My first impressions on driving into Mt Isa were (and no offense to those who love it) "yuck...lets just keep going!" however I thought that was a bit unfair and we should probably stop longer to have a look. You cannot miss the two giant smoke stacks as you drive into town, not hiding the fact that this town is all about mining! Its an ugly, in your face fact. The town is industrial and practical.
We had a nice morning catching up with a missionary friend at the church she attends and her home afterwards, listening to stories of her life with remote aboriginal people just over the border. The kids were very excited to see McDonalds, so that was our lunch stop, and then we visited the Hospital Museum which includes the Underground Hospital built to use in the war, which was fascinating! Volunteer miners had dug it out as a fully equipped, small hospital which never needed to be used, but has been restored to visit.
We stopped in at Lake Mondurra just out of town in the afternoon...the only real pretty area of Isa really, a lovely picnic spot, the road to get there is a bit hairy though. It was great to return to our freecamp spot about 50km west of Mt Isa at an old WW2 airfield site, where we had set up the evening before. Out in the surrounding ranges with tuffs of spinifex poking out of the red earth and blue sky for as far as the eye can see! No smoke stacks out here!
No comments:
Post a Comment