Winton through to the mining mecca of Mt Isa !

Mon 12 - Thurs 15 June

Aaahhh the regroup we've been all waiting for. The past few days has been bliss loving up the sunshine , 26-27 degrees, chilling and exploring !! After a cracking first week on the road it was well and truly time to have a 3 night stop! 

Leaving Dalkeith early Monday morning we took a fabulous back road through to Winton. Half the day was spent at The Age of Dinosaurs Museum - which is nothing short of extraordinary. The jump up landscape the Centre sits on is spectacular and scientifically the findings of these fossils and bones is seriously putting Winton and Australia on the map. We all spent the time completely engrossed listening and learning about Banjo & Matilda, as well as many new types of species that are being found in the black soils of Winton and surrounding areas. 

Pic on the run just outside of Mt Isa

Just outside Winton

Stunning Ghost Gums

Ghost Gum with Rock Fig growing to the right

We then decided to push on to Kynuna and make Tuesday a shorter day to Mt Isa. A pub dinner with beers at the Blue Heeler Kynuna was in perfect timing and then a quick flip out camp that night in the Pub grounds. 

Sunset enroute to Kynuna

Team Green at the Blue Heeler Pub, Kynuna - quality pub grub & beer ;) 

A touch of pool in the background of this picture with the kids playing had me completely in stitches especially with the raw skill that the little one possesses trying to stump jump a ball into the hole with most of us ducking for cover! (Take note the glass frames at the left hand end of the pool table that survived !!)

It was lovely to know we had an easier run through to Mt Isa the next day and a 3 night breather. Mt Isa certainly has the feel of a mining town with a seriously eclectic and all over the shop energy - it took us all about 24hrs to get the hang of the place. If there is one thing QLD does consistently well it is Tourism!! It doesn't matter whether we're at Yowah, Stonehenge, Charleville or Mt Isa - tourist info centres are amazing, warm and welcoming and this we have found to be standard across the state of Queensland! 

A Wattle of some type ?? - found it Table Top Wattle...

Up behind the Caravan Park where we were staying was an almighty hill with a track that as you can see below and above yielded some fabulous pics of the evening. With a school bus friend from home who lived in Mt Isa for quite a few years...we text for the inside info - where is great for Meat ....& Coffee !! It's great when you're on the road and don't have to think about those things - so with meat cryovacced and frozen ready to pick up this arvo - we are all feeling more ready to head off to Adeles Grove. 

Top of the HIll near Camp at Mt Isa

Yep I did the Hill in thongs - smashing 13 year old !! ;) 

Me & the Boyf 

Yep more Ghost Gums or Snowy Gums perhaps ?? - stunning colours 

The kids have had a regroup with some school work these past 2 mornings and have seriously put some time into that which they are missing by being on the road - even though they are learning a bucketload whilst being on the road! And yes when we enter the classroom (camp kitchen) we have to call Dad/Stu 'Sir' and request toilet breaks through him. There's been the odd Demerit point given as well as plenty of Merit points and they seem to thrive - whilst I have just stood clear and got on with some Domestic Goddess duties , chats with the ladies in the laundry and such ;) ;)

Stu and the kids did the Hard Times Mining Tour (it just sounds tough - doesn't it??!!) this arvo whilst I nursed a viral throat jobby and had a breather - will be great to hear all about there antics underground......Update - they all had a fabulous time and got to jack hammer underground feeling the vibrations of the jack hammer go straight through them!!

Miners with attitude I reckon ??