Dam Paddle

 Awake at 6:45 , still dark , back to sleep for an hour . We decided to go out to Lake Moondarra to check out Mt Isa's water supply . It's about 20 kms from where we are , and 15klm from the main road . The road in has views to the hills on both sides , quarries and the water treatment / pumping station . The hills have an orange tinge to them , vegetation is a bit sparse and very tough .
 We spotted the water , well before we got into the dam area proper , and thought , why are we driving further ? This was only the start of the water storage , and that became clear as we rounded a corner and arrived at the dam . The dam wall and spillway was on the other side of the water we now faced . There is a track leading off to the left , that we followed , it lead to the Ski Club area and beyond to more picnic areas .The hills besides the road are definitely orange in colour , with some parts looking like they are bleached white .

 We followed the track around for a bit further , before coming back to the first boat ramp and getting the kayak off the ute , so it could get wet . It was a bit windy but we carried on , the first part of the paddle was easy - we had a good tailwind !! 

 There was no risk of being swept over the spillway , as it was about 2m above the waterline . There is still a large amount of water here , this dam is enormous !! and stretch's further than we could see.

 We chose to paddle past the first couple of islands and onwards to a third before going round it and heading back toward the spillway . 

 There were lots of pelicans , whistling kites , cormorants and even the odd sea gull . 

We paddled over to a small cove where there was a seam of white rock sticking out of the hillside . It appeared to be quartz . The shoreline was pretty much all rock , looking like shale .

 We paddled on , back past the spillway and dam wall and barrier , over to the swimming area , then back to the boat ramp .

 We had some lunch and loaded back up , before heading over to the dam wall . There is a lookout and a walking track - you can walk across the dam wall here !!! There used to be access to a lookout above the spillway , but not anymore .

 Looking down from the lookout away from the dam , gave us views of a large valley - not a deep one, but one covered in trees , with one station house in the distance . There was also another grassed picnic area below us , which gets regular use . 

 The whole dam area and surrounds are an oasis in comparison to the mines and parched ground surrounding Mt Isa .

  We chatted to a couple who were staying at the park we are in , and said they'd call round later . Back to town , it was time to do some shopping , get some essentials and head back to the RV , it was getting close to beer o'clock !!

 Todays map link :-https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z1G8gwwxwyYo.kfIK7b0st5b0&usp=sharing