Just Relaxing and look forward to leaving.

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Trace and I have a week to go until we quit work and can't wait. We have purchased a few barra lures and are ready to catch a few if the buggers up north at the end of the wet. Until then we will stooge around Alice Springs for a while then up north at the end of March or beginning of April.

On the technical front, I have fitted a DP chip to the car that increases the power and torque of the engine. I am looking forward to hooking up the van to see how the "new" engine goes. They are supposed to be the ducks nuts, so we'll see!!

That's all for now, hope everyone is well.

Bursting Tyres and Other News

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A bit of adventure last week at work. As I was traveling to George Fisher mine my left hand side steering tyre blew apart! Scared the shit out of me as it went with a huge explosion that left my ears ringing for a couple of hours. So there I was stuck on the side if the road on a 43 degree day, 50 something on the side of the road I reckon, waiting for support to come and repair the damage. We have no spares on the truck itself. Good times!!

Cyclone Yasi that was due to hit the Isa was a big fizzer as there was a bit of rain and moderate winds. Nothing really. All the locals here were flood/cyclone proofing the town and a couple if the local mines shut down and sent the men home. That's unheard of pretty much in the mining world.

We have 2 weeks to go until we are out of work again. Looking forward to it after spending 10-12 hours a day 6 days a week at that job. Trace is over the cleaning job for now as well. We both look forward to seeing what we are going to do next, bit exciting really. I am going to get my forklift ticket before we move on as it will compliment the truck driving job nicely.

That's it for now. Back to the cleaning of the van in preparation to leave!! :-)

Another Trip and Update.

During the week I had the opportunity to deliver some concrete to a different mine other than Xstrata. The mine is situated 130klm NW from the Isa at a place called Mount Norman and is called Gunpowder. Beautifully country around the mine and a fantastic drive.

In other news........ Tracey and I gave our notices during the week and will be leaving the Isa at the end of February. We will head to Alice Springs and have a look around there for a month or so and move on to Darwin after that. We hope to get up to Normanton and Karumba before we go, that will depend on the weather. If it's too wet we may not be able to get up there.

We are looking forward to getting going again as we both have itchy feet and can't wait to get back on the road again. I think we have learnt our fist big lesson, don't stop to work for so long. Although it's been profitable we are getting into too much of a routine and the ruts are appearing again!!! :-)

Corella Creek Trip.

I had the chance to do a job out to a place called Corella Creek in the last couple of days. Corella Creek is located in the middle of NT. From the Isa it's about 500 Klm West then up 180 Klm north. We were pouring a slab for an aboriginal community out there. The guy out there had done 15 of these jobs in remote communities as a result of the governments stimulus package for the schools. The job was a large undercover area at a cost of $300,000 and, in this case, was to serve 9 students at the school!! A couple of the guys out there said they did one a few weeks ago where the school had 4 students!! Our tax dollars at work.

I had a ball driving out there as it is so green after the recent rains and some of the scenery is fantastic. At one point the green pasture was all the eye could see and the road disappearing into the horizon. Barkley Homestead is a well known travelers stop on the Barkley Highway for people traveling west to the Stuart highway, we stopped there last night and had a great night at the bar talking to the locals that work on nearby cattle stations.

Can't wait to explore more of the Territory now I have had a taste. Bring on March!!!

Update Time

It's been a while since an update but there has not been much going on around here besides work and more work! We had a pretty quiet Christmas and New Year as we worked through them. We are both looking forward to getting back on the road at the end of March.

The weather here has been pretty hot and a lot drier than other areas of Queensland. The average temperature is 40 odd degrees and there is a bit of humidity since the wet season has started up north. The air conditioner in the van has copped a flogging of late! :-)

The above photo is a drilling rig that we delivered some concrete to. They are drilling a hole to the mine below and installing a vent to draw the stale air out of the mine. The vents are about 30 feet in diameter. We delivered some concrete slurry, water and cement powder, to the site as during the drilling process they hit a cavern. The drilling rig is unable to drill through these caverns so we go along and pour the slurry down the hole, wait for it to set and start drilling again.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year. All the best for the year to come.

Bit Of An Update.....

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Trace and I have been working hard in the ISA and saving our pennies. Haven't done much really, just work!!!

The photo above is of Black Star Open Cut mine here in town and sometimes do some work out there. This hole is HUGE!! The trucks in the bottom of the picture are about twice as high as my concrete truck and can haul out 21 tonne of rock. The tires on these vehicles are easily as tall as my truck. So this, I hope, gives you some sort of perspective as to how big this hole is! There are a few of them down there.

Camped on the Gregory River.

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During visiting the Thortonia station we camped on the Gregory River. Lovely spot in the bush with no one about!

The river is spring fed from a few location and never runs dry. It was like an oasis in the desert. We had a ball!!