Day 13 Cloncurry to Mt Isa 120 kms

What a wonderful sleep last night even though there were bright lights alight all night. Once my eyes closed I couldn't see them and slept right through the night. Apparently the wind got pretty strong overnight with some of the riders thinking they might get blown away in their tents.
Collis & I managed to pack up the car and trailer pretty quickly this morning with a some help from Jacquei and Peter. There is always dramas about water quality while we are on these trips and we have been told that the water at Cloncurry is town dam water so we start filling up the water tank on the truck when the camper next door (who was from Geelong) stated due to the drought, the water quality is poor and he suggested we didn't use it. Collis emptied the tank just in case and also because we had enough water to get us through to Mt Isa plus some.

We picked up Theo from the hospital car park at 8.15 am and he is looking very much refreshed from his rest in the hospital overnight. He has decided to ride with us in the car until morning tea and then decide whether to ride the rest of the day. We all talked him out of riding today and he rode in the other car so that he could take some action shots of the other riders.
Lamingtons for morning tea at a lovely spot called Corella rest area. Lunch was on the driveway into a cattle station and it appeared they were having a party of some sort at the station as there was alot of traffic in that gate. Those that went to the miners diner last night were excited about eating their lunch today.

Arrived at the Mt Isa caravan park by 1.30 pm. The cost of the cabins are astronomical but I was determined to have a cabin for 2 nights so I ended up paying for it myself. The camping area is nice but I really need a break from the constant demands of the riders especially with the hard yards coming up over the next maybe 7 days. We arrived at the park to discover Mt Isa has no supermarket opening on Sundays and shut at 5 pm on Saturdays.  Panic sets in and there was a mass swarm of cyclists heading down to Safeway. I was one of the panickers as I am expected to produce 2 bush camp dinners in a row so I needed to do a HUGE shop. All done and I hope I haven't forgotten any ingredients.

Quick swim in the pool tonight but the water was pretty cold so we didn't stay in all that long. Jacquei treated us all to ice-creams by the pool which was very nice.
The tension is building amongst some of the riders, I hope it settles soon.