Kerry and Trev emerged from their vans this morning with a bad hair day much to Gordie’s amazement!!

After the Well’s “Watergate” debacle yesterday everyone was much relieved to travel the mostly tarred road to Doomadgee Roadhouse.

Along the way there were roadworks – more areas being prepared for sealing…and a brumby and foal casually meandering across the road.

At Doomadgee we met a couple of people who had just tried to get accommodation at Adel’s Grove but couldn’t as they were full – thankfully we had prebooked our 3 nights!! We did hope that we would be able to get in a night early as now we were going the shortcut we could get there today – after ringing ahead we discovered that they were so full we could not come in early so we planned to find a spot along the road to free camp tonight.

This meant we could take it easy and so decided to look for a spot halfway between Doomadgee and Lawn Hill.

The side road shortcut we took was great as reported by our old mate at Hell’s Gate – a very providential meeting as it enabled us to take the shortcut with confidence!

We were travelling over pastoral land including Lawn Hill Cattle station. The road was winding and interesting – a few dry creek crossings, savannah grasslands and cattle along the way….

A few patches of bulldust provided a blanket of dust not yet seen on our trip…..

We located a place to stop for the rest of the day and overnight and set up.

The Hunters finally had a surprise when they opened the Concept…… despite the road being so good a cupboard had popped open and disaster had struck – Branch was comforting but had to have a nap he was so shocked…..it was a mystery as to how the cupboard flung open…had all the preflight cabin checks been done???

After lunch, the afternoon was spent doing minor repair jobs – Branch was flat out…he was amazed at the amount of grey tape found in various locations temporarily sorting out issues.

When Dave finally got to repairing his Anderson Plug (NOT THE ANDERSON PLUG!!) Branch called in reinforcements – somewhere out in the Never Never he had found a companion – Poppy – his new apprentice specifically assigning her to the Well’s Establishment as it had kept him so busy!!

Macgyver was doing a major repair job on the Well’s Watergate affair so Branch and Poppy flicked between the water and electrical repairs….

Rosie wiled away the afternoon giving the van a good brush down….in preparation for the next dust bath tomorrow!!

The landscape on Lawn Hill Cattle station and surrounds was fascinating – a large field of termite mounds were somewhat reminiscent of a cemetery with their cleverly constructed homes reflecting in the evening light…