Saturday 20 October 2012

MOUNT ISA TO FOUNTAIN SPRINGS REST AREA

Left Mount Isa on Monday morning and headed along the Flinders Highway to Fountain Springs Rest Area which is half way between Mount Isa and Cloncurry.    About 30km out of Mount Isa we had another flat tyre so pulled over to the edge of the road and changed the tyre and decided that we would get new tyres for the Prado.    We drove on to Fountain Springs and parked the van then drove the Prado back to Mount Isa to buy some new tyres.    When we got there we were unable to get the tyres that day so they phoned Cloncurry and we were able to get them there so back we went, passed Fountain Springs where the van was, and on to Cloncurry 60 km the other way and bought a set of tyres.  Then returned to Fountain Springs.  That day we had travelled 300km but had only advanced 60km on our trip.   We stayed at Fountain Springs the next day to recover.
The rest area was good with clean toilets and big picnic tables, the only downfall was that it was beside the highway and there were a lot of roadtrains on the road.  The landscape around that area is very unusual with strange rock formations.    Around the area there are about 6 ghost towns that once were supported by copper mines, now all that remain are roads and concrete slabs that were once the homes.   We drove around one of these towns called Mary Kathleen which was recommended to us as a free camp but there was no one else there and we wanted to leave the van to get our tyres and were not happy to leave it unattended.
 Unusual rock formations
Fountain Springs Rest Area

Our rig at Fountain Springs


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