Thursday
We wake to the beginning of week 8. After a light breakfast we go over to the Mt Isa School of the Air. We've learnt quite a bit about the school from the Flying Doctor museum as it originated in Cloncurry. There is a short tour and background to the school and then we go into one of the studios and listen in on a grade 2 English lesson. These teachers do a fantastic job - we were both very impressed.
Next we went back to Outback at Isa (the information centre) where there are two museums and the Hard Times tour. We check out the fossil museum and then have a quick lunch. I say a quick lunch as we had to eat quickly. Although we ordered at 11.45 the food (a sandwich and bacon and eggs) did not arrive until 12.20 and we had to be at the tour at 12.45.
The tour has to be in the top 3 that we have ever done. You start with a short talk to get to know the guide. The guides are all experienced miners so have a few stories to share. We have to dress in disposable orange overalls (which bought back memories of a pie fight) a miners belt, hard hat and steel capped boots before going outside to look at some of the older mining equipment that was used in the past. We are issued with miners lights for our hard hats and walk over to the cage. Photos are taken as no cameras are allowed in the mine and then we descend down to mine in two groups (11 at a time).
Once underground we get some basic safety instructions and walk down along the main tunnel. Our guide Darryn, demonstrated some of the equipment and showed how it worked - extremely noisy. Then he explained how the rock face was drilled and blasted. He was very informative and quite funny. We each had a turn at using the drill before moving along - ear muffs needed for this. At each stop we would see more recent machinery until we got to the modern stuff. We went to the crib room and had coffee and tea and he told us some more stories of miners lives before heading back to the top by way of Toyota (the only disappointment in the tour as it should have been a Nissan).
Back at the top we look through the mining museum and then head back to the park. During the tour Darryn had explained that the explosions at the mine are at 8am and 8pm every day and the locals can tell the tourists as they jump at the noise. Neither Martin or I heard it last night or this morning so we've set an alarm for 5 to 8pm for tonight. We must be too far away as neither of us heard it again tonight.