Our drive today was only a short 120kms to the town of Borroloola – last town before the dirt road across to QLD.

We planned to leave relatively early as we were stopping at Caranbirini Nature Reserve to do a walk and then were keen to get to Borroloola by lunchtime to set up and get some local info about the road conditions to Hell’s Gate.

As usual our efforts to get on the road were somewhat slowed by discussions with various “old mates” – Gordo being the culprit this morning and Trev going over to grab him – and getting involved in the conversation instead!!

Eventually we were on the road and passing by the huge McArthur River Mine – a large open cut zinc and lead mine. Diamonds are also mined there and in the surrounding areas there are also copper, silver and salt mines.

We stopped at Caranbirini Conservation park and did the Barrawulla 2km walk through the amazing “lost city” rock formations – the sandstone columns and rocky outcrops were reminiscent of areas such as the Bungle Bungles and also the Lost City at Honeymoon Bay in the Kimberley.

The walk was absolutely spectacular….

– striking sandstone columns looking like organ pipes…

crevices in between them that you squeezed through….

amazing textures and colours of the rock that had been eroded by the elements into the most unusual formations.

Trev put the drone up after our walk – the pictures showed the vastness of the formations – our walk through had only scratched the surface!

Arriving at Borroloola we parked the vans and were immediately approached by an “old mate” who told us all the history and features of the town, gossip, road conditions, local scandal, deaths, stories and pretty much everything else you could imagine – and he had only been here 3 weeks!! The guys finally extricated themselves from the conversation and we got ourselves organised.

The road conditions as reported by various travellers range from atrocious to not too bad – everyone (as usual) sees it from their own perspective and prior experiences….

The owner of the caravan park was very reassuring however – she informed us that the first 100kms had been graded in the last week and assured us that we should have no issues of we drive to the conditions – we are aiming to stay at a free camp just outside of Hell’s Gate – about 300kms away – tomorrow night.

Kerry, Rosie and I went over to the Borroloola Museum while the guys did some nut and screw tightening in prep for tomorrow’s corrugations.

Borroloola has a fascinating history being established in the early 1800’s – it was a renowned as a wild unruly place and so the first police station was built at that time to assist in keeping law and order amongst the drovers, station owner and aboriginals as well as the explorers/ prospectors and various other transient scoundrels….

The area is rich in minerals as well as having a good water supply with all the rivers feeding into the gulf and so mining and cattle farming were (and still are) the 2 big industries.

We relaxed in the late afternoon and planned the next day…