June 25th

Friday. King Ash Bay (NT) to Hell's Gate! Queensland!

Crossing into Queensland

We left King Ash bay early. Left the fisher people to their boats and fish - though I understand that they were not biting. 

A long haul today.


King Ash Bay to Borroloola and back on to the Savannah Way

We saw 2 big Eagles on the exit road. We purchased a $30Telstra Sim at Borolloola supermarket on the way out. After trying for ages to activate it, we gave up in frustration. We had been out of contact for at least a week, so were keen to get on the net/phone, but no luck.

There were drops of rain, and it was only 21C at 10.40am and breezy .

Leaving Boroloola

It was a long strip of red road today, broken up by river crossings.

Long straight red road.
One of many river crossings


Look hard you can spot 2 brolgas!


Drying the washing!

No allowance for lay byes at the sides of this road. With road trains and 4WDs and vans passing reasonably regularly it was not easy to stop for a break. Quite a cool day and not a lot of light for photos.

We saw a wide variety of termite mounds; from tiny ones to the giant blob variety.

Heading for the Qld border

The weather cooled down to 17C and rainy.

Brunch after the bridge. Noodles after exploring a side track down to the river .

Brunch off-road



Little termite mounds all around our lunch spot


Savannah Way across the Queensland Border and stop over at Hell's Gate.


Made it to Qld



What we saw today:

Beautiful white grevillea

  • 3 kangaroos, v pale red. Like a big version of the agile wallaby but pale red.
  • Corella
  • Willie wag tails
  • Pee wee
  • Red grevillea
  • Orange grevillea (pteridifolia) lots
  • White grevillea but not much
  • Wattles
  • Yellow pea
  • Flock black cockies
  • Magpies
  • Cockatiels
  • Whistling kites at camp
  • Black kites
  • Galahs
  • Cattle
  • Green bottle brush
  • Mid size black footed wallaby all over beige narrow pretty face 2.5’tall
  • Mid size pigeons that were slow to leave the road
  • Egrets
  • Crossed into Queensland and lulled into false security by tar road which soon returned to red dirt.
  • 2 brolgas.

We fueled up at Hell’s Gate roadhouse and booked a cabin for the night. $165 with ensuite and ordered 2 pizzas for dinner. What luxury.

A kind lady at the desk was an ex-Telstra worker and was able to register and activate our new Pre paid Telstra sim for us. Yay!

We brought in all the stuff from the car to have a big re-organise and dry the clean clothes from yesterday’s wash.

After long hot showers and hair wash, we went for a walk around then over to the ‘restaurant’ for a drink and the pizzas which were hot and yummy!

Spent time downloading some new kindle books and generally getting back in touch with the world. Main purpose to call home and check on mum and the menagerie. All as good as could be hoped for. Been cold and wet back home!


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