Kununurra to Wilgena Station part 2

Next stop Mt Isa, Queensland.
When trying to sort out the registration for the van I discovered that I had only to the end of the week to get it sorted where previously I understood that I had two weeks after it finished to get it renewed, this was about midday on Wednesday! We jumped in the van and left Darwin to shoot down 1650km to Mt Isa in Queensland! With only a day and a half to do it if we were to get a safety certificate done and get the rego transferred into my name on Friday we wanted to do the 650km in the first half day and the other 1000km on Thursday.

This meant driving in the dark, you have to be very careful driving in the dark in the remote parts of Oz as this is when the kangaroos come out and jump in front of the car. With only about 60kms to go this is what happened to me, just when I couldn’t see from the lights of a road train coming towards me two big roos jumped across the road. I just missed the first one and hit the 2nd one smack in the middle of the roo bar. It’s a good thing I have the bar as I only have a couple of dents in the front panel, without it would have been much worse.

Not stopping at Maratanka hot springs would have meant we’d have got there sooner but it was well worth it. The water was lovely and refreshing and apparently very healthy with good minerals and salts and so on. Thanks for the tip Victoria!
We got there at sunset which is when the flying foxes wake up, we were treated to the spectacular display of the sky full of bats, similar to the thousands of bats that crossed our campsite every night in Kununurra on their way to town for the night. Must be more insects for food around the lights during the night.

Friday in Mt Isa and I made over 50 phone calls but couldn’t get a roadworthy test for that day anywhere. The registration didn’t run out till Saturday night so we decided to make a run for Townsville as we didn’t want to be stuck in Mt Isa for long. Only 895kms away, just down the road…