Mount Isa day one

Escarpment around Mount Isa 

For other reasons, besides the government banning live cattle exports to Indonesia for up to six months because of the cruelty to the beasts at the Indonesian abattoirs, John and I are thinking a few less road trains in areas where the road train is king, is a good thing. Cattle are carried to the waiting ships in ports all around North Australia. We will be heading up a single lane road soon to Cape Crawford, I know sharing the road is the way to go, however those road trains almost run you down, two wheels have to stay on the bitumen, soft edges are something you want to avoid

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We stayed in Cloncurry one night before doing the 117 klms  to Mount Isa. I did the grocery shopping before we left Cloncurry then went to the bakery for take away cappuccino. Two policemen were outside the bakery,( it was 9.30 am) telling an aboriginal  boy of about thirteen to get on his bike and get to school. The school and the police probably work together in getting the kids to school on or near time. If only the kids realized it, to have a school in an isolated country town is a privilege, some children are on buses very early and travel lots of klms to other towns for their education.

We have had a much cooler day after nine days of heat. It’s started raining this afternoon, back to wearing jackets. We  stopped at a memorial to Burke and Wills, who passed through the area in January, 1861 on their journey across the Australian continent and an aboriginal memorial  telling us we are entering “ancient tribal lands of the Kalkadoon dispossessed by the European”, well I suppose that is the truth, and it’s out there for all to see.

Burke and Wills Memorial.

John and Syd.

A wattle like shrub seen everywhere on the way to Mount Isa.