DAY 192: Day off in Normanton

Sat 3rd May 2008
Sunny, 28 deg C
Elevation of destination 10 m
Distance to date 11401 km (7126 miles)

You'll note that this page is out of order - this is a bug in Blogger, and to correct means deleting all the other posts above it! Sorry about this. The pics are the correct ones for that day though.

Had a very restful day and probably needed it. I caught up with lots of chores, but the main thing was that I managed to get my current account topped up by phone after Lyn got me the international phone number for the bank, which I didn’t have. I then ordered new transmission from Rohloff stockists St.Kilda Cycles in Melbourne, for delivery to Mount Isa post office. Hopefully the parcel will just about be there in a weeks time when I am due to arrive there. I had to order the special sprocket removal tool also, in case the bike shop in Mt Isa doesn’t have one - in fact I’m not even sure there is a bike shop there - although one is listed in Yellow Pages when I phoned them there was no such number. I had been hoping that this bike shop would help me fit the transmission, but I’ll probably have to sort it myself the way it's looking.
I went out for a large Iced Coffee and cakes and took these to the pool where I spent most of the afternoon, in and out of the pool and spa - wonderfully indulgent and relaxing - hot/cold - hot/cold - mmmmm. I also bought meat for a barbie tonight for a change. Late afternoon 2 young German guys arrived and pitched their tent next to mine, and I went chatting to them, and I gave them some brochures about the Burketown route, but not too happy that they were pretty drunk by dinner time. I’m starting to get a sixth sense for these situations....
I went to the Purple for a couple of XXXX Golds, and met the same man as last night there - he’s got a 4x4 with caravan - and had a weird conversation. Now this guy doesn’t listen very well and keeps on pontificating about things, so he’s hard work, but I persevered, and asked him about his Oz background. "How long have you got?" he said - go on I said, alarm bells starting to ring. "Well, I’m related to the British Royal Family". "Oh, right" I said, smiling interestedly. He then told me his aunty or someone was related to Queen Victoria. He then went on to add that he has a Knighthood (it was all kept very secret at his request) for throwing himself onto a gunman who was trying to get into Princess Margaret’s car in London. Call me an old sceptic if you like, but.....my eyes glazed over at this point and I looked into my glass to see it was nearly empty and confirmed that it was time for my barbie dinner and I was very hungry. Exit stage left. I can’t think of anyone who looks less like a knighted royal than this rather obese Australian, bless ‘im. One revelation would have been enough.
The 2 German guys were chatting to an Australian woman travelling alone at the table near my tent, so when I’d cooked dinner I joined them. Unfortunately the guys were so drunk they were just rambling and slurring and any attempt at communication was futile, so after a short while I excused myself and went to the tent. I was very tired so as it was fairly quiet now and I fell asleep early, but woke at midnight to lots of talking loudly and banging of car doors. I stayed awake for quite a while until it went quiet again and I assumed they’d turned in, however at 0200 the noise started up again and I was wide awake now. After a while of this I asked them to be quiet but they just ignored me, and I lost it a bit and asked them to STFU, and they still ignored me at first, but then started deliberately making as much noise as they could, upon which I’d had enough, and packed up and took the bike and all the gear over to the pool entrance, then got in the sleeping bag on the poolside and, eventually, slept for a couple of hours, managing not to roll into the pool. I felt very angry, especially as I had decided to stay another night here as it is such a nice CP - but now I just wanted to get away.