Termite mounds are quite common in the outback, but not ubiquitous. You can drive for 100 km with them everywhere and then another 100 with none. At one of the rest areas, I saw how they formed.
At this place I saw them form on blades of grass. They also form on boulders, street signs and metal posts. Oddly, they never seem to form on dead wood.
From the simple beginnings, they seem to grow organically.
We said farewell to Queensland last week and crossed the border into Northern Territory near Camoonweal. This town is famous for its location and had the highest diesel prices we had seen to date.
Just over the border we pulled into a rest stop for the evening. So did everyone else!
There are no cafes, cinemas or wifi hotspots in the bush, so you have to be more creative in the outback. A very common hobby is to dress termite mounds in spare clothes. These look disturbing like a group of people from the distance until you get close enough to realise.
Mount Isa is an astonishing place. It is deep in the arid outback. Despite the signs warning that you are close, there are no other indications until you see the mine stacks. As you come over a ridge you see the town, but it is dwarfed by the mine of the far side of the Leichhardt River.
The Leichhardt River itself was mostly dry. Dog and I had many pleasant walks along it. But despite our efforts, we could get no closer to it.
There are many interesting things to do in Mt Isa, but we all had run out of steam by then, so mostly did housework and arrange some repairs. In the end, the ubiquitous dust (and lead {Pb} warnings) drove us on.
After viewing the dinosaurs, we free camped to the north of the town of Winton. It was a very barren area with climbable jump ups. Interestingly, it had rained recently as there were rivulet marks in the dust, and the smaller rocks were aligned along them.
