Project Pajero
Day 10-12 Friday 4- Sunday 6 September.
 4-09 crossing gregory river.jpg) Leaving the Caravan at Mt Isa our grey nomads took Project Pajero on its first overnight camping trip. Despite the sign saying there was 250K’s of unsealed road to Lawn Hill, in actual fact there was only 150 k’s.
They arrived in plenty of time at Lawn Hill NP only to find the Ranger appears to have left for the season. Bookings for camping need to be done before you arrive and paid for by credit card on the number provided on their website. But with no Ranger in situ, it is unknown how they police the camping allocation and it seemed likely that others could easily just turn up and take a spot. Fortunately there was space for our Pajero, but the ridiculous idea used by National Parks personnel of erecting logs to prevent you driving onto your camp site meant that people doing car based camping had to jump over these pesky logs. Someone will break a leg on these logs one day and take National Parks to the courts for millions of $’s before they realise how dumb this idea is.
Anyway, Tony and Carol had a full day of walking, over 12 kilometres in fact, around all the walks along and above the gorge at Lawn Hill, they even hired a canoe for $20 for an hour and paddled up the Gorge to the first waterfall. On the return paddle Carol spotted two beady eyes staring at her from the reeds, realising it was a crocodile, they paddled faster!
It sounds like they have really enjoyed their camping trip to Lawn Hill. It was also very hot with the temperature around 36 degrees in the shade. So they deployed the amazing Foxwing awning which they absolutely love. It provided some welcome shade from the hot sun. Their OZTENT also worked out great being really quick to erect, a bonus in the hot weather. With the OZTENT mated up to the Foxwing awning they were the envy of the other campers with all their shade.
 4-09 lawn hill gorge.jpg) They have been using the ARB fridge as a fridge over these past two days and it still continues to impress hugely with its performance.
Also impressive was the ride of the Pajero over the unsealed roads thanks to its 4Way suspension. Tony is amazed how well it is handling the rough roads, of course some of this credit most also be given to the Bridgestone tyres for their grip on the loose stones.
Fuel at Adel’s Grove cost $1.78 per litre!
Tonight they have collected their caravan and headed west of Mt Isa, camping in a popular rest area with a few other travellers near an old airfield apparently.
Day 9 3 September 2009
 4-09 Oztent erected LHNP.jpg) Well we left our greying nomads having a romantic night beside Corella Dam, so when the SPOT tracker did not show any movement from their idyllic spot throughout today. I began to worry that perhaps they had succumb to some sort of foul play! I even tried to call them a couple of times on the mobile only to have it ring out, my panic buttons were being pressed more and more.
Finally SPOT came to life at 3.30pm showing them on another lake (Lake Moodarra) north of Mt Isa. All was well, they had just failed to correctly activate SPOT this morning, must have been a good night!
Carol said on the way to Mt Isa this morning they visited a true ghost town. I remember talk of a town called Mary Kathleen as a younger lad, but now all that remains are curbed roads and some concrete slabs leading to what must have been some imposing buildings. One of these slabs even bore the encryption "Library". Everything else of the town has been erased. I am wonder if it has something to do with the fact it once served a Uranium Mine?
They are booked into the Sunset Caravan Park tonight in Mt Isa at $26 for a powered site. Tomorrow they are storing the van for just $5 per night and taking the Pajero and their camping gear from OZTENT to Lawn Hill National Park for a couple of days, so an update is unlikely for a few days now. Petrol cost in Mt Isa is $1.23.
As this trip is on a tight budget, Tony said they had to say no to the Mt Isa Underground Mine tour which was a whopping $45 each. I asked him how long did they get for $45 and said he hoped at least two days! Tony loves his value for money.
Update for Day 8 2 September 2009
 2-09 Pajero & van Walkabout Creek Hotel - McKinlay.jpg) Well tonight’s call to tony was interesting, for all sorts of reasons. Firstly, SPOT showed they had stopped on the shores of Corella Dam some distance from Mt Isa, so I was surprised that they had telephone service. The Next G service is working exceptionally well. Secondly when tony answered, he was showing quite a bit of excitement in his voice over their camp for the night. Tony is usually fairly dry and it takes quite a bit for him to show any emotion, but his camp 30 metres from the water’s edge sure had him worked up.
 2-09 Corella Dam 53k west of Cloncurry.jpg) They had arrived at this beautiful spot around 3.30pm and stopped for afternoon tea, the temperature was in the mid 30’s and the spot was sooo good they decided to camp for the night. After a swim in the Dam, I suggested they had just swum in someone’s water supply, Tony said he was able to spot over 20 different species of birds, “from my camp chair!”. To add the splendour of their camp they are the only campers so they have this majestic spot all to themselves. There are low hills with red coloured rock around the expanse of water which glowed an even deeper shade of red in the setting sun. They now have a full moon and just finished dinner by its light.
Again Tony and Carol are impressed with the performance of the ARB fridge, with the temperature in the car rising to 45 degrees as it sat in the hot afternoon sun, the fridge remained at -14 degrees. Tony also expressed his satisfaction with the Polyair springs which are doing a great job of keeping the ride height just right for the caravan, this is also contributed to by the 4Way suspension in the Pajero designed not to sag under load. The Bushranger floor mats have also proved their worth capturing all the red dust and burrs carried into the Pajero via their shoes and being easily removed and shook free of the collection of outback dust.
Fuel at Cloncurry was $1.37 a litre and the Pajero returned 19 litres per 100k.
So we leave our romantic couple by the lake under a full moon on their own!!!
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