TWENTYFIRST DAY – THURSDAY 29TH JULY
We left Clem Walton Park – Corella Dam at about 8 am. Along the way towards Mount Iza it was quite mountainous with red and orange rocks. They look very striking against the green foliage and blue sky. It didn’t take us long to get to Mt Iza and we found the info centre and booked ourselves a tour of at 1.00 pm. We also got to see the Dinosaur Fossil display and the Isa Experience which was a display of the mining and history of Mount Isa, they were both quite interesting. Then we went off to find a Woollies to get a few supplies and filled up on fuel. We went up to the lookout which is a great view of Mt Isa and surrounding landscape of mountains and bush. We then went back to the info centre, had some lunch in the van and then went in for our 1.00 tour. It actually started at the info centre. A man came and collected the ten of us who were booked for the tour and took us to a room to collect orange overalls, a hard hat and a big fat heavy belt. We had to go into the change rooms and dress into these things then come out and pick a pair of big heavy rubber boots the right size. We were then guided to outside and shown some of the big mining equipment that was on display and he explained in quite a bit of detail what each implement and vehicles where for. Then we went into a big shed to be given a light for our hard hat which was attached to a big heavy battery which was attached to the belt we had on. Now we were set – ready to descend into the mine. No – but first we had to have our photos taken of us all dressed up in front of the lift that goes down into the mine. We were not allowed to take our own cameras!! We all went into the lift and went down only about 25 meters into the ‘mine’. We then realised we were not going into the actually working mine. Apparently someone a few years ago ruined that for everyone else cause he got himself hurt somehow. So the real miners volunteered their time to build this ‘pretend’ mine. It is actually pretty good and they say it is a pretty good indication of the real thing. We all sat in a person carrier – a bit like cages on wheels then we travelled along a train track for awhile then stopped, got off and then the man showed us all around in the ‘mine’ they had it all set up just like a real one. He described at great length about all the details of mining from the supports on the walls to how the men blew up the rock to showing us how he can drive a big loader in and around the tunnels – very impressive. Two and half hours later we finally emerged from the mine – hot and ready to get out of the clothes we had on. We got dressed and then paid ten bucks for the photo and got out of there. Look! The mine itself was really interesting and the guy knew his stuff, but the tour went on for so long and the guy waffled on a bit. I certainly admire the miners and what they have to deal with, day in day out. They earn their money alright. It was four o’clock by the time we got out of there and Graeme had planned to get to Camooweal Caves National Park. It took us a couple of hours to get to the park turn off and the sun was beginning to set. We drove along a really bad rocky and bumpy track for about 20 kms to get to the park. I was getting a bit annoyed by this stage cause I was hot, hungry and all bumped around. Once we got there, there were three other campers there and just drove into a spot and stopped, as it was getting quite dark by this stage. We set up camp, I rinsed out our washing and hung it on the drying rack. Then we made tea. Can’t wait to see if this was all worth coming out here. I guess we’ll see in the morning.