C: 20 Aug to 22 Aug

20 Aug - we arrived in Mount Isa and stayed 2 nights. Its good to have a day now and again without too much driving. This was our nearest thing to the "Big Smoke" for a while. We had chores to do like washing clothes. They dry pretty quickly here as it is dry and sunny.

I then made a trip out to Mary Kathleen which was a Uranium mining town. It was shut down in 1984 and all the buildings were relocated. Just numerous concrete pads and all the bitumen streets are still there with even the white line markings still visible. I had stopped here in 1974 when was on the main (then dirt) highway and it had lots of people and seemed sort of normal. Today there were 2 vehicles camped at opposite ends of this ghost town. One was a large and luxurious affair with a satellite dish. The other was an old Kombi with an even older geezer sitting outside in the shade. I stopped and approached him and spoke briefly at a distance till I noticed he was stark naked. I then scarpered.

On Saturday morning we did a mine tour. Not a lot different to what they do in Broken Hill. We went to the movies after dinner and saw "Salt". It is a nice cinema and the air conditioning was appreciated.

On Sunday we moved on to Camooweal, a town of 220 inhabitants near the Northern Territory border. We plan to leave our caravan here for a few days and visit Adels Grove and Lawn Hill National Park. We are not willing to risk our caravan on the roads and will tent camp for a few days before returning to Camooweal. We are well and truly feeling the warmth of the tropics here and are unsure how well we can keep our food supplies fresh with just the 12V car fridge. - We'll see how it goes. There is a restaurant at Adels Grove so we won't starve.

Signpost on a hill in Mount Isa:-

View from hill Mount Isa:
What is left of town streets in Mary Kathleen:-

Photogenic rocks, Mary Kathleen:

Old store in Camooweal: