DAY 10 - MT ISA TO THREEWAYS

The Hummer reaches the Northern Territory

We left slightly later than anticipated allowing Rhys and Chuck to get perhaps more of a feeling for ‘The Isa’ than they would have preferred. We reckon that Mt. Isa must be one of the only cities in the world that has postcards produced of it with large chimnies pumping out smoke on them! Needless to say the guys were keen to push on for the barren red centre of Australia en route to Darwin.

Davo Loves Mt.ISA

Mt. Eyesore! (a common sight throughout the city)

While passing through one of the remote parts of the world we took a brief stop at the border between Australia's Northern Territory and Queensland states, which left us feeling like we were anywhere except on this planet, surrounding us were desolate plains as far as the eye can see with not a single sign of life. We began to argue on where to stop next, originally we had planned to stop at Tenant Creek but started to speculate on the merit of trying to kick right on to Katherine or one of the other stops closer to Darwin.

As time went on and darkness settled (frustrations at rural petrol prices in excess of $1.90 per litre were also mounting) we decided to call it a night at Three Ways after last nights driving and on the advice of some travellers who had been heading south from Darwin and brought to our attention the threat of cattle wandering onto the road in the darkness and the ever present threat of kangaroos especially further north where the rain has been kindling fresh grass patches very close to the highway. Despite the size of the Hummer, any collision with a roo or any form of cattle would have been potentially fatal and the risk seemed to great given we could easily rise early the next day and get to Darwin in one solid 10 hour hit.

The decision to stay in this lonely little 'town', also known as the "Crossroads of Australia" (literally one roadhouse with caravans out the back and a small pub within the building) proved far more interesting and exciting than we could have previously imagined. After a brief rest in the room we wandered back to the roadhouse for a bit of dinner. It was here Rhys bumped into a mate from high school who was similarly passing through albeit in the opposite direction. Truly a small world phenomenon.

Here we enjoyed a chat and a laugh with Tim, his mate Dan and a small crew of locals and another interesting personality; a road train driver by the name of ‘Turbo’. Turbo proved to be a source of great entertainment, his tales of driving 360 tonne road trains, his travels within Australia; his involvement in the American 'Special Forces' during Black Hawk Down in Somalia as well as the first Iraq War even though he had a thick Australian accent; his skills with the 'Gillaroos' and the origins of his nickname seemed to allude to having fitted an awful lot into so few years not to mention, he weighed nearly 20 stone!! Needless to say the night ended with us hitting the sack early having had a good few laughs and a long, early start impending in the morning.

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