Mount Isa to Camooweal

Hi again.  Sitting in the Roadhouse Caravan Park at Camooweal, and preparing for our tenting expedition to Lawn Hill, which we are really looking forward to.  We will take off in the morning as soon as we are ready, leaving the caravan here, which will be safe and sound for a couple of nights.

We thoroughly enjoyed our two nights in Mount Isa, Saturday and Sunday.  Attended the Isa Community Church on Sunday morning, which was small but lively and typically AOG, with enthusiastic worship and an energetic preacher.  This time we stayed and had a cuppa after the service and met some interesting people.  Trevor talked to a lovely man from Zambia, who had been sponsored to work at the mine, and who came from the region of Zambia that we had visited with Immo & Louise a few years ago, so that was uncanny.   I talked to a lady who, with her husband, was on her way to a community close to Alice Springs to caretake while the managers went on holiday.  They had spent a lot of time in Papua New Guinea, and aboriginal communities were a whole new ball game for them.  She had some amazing stories of God's provision for them, and I found it really encouraging to talk to her.

In the afternoon we went to the Mount Isa Information Centre, where there was a display of fossils found in the Riversleigh area, north of here, and an extremely interesting museum and informative audio visual about the discovery & development of the Mount Isa Mine, the biggest, deepest & oldest mine in Australia, how they extract the copper, silver, zinc & lead and subsequently the growth of the town itself.

The first thing you see as you enter Mount Isa from any direction is of course the tall chimney stacks and the immensity of the mine itself, with its huge infrastructure seemingly brooding over the town.  As we learned in the presentation we saw at the Info Centre, the mine naturally permeated the lives of those who came to work there, either in the mine itself or in the other relative services, and the town was divided into Mine-side & Town-side.  The Mine-side dwellers considered themselves the more fortunate, as they had many services and benefits provided by the Mine, which the Town-side had to provide for themselves.  It sounded as though it was a relatively benign competitiveness between the people, but once the miners strike happened, the benevolence of the Company lessened somewhat, and consequently the people had to provide more services for themselves.

I think they said there were about 52+ different nationalities represented in the Isa, and therefore the community has grown up in true multiculturalism, providing a rich heritage of diversity amongst the townsfolk.

There is a lovely lake nearby, Lake Moondarra, which must be a wonderful spot to spend a day in the heat of the summer.  A great place for fishing and water sports.  No one in the water yesterday, but a few families of ducks and black swans were enjoying the calm waters.  A truly picturesque spot in an otherwise dry, dusty & industrial environment.

So now we have re-organised the vehicle, and will leave the caravan here while we take to the road with our camping gear and head for Lawn Hill, or Boodjamulla National Park.  We are booked into a riverside camping spot, with no generators or pets which promises to be shady, peaceful and a great spot to try out our new tent.  We plan to be away from the van for 2-3 days, and will no doubt be well out of Telstra range, so no technology or power will be a great getaway.

Apparently canoeing is the thing to do, and Trevor assures me we will enjoy doing that.  Several walks are also a must, so it looks as though it will be a time to catch up on the exercise that has been somewhat lacking for the past couple of weeks. With no power available, we will no doubt be having early nights & mornings too, so sounds as though it will be a very healthy few days.  Will let you know.

So will be back in a few days with tales of adventures in the bush, and boasting of canoeing prowess and the like.  We hope!!  Ciao for now.