Olympic News: Local swimming hero Ian Thorpe get beaten by Dutch Demon, Peter Van Den Hoogenband in the 100m freestyle; I guess they can't win them all.
Olympic News: The Aussie Men win the 4*200m freestyle swimming relay, and the country smiles again.
After wasting the morning we have to move fast as we are booked on a mine tour in Mount Isa, 800km to the west at 7.30am tomorrow morning. During the day we pass many Road Trains. These are like regular trucks on steroids, with a huge prime mover followed by three trailers with a total length of 50m. They are to be treated with extreme caution by car drivers, and I am happy to follow the advice of moving completely off of the road to let them pass by.
As darkness falls we have only reached the town of
Cloncurry, 125km short of Mt Isa. It is far too
hazardous to continue with the kangaroos
reclaiming the outback as the light fades. We camp
in Cloncurry for the night; a new experience for
me but a most pleasant change from hostels, as
Rory shows off his culinary talents on a shellite
stove under the stars of the southern sky.
King of the road. Road train carries 250 cattle
and does 850 metres per litre (2.4 mpg)!
We arrive in Mount Isa with about two minutes to spare. Rory and I both notice an unsettling smell of burning flesh from our car. A later investigation locates a large chunk of kangaroo, cooked medium rare, clinging to one of the exhaust mufflers.
The underground mine tour is utterly fantastic for techno types like Rory and myself. This is a working lead/zinc/silver mine and there are elaborate safety procedures required before we enter. Our guide, Ernie Novak, takes us 1000 metres underground in the main lift shaft. As we descend, he opens some manholes in the floor of the cage, so that we can see the lights of the abyss racing up at us as we descend at speed. We reach the bottom in 90 seconds, which is an ear-popping experience.
The mine has mile after mile of tunnels at
numerous levels which we explore in a 4WD jeep.
Mining is still scary work down here amid the heat
and dust, but modern equipment and methods have
dramatically reduced miner numbers and improved
safety. All the group are particularly impressed
with the huge 'Tamrock' drilling rig. This
multi-headed monster seems to move with the
finesse of a surgeon in the skilled hands of the
operator.
Beauty and the beast. Night and day in 'The Isa' (128 kB gif)
You're many miles from everywhere in Mount Isa
Our efforts at fixing the Jerry can have been utterly ineffective, with the various rubber articles being ill-suited to petrol containment. We empty the contents into the gas tank and strap the can to the roof, where it will be a fixture for the rest of the trip.