After breakfast, we headed off towards Mt Isa.
The road takes a great loop out to the west to avoid the mountains which stretch all the way south from Mt Isa. The first few kilometres are through some fairly rugged and impressive hills which are clothed in saltbush rather than the Mitchell grass which covers the flatter land.
The land to the west is pure Mitchell grass plains with few if any trees. The country gradually changes to scrub and then to scrubby woodland with some small trees rising above the smaller bushes. Later, the woodland starts to dominate and eventually some quite large and beautiful trees can be seen.
The road is a single lane of bitumen with very wide red soil verges. This creates another ecosystem with occasional single small plants growing in the middle of the verge. Suddenly, one come upon a stretch with lots of desert roses in flower. Perhaps these exist in the scrubland but one can't see them and I suspect that they occur only in the disturbed ground where there is no competition from other plants.
At other times, there are lots of small termite mounds in the verges and these surely exist in the uncleared scrubland too.
The only signs of human habitation along the road are the cattle grids and the odd car body lying off the road in the bush.
As the road turns back to the east and then to the north towards Mt Isa, it climbs into the hills which become more densely populated with plants, mostly mixed saltbush and Mitchell grass with increasingly dense woodlands. The bush also becomes much greener which is quite unexpected but I guess this has something to do with the rainfall being higher on the higher hills.
We reached Mt Isa at about lunchtime and went to the Tourist Information centre to find out where we could camp. "You'll have to stay in a caravan park" said the lady behind the counter. "Oh, no we won't" we said to one another and set off to refuel and drive on to a rest area 54 km (34 miles) north of the town on the road to Camooweal.
As this is the last place for CDMA service until Katherine, I rang Max Bettison and he told me that the Woods and company left Mt Isa a few day ago so we might catch up with them on the road. Max and Ammy are at their daughters house in Darwin and we said we'd be in touch when we get there in about a weeks time.
The rest area is a part of the old road which was built during WW2 to facilitate the movement of troops and supplies to Darwin. There is a monument commemorating the road builders and there is plenty of space for all the terrorists - that should be "tourists" - passing through who don't want to stay in Mt Isa.
We had a peaceful and early night with no television but lots to read.