Trying to ward off the chill last night, I decided to switch the electric blanket on. Only to wake up this morning bathed in a layer of sweat, having left it on high all night. What a morning it was to wake up to though, the sun was shining brightly, not a cloud in the sky, nor a whisper of wind, all backed up by the sweet soundtrack of a team of tree loppers noisily hacking away at the trees about the park. Wouldn’t have minded so much if we’d aimed at awakening prior to 9:00AM, but we hadn’t been. Argh.

I ended up doing what I had planned yesterday; sitting outside, beneath the awning, slurping down a giant coffee while reading. Bec on the other hand remained indoors, attempting to reap a bit more slumber against the invasive grinding noises emanating from the tree lopping operation.

When we did eventually get ourselves moving, we left the dogs behind again. We found ourselves quite lucky again, having asked about leaving the dogs secured in the van, to find that we were able to, so long as they were quiet. We figure that since we can’t hear them while we are out, they must be quiet, and they surely couldn’t be any worse than the racket we have had to endure this morning anyway.

We were off to visit the underground hospital toady. Hewn into the soft shale beneath Mt Isa, during World War II, it was designed as an emergency hospital in case of an enemy attack. It was widely believed that after Darwin suffered devastating losses to Japanese warplanes, the next target may have been the mines around Mt Isa. It was dug out by mine workers, who would spend 8hrs in the mines, then a further 4hrs on the construction of the hospital.

Since these attacks never materialised, the underground hospital was never used for anything more than training drills and as a crib room for night shift nurses, who slept down there during the day, owing to its stable, cool temperature. It was also used for storage, before it was allowed to fall into disrepair and with the entrances covered in, eventually forgotten about. It was not until many years later that it was rediscovered by accident, and some time later, that it was renovated with the intention of turning it into the tourist attraction we were able to view today.

Inside the underground cavern that was to have served as a hospital.

The old above ground hospital, of which the caverns were an annexure, is now also part of the complex open to visitors, and houses a large display of medical equipment from the time of its operation.

I thought I’d found a neat bar sink…

…until I read the instructions.

The oldest structure to be found in Mt Isa is also on the site, but not yet open to the public, having only recently been relocated here. With canvas walls and tin roof, these ‘tent houses’ were cheap and easy to construct, until such time as more permanent buildings could be erected.

From the hospital, we drove into the centre of town, for a walk down Rodeo Drive. Far from being the shopping mecca of its Beverley Hills name sake, this Rodeo Drive is literally a tribute to the best bull riders who have taken part in the annual Mt Isa Rodeo. Being that Mt Isa is widely recognised as the rodeo capital of Australia, it is therefore not so unusual that plaques adorn the footpath, naming the best of the best. Man and beast alike are acknowledged.

While in town, I picked up a few supplies from the local electronics store, to hopefully enable me to rig up a more powerful point into which to plug the invertor. Whatever would we do without TV, which the invertor will hopefully allow us to power up, whenever the mood takes us, whilst camped by the roadside with no access to mains power. Ahh, the things we do, to ensure sanity prevails.

Over lunch, at McDonalds, to allow us to access their free Internet, we frantically researched accommodation options for Darwin. This enigma has been a thorn in my side since well before our departure. The problem is, that the caravan parks that allow dogs and take bookings, receive mostly critical reviews. On the other hand, our preferred choice of caravan park does not take bookings. We thus have to decide whether to book one of the lesser parks and guarantee us a site, or roll into Darwin with our fingers, toes and other body parts crossed, and hope there is space available for us. Then… Actually, don’t even get me started on budgeting for it. All of the parks that accept dogs are in the $50.00 a night range and then on top of this outlandish charge, some even charge you extra for whatever power you use. Our final decision was that it was all too difficult to judge the parks without looking at them, so we are going to do the fingers and toes crossed thing, and hope for the best.

The parks’s full again tonight.

Back at the van, while Bec had an afternoon nap, I hit the books once more. Because of the drastic changes we have made to our initial itinerary, I had to try and find out as much as I could about our new destinations, before we travel into the Internet black hole again. I am guessing that once we leave Mt Isa, it may well not be until we arrive in Darwin that we have reliable access to Internet again. That is a fate worse than no TV, as we have to make do with no emails, no blog posts, no deals of the day and no uploading photos to Flickr, as we revert to a pre-computer like existence. How ever will we survive?

On the subject of Flickr, you’ll notice that I haven’t updated our photos for a few days. This is due to the Telstra data plan we have being as inadequate as some of the electrical wiring in the van. We went over the usage limit, and are waiting for an upgrade to kick in so we can put some more pics up. I am hoping we will be able to get them up tomorrow night before we leave The Isa on Wednesday morning.

Until next time, stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to write.