From Burketown to Borraloola...........

Leaving Burketown we drove on towards the turnoff for Gregory.  We were still on bitumen and arrived mid afternoon.  We found their official freecamp site and joined the few other campers there.  It is a shady spot near the Gregory River with plenty of room for quite a few self contained vehicles.  Once we had settled in we crossed the road to the Historical Gregory Downs Pub.

It began life in the late 1870's as a homestead and store/hotel built by the Watson Brothers.  As the travellers became a nuisance they relocated the homestead to where it stands today.  The pub remained and changed hands a few times until it was taken over by the widow of one owner in 1892.  'Auntie Barrett' became famous for her great cooking and continued to run the pub until she too died in 1933.  Today it still has a reputation for good food, cold beer and friendly service.  We had a drink here and returned to sit and watch the world and the birds go by under our awning.  This little White- gaped Honeyeater was quite happy to pose for Bill.

The next morning we set off again crossing the Gregory River and continuing on towards Adel Grove.  This has been a place we have wanted to see for some time and we were going to spend a couple of days here.  The unmade road we had heard about seemed to have been sealed thanks to a mining company using it daily and it was only the last 45 kms that were the rough red dust we had come to know and love.

Arriving at the campsite we checked in, set up and then went for a wander.  Adel Grove is named after an early settler that had nurtured it and turned it into a tropical oasis.  In the years since his passing it has changed hands many times, been burnt out but still remains an cool and shady oasis in the middle of a hot and dusty landscape.  

And you can swim in the beautiful Lawn Hill Creek!  Only Freshwater Crocodiles and they don't eat much apparently.  We joined many others cooling off both afternoons we were there and what an amazing experience to be able to swim in such a lovely place.

The next day we drove out further along the even rougher red road to visit Lawn Hill National Park.  We walked through the Monsoon forests to the beautiful Cascades and then returned to eat our lunch under the shade of the huge Banyan Trees beside Lawn Hill Creek.

There are many other walks tracks here but all are 4 - 7 hours long and we decided they were not for us this time.  Maybe we will have to work on our fitness level and return one day.  We walked back to the car along the creek and Bill found some lovely little Purple Crowned Fairy Wrens and Buff Sided Robins so was happy with his days work.

Back at Adel Grove we enjoyed a swim and availed ourselves of dinner at their tiny takeaway kiosk.  Barra and chips sounded good and it was!  The next morning we packed up and drove back into Gregory and beyond where we picked up the Savannah Way again and continued our journey west.

Our time in Queensland was almost at its end as we were getting closer to the NT Border with every Km travelled.  We stopped at Tirranna Roadhouse for fuel and bread and then made our way to Hells Gate Roadhouse where we spent our last night in Outback Qld.  The story goes that it is called Hells Gate as in the very early days the Burketown Police would only cover you until here.  If you chose to go beyond Hells Gate then you were really on your own.  Well let's hope all is well as we continue West to the border and beyond!

The next morning we drove the short distance to the Border where we stopped and made a coffee and took the obligatory photo of the border sign.  Not to great but here it is!  Why do people insist on defacing every sign they see!

And so we drove along the rough red dust which seemed to get rougher this side of the border.  We saw a sign saying 'Grader ahead' and thought we would get a reprieve from the corrugated road but found it parked on the roadside some time later.  Though I must say the road did get much rougher after we had passed it so perhaps it had been grading.  

Soon after we came across our first water crossing and though I have to say I was a little nervous both the car and van handled it perfectly, it wasn't really deep and turned out it was the first of eight we went through that day.

We stopped on the roadside to eat our lunch and then continued on until a short while later we were stopped again this time for not such a good reason.  Our back left hand tyre had punctured and so Bill had a mammoth task to change it on the roadside.  The spare was on the roof but the jack was underneath everything in the back of the Jeep.  So it was unload, change tyre and reload, an adventure we really didn't need in the heat of the day but all was well and we were on our way again.

Well, for 30 kms or so, and then the same tyre went again.  'Not happy Jan!' was an understatement and the only spare we had left was the original road tyre that had come with the car when new.  Bill did the whole unload, change and reload again and with our hearts in our mouths we crawled the last 100 kms or so into Borraloola arriving after 9.30 pm.  We will see if we can repair them in the morning.

Wednesday the 8th July was a day that we will long remember as a day of disasters.  It had started off that morning when the inverter had fallen off the wall as I had shut the cupboard.  The screws the manufacturer had used were far too tiny for the shaking we had given our 'off road' van.  The water pipe seemed to have a blockage and was only trickling through the kitchen sink and the towel rail had fallen off the wall and broken as we rattled and rolled along the rough red road.  And of course the tyres just capped it off nicely.

And so our adventure beyond Hells Gate has proved eventful so far, let's see what tomorrow will bring

until next time........