Day 34 & 35 Mount Isa

• Next stop on our trip is Mount Isa. The drive of almost 600km west is pretty monotonous with only some wildlife such as birds, wallabies and to our surprise some black pigs on the way.

• First driver reviver break was at Burke & Willis, nothing more than a roadhouse offering fuel & food and some seats to consume the bought food.
  

• Onwards via Cloncurry no birds or wallabies to see, but sometimes many termite mounds on the side of the street.

• After a short stop in Cloncurry for fuel, Stuart wanted to stop at the
  Kalkadoon & Mitakoodi People memorial site for a short break.

• Before heading into Mount Isa we went for the Mary Kathleen mining site detour via an unsealed road in a pretty bad condition. Arriving safely at the site, it was worth the drive - pretty impressive mining site with beautiful colors. Near the mining site is the former Mary Kathleen city center: after closure of the mine, all houses have been moved, so nowadays just an empty area with streets remaining for camping. On the way back we spotted some crested pigeons walking along our way.
  

Arriving in Mount Isa we were heading for the City lookout to have a look around town and watch the sunset. The mine opposite the lookout and next to the city is pretty big and impressive with all the lights and smoking chimneys at sunset.

As we are not so keen on visiting underground mining sites, we decided to visit instead the Riversleigh fossil museum to get some information about the Riversleigh World Heritage Site, which we couldn´t squeeze in our travel plans. Outside of the museum, Stuart spotted the statues of ancient birds (Barawertornis tedfordi) and jumped on for a picture. Right outside the museum is also a small miners memorial.

The museum itself shows some of the bones and animals found at Riversleigh with good explanations, an interactive ancient bird display (step on a metal plate and move - the bird moves its feet & "hands" and head accordingly) and a diorama with a big Diprotodon (wombat relative) how the world about 25 million years ago could have looked like.

In the movie theatre a palaeontological expert shows some ancient animals, whereby the Hypsiprymnodon bartholomaii looks pretty much like a role model for the Scrat from the Ice Age movies.