Long bus trips and the outback

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Day s 132-134

We left Cairnes after having lunch in a little cafe and headed on our first bus down to Townsville. On the way we saw the effects of Cyclone Larry - one whole town was absolutely trashed by it, whole banana and sugar cane fields were flattened. It must have been so scary for them. We then caught our connecting bus and set off into the night. We arrived in Mount Isa after a total of 17 hours on the bus at 7 am! Grim! We found a hostel and slept for a while then walked to the lookout over the city. It claims it's one of the biggest cities in the world but we weren't convinced. In the evening we went to see the sunset which would have been gorgeous over the orange mountains if it weren't for the massive factory chimneys ruining it all!!

The next morning we got up to visit the Flying Doctors Centre but after a long walk in the arid heat, it was closed for renovation!! We wandered around for a bit then went back to the hostel and hung around the pool for a couple of hours before we jumped aboard the bus for a moster 24 hour journey to Darwin...

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