Our first day in Queensland wasn’t conspicuous so much for its burning sun as its bitter cold winds. The first blast of the day took with it Mary’s face flannel and though we searched in the bush, it seemed to have been taken right out of range. So we filled her flask with hot coffee for a change and tool off on the 80 miles of bitumen to Mt Isa.

Alfred excelled himself on this stretch and only ran out of petrol (after the Frewena fill-up) – when we were well within sight of town – about 2 miles to go and somewhere round 35 to the gallon according to the Shell map reckoning, though Alfred himself is inclined to exaggerate over the mileage he does.

We did our usual tour of the town and finished up by the Post Office. While Kath and I were still in, a most obliging gentleman came up to Mary and introduced himself as the Shell agent – was three anything could do for us? He started by screwing on our petrol cap we had left off when we topped up outside town and then went on to tell us of a good place for a meal over on the Mineside. Wonder how he guessed we were travellers?

By the time we had got across to the bulk supply depot and were eating particularly nice tender rump steaks (my own really quite raw for once) together with fresh bread and butter and in clean surroundings. We were revising our opinions of Mt Isa and seeing a different side of it from our first lazy [smoky?] view.

Then we went back to town to get Alfred fixed up – he had woken up this morning with a flat – in our new Tennant Creek tyre. The first garage – Austin agents – said they were sorry but they couldn’t do anything before Tuesday next... So we tried the [Banly?] Motors who were quite a different story and got four men on to the job at once.

Presently, one of them came up to me and said “this belongs to you” – gave me a handful of stones and bits of wire which the T/Ck mechanic had so kindly introduced into the [cover?] when changing the new tyre.

Our next stop was Norm Brunskill’s(late of Darwin) where we accumulated dark glasses and a new inside for my thermos (blown off Alfred’s bonnet during the night). Norm invited us back to their house for a shower and we found ourselves staying to supper of stew. Another married couple – friends of theirs were there – Reg an accountant.

The town is divided into Mineside and Townside and with the Mines paying such a huge lead bonus – £9-5-0 – the townside people find it difficult to get staff, though Reg said he paid nearly Mines’ wages which must be difficult for him. Accommodation seems to be just about the same as Darwin – only the MIM provider it and even then not every Mines employee can get it straight away – which means living in one of the two hotels – hideously expensive.

By this stage it was dark and none of us had any photographs so we tried to decide as we left the town whether to drive out the 10 odd miles of good road or whether to camp near town and “pop in early the next morning for a few quick photographs”. Eventually when I found I had to return anyhow with a letter for the 6 am post, we decided on the latter.

It really is pathetic just what unfailing optimism we maintain throughout this trip. The speed of our travel today never mars our plans for the distance we will conquer tomorrow. And so we are happy that we will be able to be well away again from Mount Isa by 9:00 am at the latest.

Mount Isa at night is really rather beautiful – the mine looks like a ship in soil and as much as the slag heap dominates the town by day so does the mass of lights at night. I made a couple of attempts to photograph it, but fear they may not be too successful.

By this time the cold was really settling in. Mary had suggested we should light a huge fire and have hot rum and Milo. This seemed like a good idea, but when we reached our camping site, the wind was raging so much that even a fire didn’t seem tempting enough to draw us outside Alfred just for the Hell of it. So we sat inside and drank cold rum and Milo and Thurza’s biscuits and reflected on how last might we couldn’t bear to sit anywhere near the fire because it was so hot.

If we were beginning to think this was not the best time of year to travel, tonight was enough to convince us that it is. Kath and Mary braved the elements and I stayed inside Alfred - half way through, I had to shut the back door to get warm...

I should remark perhaps on the country we came through – still flat, but timbered today and with a good few rock outcrops.