Today was all about shake, rattle and roll (fortunately no roll!!). We left Borroloola and hit the dirt just out of town letting down the tyres in preparation for the 300k day on the corrugations…

The first 120ks were fantastic as the grader had just been through but along the way the road did deteriorate…. Not as bad as the Oodnadatta track but some sections were pretty ordinary!

Gordie’s Titan was having some issues – not Branchworthy yet but the ABS brake light kept coming on the dash…..watch this space!!

A couple of river crossings were fun and we stopped at Kangaroo Creek for morning tea – the area looked very croc friendly – all along the way were warning signs re the salties in the area…

A bit of a running repair had to be done on the Well’s van as the water tank exit valve began to leak again….Branch jumped out to help…

We continued on and the road was varied – some parts good some not so good….cows resting by the side of the road….

At the NT/QLD border we stopped for a late lunch and a group photo….

and to assess the damage…

A summary of injuries sustained included broken cups in the Loveday’s van, loose and dislodged screws all over the place, spilt olive oil mixed with red dirt all over the Hunter van floor, loose shelves…. and the Wells water tank repair from the Oodnadatta failed and so they lost 1 tank of water…then their second drainage tap followed suit and so most water was lost – fortunately Hells Gate Roadhouse could supply water for a donation to the flying doctors…

We pulled in at Hell’s Gate, fuelled up and had an icecream. Rose and Dave also added water to their tanks and Branch noted another failed repair so Macgyver sprung into action – Branch got down and dirty with him to give moral support…

An old mate in a huge truck had just come from Adel’s Grove via the Doomadgee Road and reported the road was excellent so we have decided to go that way – much shorter and will get us to Adel’s Grove tomorrow – a day early so hopefully they can accommodate us!

We left Hells Gate and arrived at George’s camp – 8kms out of Hell Gate – a free camp which was beautiful…

Everyone de-dusted a bit – Dave swung into action with the blower inside and outside of the van were given the thrice-over and Rosie gave the baby-wipes a workout!!!

The backs of Gordies and Trev’s utes were dustbowls – Trev’s a bit more contained by the covering tarp..

We had happy hour and cracked a bottle of champagne…and a brilliant idea was born!! Use the cork to repair the Wells’ water drainage taps…..however things had gone from mildly bad to mildly worse…

Another Branch episode…. Dave’s water inlet brass valve had completely disappeared into thin air….and now water was spraying everywhere each time the water pump turned on..Macgyver and Gordie were under the van sorting things out with Branch looking on..and the water was flowing freely….after plugging the area with a variety of bits and pieces, the flow was stemmed – and the plan will be to fix it more definitively at Adel’s Grove..

Under a beautiful sunset/moonlit sky we ate dinner, sat around a campfire and laughed about the days events…. So blessed to be safe, healthy and on holidays!!!