Mt Isa, here we come!

We finally left Alice Springs for good, heading north again.  The poor condition of the Oodnadatta and Birdsville tracks meant that we would have to backtrack up to Three Ways (near Tennant Creek) and then head east along the Barkly Highway to get to Mount Isa. 

We made a couple of brief stops, first at Barrow Creek to look at the old telegraph station...

 

Outside one of the old buildings.

And also at Wycliff Well - the UFO Capital of Australia.  It was our friend Jo's birthday so we took a birthday pic for her.

Happy Birthday Jo!

We stopped at some great free camps along the way to Mt Isa, including a National Parks camp (almost free at $7.70 for the family) at The Devils Marbles (Karlu Karlu).

The Devils Marbles Campground is awesome. We had heaps of space and were right next to the amazing rocks which are strewn all around and somehow balance atop each other at inconceivable angles.   

Great camp spot at Devil's Marbles.

We walked through the rocky terrain while Ben rode his bike on the dirt track.  Jenny did a time lapse video of the sun setting, complete with random tourists who walked into shot and stood in front of the camera examining it before wandering off again.

Stacked 'marbles'.

Touring by bike.

Something else to jump off!

There was plenty of space in the campground so we flew Ben’s kite and threw his new boomerang around until we narrowly missed a guy setting up his camper and decided that we should stop until the wind dropped a bit.

Great day for kite flying.

Our next destination was Tennant Creek, about 100kms north of Devils Marbles.  We set off early to make it to the visitor centre for a 9.30am gold mine tour.  Luckily we were the only ones on the tour so we had the guide, Bill to ourselves.  He was really interesting and explained how all the old equipment was used and how dangerous the work was in the past.  Apparently if something really dangerous needed to be done they would send in a 10 year old boy because they were the cheapest in terms of compensation!

Miner Ben.

Bill explaining how this is the most dangerous machine in the mine.

We continued on to Camooweal, crossing the QLD border on the way.  I thought we might have to eat all our fruit and veg before crossing but it is only bananas and sugar cane products that aren’t allowed across, and there was no checkpoint anyway.  So far the only state that seems to care about quarantine is WA.  We had a full vehicle inspection for ALL fruits and veg when we came across from SA to WA but going into NT and QLD there has been nothing.  In Camooweal we had some mobile service and stopped for a phone call with Ross, Barb and Daniel.  It was fantastic to speak to them again catch up on their news.

We stopped for the night at another free roadside camp, a WW2 memorial just out of Mt Isa.  We had a campfire and toasted marshmallows and the next morning played cricket in the huge rest stop area before hitting the road again.

Fire and marshmallows.

Campsite cricket.

We weren’t planning to stay overnight in Mt Isa but ended up doing more there than we thought we would.  After filling up our water tanks we went to the Visitor Centre where Ben met moo-sical superstar Britney Spurs.   

Ben and Britney.

We got some info on things around town and then dropped by Bob Katter MPs office.  He famously once said ‘there are no gays in my electorate’ so although we don’t live here, we thought that we should let him know that we are visiting.  Unfortunately he wasn’t there.

Hi Bob! Sorry we missed you.

Next stop was Boss Engineering.  We have been seeing their awful ads for months on country TV and they have a theme song that concludes with the delightful line “we can even help the ladies”.  This irks us immensely and we were pleased to be able to take this photo outside their premises.

Jenny added the slogan to their sign..

Mt Isa has a free water park and skate park and we thought that Ben could do with a run around so we stopped in there on the way out of town.  We knew that Mt Isa is a mining town but it is still a little surreal to be at a skate park and look up to see a massive mine just across the road.

Bike fun with mine across the road behind.

We had so much fun at the water park that we decided it was too late to drive on to a free camp so we camped at a caravan park in town.  Ben saw 2 girls playing by the creek as we pulled into our site and was out of the car playing with them before the car had stopped moving.  It’s a big change from when we first set out and he needed one of us to introduce him to other kids.

We left Mt Isa the next day and headed for our next stop, Boulia.