NT – Mount Isa

Today we cross the state line. It was interesting as the countryside still appeared the same, yet it was different. One thing we did notice was the speed dropping back from 130km in NT to 110km in QLD.

The weather is still really hot. We arrived at Camooweal (the first town over the border) around lunch time. Stopped at the quaint old Camooweal Post Office that has been sold off and is now the Post Office Agency, Local Supermarket, Library, Art Supplies, Hardware Store and Electrical Store 5 for the Town. The lady who obviously owned the store was so eager to please and nothing was too much trouble. It was really lovely to stop at a place that really valued old fashioned service.

We arrived just after 5pm in Mount Isa. It was a shock to the system to see such a big and dirty town. With a population of 22,000 its quite large, and had all the services pretty much to make it comfortable.

Really happy to finally being back in mobile and internet range. We heard from others on the road during the last few days, that Telstra finally admitted that only about 70% of Australia is actually covered by mobile service, but our experience so far has been that around 50% of the places we’ve visited have had service.

I really feel for the people in the bush now. We take so much for granted in the city. Complaining that we cant get 7KB speeds in Mandurah etc. We’ve hardly had mobile service since we left home! Steve is of course, quite happy about this as we’re saving a fortune on phone bills! Also surprised ourselves in that we downgraded to a 1Gig internet account for our travels, and due to lack of service, we’ve not managed to get over that!

Had dinner at The Caffy, a private club, which are huge in QLD as it’s a way around the liquor laws. If you have a private club, where you have to be a member (or visitors – usually twice in one year you can be a visitor or you have to join). They usually have cheap meals and drinks and are full of gambling machines.