Qantas Museum and on to Winton

Well, this morning, I got up at about 6am and then had to watch silly tv until 9am to be able to go to the QANTAS museum.

Qantas Museum

Lets just say firstly that its fantastic.

I’ve been to a few museums in my time and this one is done really well. Theres lots of models, replicas and original parts. There are video and audio areas and lots of things to read. They also made, in the cafe, the best coffee I’ve had on this trip so far.

They offer 3 tours, the 747 tour, 707 tour, and the 747 detailed tour with wing walk. of course, I did all 3. That with the museum was $115 so its not cheap but its worth it.

747-200 Wing Walk747-200 Wing Walk

These were from the wing walk tour

747-200 Manual Wheel Controls747-200 Avionics Bay

This part is in the avionics bay. In the floor of the cabin, there’s a hatch and when opened, it reveals a ladder going down. This is where you see in all the movies where people have to go and wind down the landing gear manually. It also leads back to access the cargo area. This was probably the most fun parts of the tour.

747-200 Flight Deck

This was the Flight deck of the 747 and would make a great base for a simulator…


After the tours, I had to leave (about 2:30) to get to winton. It started raining on the way and although it was not heavy, it slowed me down a little. My back and neck was also getting sore. I’m not really looking forward to the trip tomorrow and may have to cut it short.

Waltzing Matilda

In winton, I went to the wasltzing matilda museum. It was a series of ups and downs. The down first as I thought it was going to be crappy, then the realsation that it was $19 so should be pretty good (that was the up). Then I passed through the doors still on a high to a audio visual presentation that was quite interesting. There was another down when I realised that that was the best thing in there and the rest was a smaller version of ‘Kevs tracter museum’ (see previous posts) but not as good. Oh well, its only $19.

Then it was onto a supermarket as I had a craving for some chocolate. That solved, I also got some tennis balls to roll on to try to fix my back. It helped but not that well and I’ll get onto the voltarin tonight I think.

Tomorrow is the 650k ish to Townsville (or maybe one of the towns along the way if I’m too sore) and maybe some decent internet speed and hopefully a chiropractor.

I’ll have a few days there and hope to do lots of the local attractrions. The diving place called me and theres not much available but they hope to get me on the yongala.

I also was finally annoyed yesterday with the chin fur and decided to remove it. This will upset Libby as she wanted me to do it weeks ago and I wanted to continue the expiriment. Oh well, at least she may like me again when I get home.

Leaving Mt Isa – Arriving at Longreach

I wanted to get some shoes at mt isa but the shops were not open until about 9am and I needed to get a move on. So, at about 7:30 I left the expensive crappy room I had and hit the road. As it was early, I wanted to follow some other cars out to avoid hitting any suicidal roos and this worked well for a few hours.ย  I rode through Cloncurry and was getting colder (it was 15 degrees and I only had on the bike jacket). By the time I got to McKinlay I was freezing and decided to put on the down jacket and get some breakfast at te roadhouse. This worked well and I was soon warm enough to ride comfortably.

I arrived at longreach about 3pm after going 650k. I’ve worked out the sore back thing with stretching, the sore elbow thing (the chiro showd me what to do with that) but I’m not getting sore shoulders and neck and have no idea what to do about it. Oh well, I don’t have many more big days so it should be ok.

I went to the Stockmans Museum and while it was interesting, It wasn’t what I had hoped it would be. Don’t get me wrong, its done very well, I guess its something I don’t find that interesting though. I then went out to get some dinner from a local take away shop and some newspapers.

Its now Tuesday morning and I have a 11am tour booked in at the QANTAS museum.They have the original (First QANTAS jet) 707 and a 747 there for tours and I will be doing both.

After that, I have 180k to ride back to winton for tonight (so its an easy day today) but 582k for tomorrow to get me to Townsville. I then, it would appear, have 4 nights there so I should be able to do some diving and see all the local attractions as well as have some relax time to read a book or so.

I’ll take some photos of the QANTAS stuff and post next time.

Mt Isa

This morning, I rode the 189km to mt isa and went to the information centre.

There, I purchased a ticket for the Riversleigh Fossil exhibit and the Outback Experience and Mine Tour.

Firstly the outback experience, its a small museum with some videos and rock samples. Quite interesting watching the videos but they don’t sell the DVD so I don’t remember most of it.

Outback Adventure

Then onto the Riverleigh Fossil museum. This was a typical museum with fossils on display and some re-creations of animals from 10 thousand to 50 million years ago. Its done quite well and the video at the start was also quite interesting explaining the situation that allowed so many animals to be fossilised.

Big Furry Thing

Riversleigh Fossils

The mine tour was next and although I was 25 mins early, they were waiting for me. I then updated my watch to Queensland time and apologised accordingly. This tour, which was something I was really looking forward to was what has become of the old underground tour. you see, in the olden days when I spent some time at Mt Isa, the underground tour was for older people (18 or over) and I was not old enough. I did the surface tour many times and really wanted to go underground. Well, apparently in the years between, someone got lost on a tour and sued MIM for damages after falling down a hole and breaking a leg. Now, the underground mine tour is in a disused section of the mine and is like an underground museum.

I was very disapointed when I found out about the change but went along anyway. The tour was very informative and really entertaining. I’m so glad I did it and would recommend it to anyone. It was also interesting to see equipment that was in use in the ‘olden days’ as well as some of the stuff they used when I was here 20 years ago.

I also went for a ride to where I used to live when here (My mothers house). Its had some work done although by the look of the yard,not for a long time.

Old House

The longest day so far

This morning I left Alice at about 8:30 ready for a 500km ish ride. I wasn’t looking forward to a longish ride after quite a few days off but I didn’t really have an option. The ride passed pretty smoothly. Crossing the tropic of capricorn shortly after leaving alice it was all going quite quickly and smoothly.

Into the Tropics

Not much interesting to report until passing the Devils Marbles. This was quite interesting and just to make my fears of missing them seem silly, you basically drive right through them. I could spend lots of time there taking photos, it would be gret at sunset and sunrise, but I had to get moving on.

Devils Marbels
Devils Marbels

When I got to tennant creek, I got some fuel (3rd fuel for the day) and decided to get to Threeways for the night.
On arriving there, I was told there was no more rooms. I wasn’t that happy as it was either back tracking 25k to Tennant creek or heading on 187km to Barkley Homestead Roadhouse. Its the only roadhouse mentioned on my map so I assumed it was going to be substantial.
So, counting down the k’s (the last 50 always seems to take ages) I finally arrived, filled up and went inside to get a room (and pay for fuel, 4th fill up).
I was a little disappointed when they told me that there were no rooms left and I need a tent (which I left in the caravan in Alice this morning).
Bugger again.
The options I had were 187 + 25k back to Tennant creek or 280km to camooweal. I chose to proceed rather than going back. My shadow was getting long and I really really didn’t want to be riding at night. I had visions of starting all over again and needing to go the extra 200kmish to Mt Isa.
On entering camooweal (again with the last 50km taking ages) I found a room. The last 50k was even worse this time because the last 13 of it were in Qld where theres a 110 limit. IT seems so slow now that I’m used to a tad faster than that.
Anyway, the room they offered me was $28 with shared everything. I opted for the only other available room at $70 with its own shower, toilet, kettle and TV.
So, from me worring about a 500km ride, i ended up doing 990km.
I have tried to make some calls on the sat phone (no Optus here) and its not working either. The internet connection (Telstra) says theres signal only until you start to connect, then it goes away.

Its 189km to Mt Isa tomorrow so theres no reason to leave too early (but I probably will anyway).

The last day in Alice

Well, today, being my last day in Alice Springs, I was fortunate enough to get to a dentist. I called at opening time and begged. I was told they would squeeze me in at 1pm so, at 1pm, I was on their door step.

I had to fill in forms, use HICAPS, pay the gap, get treated (they just ground down the sharp bits and told me to see my normal dentist when I got back.

At 1:15 I was back on the bike leaving there. Apart from the speed of the ‘service’, I’m not used to professionals running on time like that.

Anyway, this morning we went to the Telegraph Museum, then over to the Royal Flying Doctor Sercice museum. Both were great and very interesting. I’ll probably visit the RFDS again in Mt Isa as its their head office and may have more on display. I got to impress my family by taking off and landing in their simulator.

In the afternoon, we went to the ‘Cultural centre’ and It was very dissapointing. I’ve bene to other similar places before and all have been great. The only things about this one I liked were the natural history section. There didn’t seem

to be any Aboriginal information that I was looking for, just Beanies(for sale) art (for sale) and a cafe (that was not selling anything as they were closing). We did manage to get in just under the gates and get something to drink but I was afraid to get coffee from somewhere that doesn’t have an espresso machine. Yes, I know I’m a coffee snob.

This afternoon, I got into the van and got out the backpack with all the stuff I thought I might need plus the bags of ‘spares’ for this trip. I’ve sorted out what I think I actually will need (plus a shovel thing if I leave the bitumen again) and put it all in the mostly empty backpack. Without the camping gear, its quite light and should serve me well as space to put any extras I might buy.

I have decided to leave the boots/crocs here and buy some normal shoes in Mt Isa.

I also took no photos today so theres nothing to post here.

Tomorrow morning, I have about 550km to the Tree Ways then the next day, a similar distance to Mt Isa. Two reasonably big days but then theres a day off in Mt Isa to rest and see local attractions. When I was staying there many many years ago, I was too young to do the underground mine tour so thats something I plan to do this time. So, its the RFDS, Underground tour, new shoes and anything else the local tourist information place has to recommend.

I’ll post more probably from Mt Isa as Tennant Creek (near the Three Ways) won’t have much to offer in the way of internet access from what I’m told. I’ll also try to stop and get photos of the Devils Marbles (which are on the way)