Round Australia by bike - Day 014 - Cloncurry to Mount Isa

Day:	014
Date:	30 May 2008
Start	Cloncurry
Finish	Mount Isa
Daily Distance:	121km
Daily Speed:	23kph
Relative to Schedule:	-464km
Daily Podcasts:	n.a.
GPS Track	Here
Journal:	I slept in to 4am and got up feeling particularly grotty, not having washed for two days and having toiled into the dusty wind all yesterday in very warm conditions.  I quickly packed up and was on the road soon after 4:30am.  The highway was busier, with many road trains, but it was wide enough to make riding relatively safe.  The road was quite hilly, passing through a mountain range and, despite the following wind, I found myself fading on the hills with legs tired from yesterday. The low mountain scenery made for some good views and there were a number of long downhill rolls to enjoy, but I still struggled to make good time.  I reached Mount Isa, a major mining centre, dominated by smelters and smokestacks, around 10:30am and went to McDonalds for breakfast before picking up my mail from the Post Office.  By now it was around 11:30am and I needed to make a decision about whether to continue on to Camooweal (191km), which I would probably not reach until about 9pm, probably too late to buy supplies for an early start the next day.  I decided that I needed some body recovery time and booked into a motel on the northern side of Mount Isa with plans for an early start tomorrow.