2021 - QLD-NT-WA-SA-VIC-NSW-QLD: Day 115: Fri 13 Aug

Friday, August 13, 2021

Day 115: Fri 13 Aug - Tennant Creek

12-28 deg C, persistent wind again but at least it's warm so no complaint

No longer rugging up for our morning walks with temps well above 0. An early call from Mum and Dad told us that Sth Aus has been cleared by QLD of being a COVID hot spot. So we quickly went online and applied for our QLD border passes. Almost immediately we were granted a Green Pass. All this means is that we will now spend one day less in the NT before crossing back into the best state. We are both quite excited about being in home territory, but will feel even more relieved when we do actually cross the border. After that excitement, Greg went for a ride around town and out to the Mary Ann Dam, which had a bike path directly to it. The stark but beautiful scenery around TC is evident all the way to the dam. Sadly Wendy had to work; well someone has to.

After lunch we walked back up to the Info Centre and bought a combined site ticket that got us into three museums and the underground mine tour. The museums were McLaughlin Minerals, Borella VC, and “Freedom, Fortitude and Flies”. Probably the best one was the minerals. It was very well laid out with some awesome samples. Only down side was that the lighting was a bit dull for our old eyes.

The underground mine tour was in a linear mine rather than a vertical one, because of the OHS fun police. Never mind, the guy running the tour was very informative and is still (we think) a gold miner today. We were taken through what it was like at the beginning of gold mining here in Tennant Creek, all the way through the ages to modern times. Things were certainly tough back when it all started.

Back to the van for an afternoon cuppa, then Greg went riding again, whilst Wendy did some admin tasks.