Today was our last full day with the safari group.
We started with our usual community breakfast followed by the taking of a photograph of the entire group.
With two friends,, we then headed into Mount Isa and visited the Underground Hospital. The hospital was built during WW2 after the bombing of Darwin and was done with secrecy that only a few people were aware of the facility. On a bed to resident ratio, by modern standards the size of the hospital exceeded the capacity of the current Mount Isa hospital.
After we finished our tour, we headed to to the local newsagent to purchase a paper that contained the photographs taken yesterday.
As expected, the journalist had used our safari to promote local tourism. A quote made by “She” was literally and used to benefit the story. Apparently we are going back to Mount Isa even though it was not exactly what “She” said.
Our next stop is what must be a gem in the outback. Approximately 20k’s out of town is Moondara Dam.
Moondara Dam was constructed in 1957 for the purpose of town water & industrial use.
The lake’s name, Moondarra, came from a public contest held at the time. It has a surface area 2375 hectares and holds 106 000ML of water at an average depth of 6 meters when full.
The lake is used for various recreational activities such as canoeing, sailing, boating, skiing, swimming, picnics, and increasingly, fishing. The lake is also the main source of freshwater for Mount Isa and a Fresh Water Lagoon was built to allow the water to naturally filter through reeds and for particles to settle out before pumping to Mount Isa. The colour of the dam is a rich blue and it is a perfect spot for a picnic. Unfortunately you are not allowed to camp there.
We returned to town and visited a local hardware store and returned to the caravan park around 3:00pm.
“He” took the motorhome and had the stone chip repaired whist “She” headed back to town with friends to visit a local fabric shop. We met back at the caravan park for happy hour.
During happy hour, another two couples announced they would be leaving the safari the next day to return home for health issues. This came as a surprise.
After dinner we played bingo, before heading to bed to think about the next couple of days when we had to get the motorhome to Townsville.