Day 27 – Thu, 5 Aug at Mount Isa

Today was a rest day as I said it would be yesterday.

Did some laundry and after breakfast headed for the Base Hospital emergency department – only a 10 minute walk so my accommodation was perfect.

I was expecting to be there most of the day but by a little after 11am I was finished – really happy with the staff and the care I received.

They took x-rays of my knee and as expected the doctor feels it is soft tissue damage – possibly some minor tears to the ligaments and strains of the muscle tendons. If things are not on the improve over the next few days then I am to get another check up in Darwin, my next major centre, or maybe Katherine.

Next up was to get OP looked at as requested by the insurance company. So I found a dealer – Harley Davidson dealer of all places. They couldn’t help until Monday as there is the QLD Chapter of the HOG having their annual meeting here this weekend – this on top of the rodeo, no wonder there is no accommodation – there is something like 400+ HD riders in town.

So around to the local Honda + Yamaha + Suzuki dealer called Bike & Rider. The head mechanic there took a look over OP and gave him a clean bill of health. So we are both feeling better for the attention – yes Kelly, Optimus Prime and I are experiencing all the highs & lows on this trip so I will continue to use the plural “we'” in describing the adventure..lol..
 
The first picture above is the LHS showing the clearance of the crash bar, the picture on the right is the RHS clearance as it should be.

I took some pictures of OP’s damage and although I cannot recall what happened after I lost it, it would appear from the damage that we hit on the L side (the crash bar taking the impact) we must have bounced and then hit on the R side as this is the side on which we finished facing in the opposite direction, flat on my back with my right boot stuck under the bike. I was able to undo and slip my foot out of my boot to get out.  When OP was righted the boot was stuck to the exhaust (melted on). I guess I was lucky that it was only my left knee injured.

I then headed off for an hour of sightseeing, mainly to the lookout. Mt Isa is a far larger town then I had expected – around 20,000 odd people live here. The huge Xstrada copper mine is obviously the major employer, but tourism is increasing especially at Rodeo time.

The Rodeo is a 3 day event and is world renowned and arguably the prime event on the Australian rodeo calendar. The locals like to say that you aren’t Australian until you been to the Isa, and that it is the real Outback.

As you can see this is an early post – nice to simply have some time to do nothing. Tomorrow I head further W and cross into the NT. See you then.