The next morning we walked further on to the next camp spot to check out all the different rigs and set ups. It’s amazing how many different caravans, trailers and motor homes there are!
We had a relaxing afternoon, so I spent time updating my blog. We packed up the next morning, with the next stop being Mt Isa. The road was good. We were amazed at how the landscape changed as we drove along. At times the ground looked like it was cement - all shiny and grey/pink in colour. It’s a wonder anything can grow through it. We saw lots of road kill which reminded us of Tassie!
Forty kilometres out of Mt Isa the topography changed to quite hilly. We arrived and headed to the info centre to find out what to do. We stopped in a caravan overflow park right next to the dried up Leichardt River.
We visited the lookout both during the day and at night. There were great views of the city and the mine there.
At night the moon was full and looked really lovely against the lights. I set up a photo with a protesting Randall catching the moon in his hands. All a bit of fun!
At night we heard the mine humming and occasionally felt an explosion.
I cooked a yummy roast dinner with gravy and veggies in our Dreampot thermal cooker one night. I cooked it up in the middle of the day and it was ready by tea time. I’m always amazed at how it works!
After two days in Mt Isa we drove 50 kms down the road to Mary Kathleen - a ghost mining town. All the buildings have been removed, but the streets were still there and there were just slabs of concrete (originally driveways) dotted along. We could work out where the cinema was and the tiled floor of the toilets out the back. There was even a fountain that I found matched the original photos of the town.
There were at least 30 other vans stopped there dotted around the town.
The blue dot above is where we put our van. The buildings in this view have since been removed. (Obviously an old satellite image.)
Before tea Randall went off walking and ended up talking to some one. He didn’t come back until well after dark and I had no idea which way he went, and he didn't take his phone with him. I felt quite frightened, and was very relieved when he arrived back!
The night sky was beautiful being away from a town - so many stars! I always look for the Southern Cross and the two pointers.
Cows wandered through the old township and we could hear them mooing during the night.
In the morning we drove to the old uranium mine - the reason for the township. The road hadn't been serviced for over 30 years and it was a bit rough but we made it there fairly easily. It took a while to find the mine, but after a bit of walking around we found the road leading to it. There was water at the bottom, but we weren't tempted to walk down to it.
We drove out and decided to head to nearby Corella Dam, but it was obviously a favourite for the locals and was very crowded so we drove on to Cloncurry. After a stop for fuel we decided to start the track to Normanton, and stopped at a camp spot about 70kms up the road.
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