Wednesday
We pack up and have a last look around Mary Kathleen. We drive past what used to be the pool and sports ground then across to the town square. You can see where the Main Street and parking had been as well as the remains of a fountain or water feature. This place is quite special and we realise that we should have stayed a few days here but we've already booked at Mt Isa for today.
As we head out of the town Martin (who is outside the car checking the tyres) here's a car horn from the traffic on the main road. I didn't notice anything so we pulled out onto the road. After a short while we come up behind a van that is doing it tough up a hill. We get a call on the radio telling us to go round, saying "that Nissan will do it". We realise it was Pat and George again so we talked briefly on the radio. They are off to Camooweal for a drovers camp.
It's a short drive to the van park, we set up and I do a couple of much needed loads of washing. Once it's on the line we go into town and have a Chinese deep tissue massage. It's quite intense but my back feels much better and I walk without pain for the first time in a few weeks.
We head over to the information centre and check out the tours booking into the Hard Times Underground Mine tour for tomorrow and bring home the waiver papers to have a read through before we sign.
Back to camp in the afternoon and we relax and discuss our plans from here. We realise we've miscalculated the time before we need to be at Birdsville. We are in Mt Isa for 3 nights and then we'd have a full week before we need to be at Birdsville. We don't have enough time to go back through Winton and Longreach (if we want to do them properly) and we have too much time via Boulia and. Bedourie. We look at the maps and our options. The two we come up with is to stay in Mt Isa another 2 nights or go back to Mary Kathleen for the 2 nights. We consider the cost of the park vs the cost of the additional travel and decide that staying put will be marginally cheaper so tomorrow morning I'll see if we can extend our stay. We bought steak from the local butcher for dinner tonight (we are checking it out as we'll need to restock for the next leg.) This butcher will cryovac at no cost and the meat is delicious. After dinner and a shower we go inside for the night as it's getting a bit cool. Bit of TV then off to sleep.