The next stretch in our adventure took us to a very small town of Gregory Downs.  Here we camped under a bridge beside a very chilly flowing river and among some grey nomads.  One sadly informed us that we had just missed their annual horse and canoe races!  Slightly disappointed we still had a relaxing evening and went to sleep in tremendously humid weather yet again.  Sleeping very lightly due to the conditions, we were quickly awoken in the middle of the night to a man cackling and using ungodly swearing in regards to aboriginals from an unknown source on top of the bridge.  Minutes later there followed the rumbling of a quad bike, with passengers astride, which we only assumed was searching for the owner of the cackle.  As quick as it all happened, the night was still again, but a slight unease left us feeling Gregory Downs was not the place to hang around.

The next destination was Mount Isa.  A town of two sides – on the east side were mines and the west housed the residents (only a stones throw from the mines!)  This was also the home of School of the Air (a school purely taught over telecommunications and online content).  While we were in Mount Isa we took the opportunity to take a tour of this school for a small $2 and was even able to sit in on a class!  Going through this well presented tour and some of the students backgrounds, we quickly learnt the hardships for kids learning in the outback.  We also took advantage of being in a major town, regathered resources and continued south east along the Capricorn Way.

From Mount Isa we tucked into a ghost town of Mary Kathleen.  In saying a ghost town, from the mid 1900’s this establishment was totally abandoned and all that was left were the old cracked foundations of where a buildings once stood.  Not just a few, but dozens and dozens of slabs which left an eerie feeling with us as we drove through the deserted streets.  We of course decided to camp on the hill, right on top of the Catholic church slab!  The next morning lead to exploring an open cut uranium mine nearby.  7km up a dirt track lead to an enormous mine that was filled with water of a vivid sky blue colour (tainted from the uranium deposit).  A little explicit we know, but the picture shows you how good the views were…

Back on track we had a pretty cruisy afternoon on the road and found ourselves late in the arvo at a famous pub, The Walkabout Creek Hotel.  This pub was famous for it had starred in Crocodile Dundee.  We were able to stay on a patch of grass in the paddock behind the pub ($10 each!) and even splurged and had a few beers where Dundee had sat with his croc!  As the old boy behind the bar had mentioned of a Combo Waterhole which was the inspiration of Waltzing Matilda, we thought it might be worth a look.  Pulling up to the spot, with a short walk along the creek we came to the actual location where Banjo Patterson sat under a coolibah tree to write his song.  Along the path it also had the intriguing history behind the song.  It spoke of the true tale from when the shearers went on strike and when the swagman was caught and found himself drowning in the river.  After reminicing in this small slice of great Australian history, we were only a few days from finding ourselves in the Gemfelds…