Wednesday, 8 August 2018

The Simpson and Kimberleys trip, 2018 Day 24

We had a bit of a sleep in this morning as we couldn't get fuel until 8 am. Several people lined up at 7 am but we sat around drinking coffee and chatting before heading over at about ten past eight and getting served essentially straight away. While there I ran into the other Rhino Camper people from a few days ago. Then it was out onto the road and 60 km south to the Gibb River Road. It was a reasonably smooth trip with not much traffic. Same thing on the GRR until just short of the Durack river when I got a call from Shane on the UHF that one of his tyres was going down. It just happened to be the one with the working pressure sensor, so he was able to pull over off the road with plenty of time to spare. The problem was a fairly decent sized gash in the inside tyre wall. Shane quickly changed it and we continued on to have some morning tea parked in the Durack river. 
There was tons more boring driving until just before the Pentecost River crossing, where the hills in the background are spectacular. 

Then it wasn't far until the start of the bitumen at the El Questro turnoff where we stopped and put some air into the tyres and continued on into Kununurra. We stopped at the Coles shopping centre and restocked our supplies and had a quick meal at the nearby fast food store. We were also able to pick up some new batteries for Shane's tyre pressure sensors and after fitting them they are all back and working. At that stage I headed out to The Hoochery which makes Ord River Rum. I had visited this place back in 2005 when I was last here and now it looks like they are winning awards for their rum. I had a little tasting and picked up a couple of bottles, one liquor and one Spiced rum. Then I headed off to Invanhoe Crossing which had some water flowing over it but it was only half wheel height so the crossing was pretty easy. 

Shane was already there and he had swapped over his other new spare so it wears the same as the one he replaced earlier. 
We drove down the river a bit and found a nice place to camp, we got the fire going and cooked dinner, keeping an eye on the river in case we had uninvited guests in the form of crocs. 

We also checked the map and tried to work out the best way home, via the bitumen to Katherine or cut across the dirt to the Stuart Highway. We'll have to sleep on it.

Sent from my iPhone

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