We have just spent two days in Mt Isa. It's much larger than I was expecting (pop 20,000) with lots of traffic lights, roundabouts, Coles, Woolworths, KMart, Harvey Norman etc. etc. And of course the mine which dominates the centre of town.
But to backtrack to our last day in Longreach. We spent the morning at the Stockmans Hall of Fame which is absolutely fantastic. Something every Australian should see and certainly all the schoolchildren. it's much more than a museum with lots of interactive displays showing early explorers routes etc. That evening we went on a small paddlewheeler for a sunset cruise on the Thomson River (see picture). It was beautiful and after sundown we had a stockman's dinner around a campfire with a bush poet entertaining us. It was magic.
We rose early the next morning as we wanted to spend some time in Winton looking at the latest dinosaur finds before heading to Cloncurry. Unfortunately the car wouldn't start - great! 8am on a Sunday morning in a small town! But as always seems to happen when there's a drama, out of nearby caravans popped three men who all had an opinion and some sort of gadget to get us going. The first brought his car and jumper leads but still it wouldn't start. So we phoned the trusty RACQ who had a man with us in under an hour. He said it was the battery and put his large jumper leads on and away we went. He tested the battery with his meter and said there was nothing wrong with it and it must have been one of those one-off glitches. NOT what we wanted to hear. We decided we wouldn't stop until we got to Cloncurry so that if it happened again, we would at least be in another largish town (and it would be Monday).
However we did stop for lunch at McKinlay which is really just a pub (see photo) and a service station (gas station). It's the pub that featured in the movie Crocodile Dundee but it's not, as Paul Hogan led us to believe, in Northern Territory but about 100 kms south of Cloncurry. And they serve a great steak sandwich!
Everything was fine with the car until this morning. Same thing happened, but we had gone to a 4x4 store in Mt Isa and had our own truck-size jumper leads. Fortunately we were able to find a large auto electrical company which services all the mine vehicles, and they put in a new battery. Hopefully that is the end of our car problems.
There is not really very much to see here except the mine, so we have been busy stocking up the fridge, washing and of course buying jumper leads and batteries. We also found a Coffee Club in town so have enjoyed a couple of good cups of coffee.
We leave here tomorrow (hopefully early) and head north to Burketown which is on the Gulf of Carpentaria and are hoping to do a spot of fishing there - barramundi of course. We then head west into Northern Territory on dirt roads and won't be back into civilisation for about a week until we get to Katherine. It's amazing to think we have covered 2000 kilometers and haven't yet left Qld.
It's been very cold - 4C this morning but warms up in the middle of the day. Still we are snug in our trailer, with a wooly underblanket and warm doona.
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