Isa tyre providers.  They didn’t have any BF Goodrich’s in our size but they had a Coopers that was more or less compatible and would certainly do as a spare.  Wait for it David…….we now have a tyre with 10 ply walls…… a Cooper’s ST Max ($448), a step above Tony’s Coopers ST [2 ply].  Tony is wrapped, keeps admiring it.  I think  Michael will attempt to match it when we need to buy new tyres and so will Tony.

After Michael had organised the tyre and we had to wait for the fitting etc., we went to see the Min MIn lights show (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Min_Min_light) (http://www.uq.edu.au/news/?article=4265)

It had animated figures that told the stories of different people who have seen the lights, it took about 40 minutes and was quite interesting.

Went for coffee and to order sandwiches for lunch, hmm I have never had to wait so long for a sandwich – at least 1/2 hour, they were busy making salads, plates of cake etc. for the Supreme Court bunfight. While we were in the cafe a fight broke out between a couple of aborigines from the Boulia mob and a neighbouring mob.  Sigh.  Jen and Tony were asked if they had seen the fight, but none of us had, being inside the cafe.

We were finally on the road, a funny little bitumen strip one car wide.  The country is lovely we now have eucalypts in flower, some other shrub, we didn’t get out to  see, in yellow flower, green shrubs, good spinifex cover and surrounding hills and rocky outcrops, very nice.

We stopped at Dajarra for lunch.  Dajarra was once the largest cattle trucking depot in the world, but the advent of the road trains finished that and now it is a very tiny town.

We are seeing some animals again.  Emus, wedge tailed eagles and DEAD kangaroos.  No live ones during the day.  A young aborigine in Boulia told us that there were no kangaroos in the country we had been through before Boulia but that we should see them from now on.

We arrived mid afternoon and had intended to get a motel or cabin to save on the setting up of our camps.  Went to the Information Centre and asked her to ring around on our behalf, to see where there were any vacancies.  She rang every Motel and camp ground with cabins in her book.  No room at the inn.  We had to camp in the camping ground for one night and tomorrow we can move into a cabin.

Went to a Chinese restaurant for tea.  Paul we Paid $14.95 for a glass of chardonnay!