North West Qld trip July 2021

[Big Red]

Wednesday 21st July:

Brett found out that he has to head home by Saturday so he left around mid morning while I used the amenities and showered off the calcium layer before hitting the road about lunch time.



Heading up towards Doomadgee I drove up to the “cross on a hill” for a 360 degree around the surrounding terrain.

[Big Red]

Stupid me had not let the tyres down so it was only a matter of time before the sharp pointy rocks, hard compacted road base and high tyre pressure combined to punch one of those long skinny rocks through the tread of the tyre.
I tried plugging it with no luck so had to put one of the spares on then dropped the tyre pressure and headed off again.



A sign saying no access through Bowthorn had me turning right for Doomadgee where I met the main road and slowly headed up the bitumen not knowing how long it lasted … nearly all the way to Hells Gate as it turned out.



I refuelled at Hells Gate roadhouse then stopped at Dill Doll Rock for a look around the amazing rock formation area before heading into the bush and setting up camp cooking up the last of my sausages over a small campfire.

[Big Red]

[Big Red]

Thursday 22nd July:













The gravel road through to the border was great but once into the Northern Territory it deteriorated badly so the 300Km took 5 hours to Boorooloola where I picked up some bread, milk and sausages … funnily enough the milk is newer here than it was in the coles at Mt Isa!

[Big Red]

I hit the road towards Roper Bar and pulled up at the Southern Lost City and got the last camp spot [apart from a big flash F250 with Flash camper which was parked in the shade of a drive through campsite and wasn’t set up] … I was tempted to park in front of the F250 as I was 99% sure he was just being “Entitled” but the 1% stopped me. The spot I has was the smallest but it had plenty of room for me.



Several cars with campers came in looking for a spot but drove on … old mate started the F250 and him and “Karen” sat in the shade waiting for the AC to cool the car, another car and camper drove past then seeing no camp spots drove on … George and Karen then loudly complained about having to drive in someone else’s dust and roared off in disgust after them!

The sun was getting low so I did the 2.5Km walk around the awesome rock formations before lighting the BBQ and cooking up some snags.

While moving the steering wheel leaning past to get my phone I felt a slight clunk and found the female thread loose on the LH balljoint so tightened up the locking bolt and nut and also discovered the Steering Stabiliser has leaked its oil out … shouldn’t be too much of a worry without one.
Its a warm night tonight, 26.3 at 8PM.

[Big Red]

[Big Red]

[Big Red]

Friday 23rd July:

I awoke to a faint colour on the horizon but as the light increased it became apparent that I had a grey sky due to heavy fog.



I wondered if I should wait for another day before heading out to the Western Lost City but decided to head out and get some pic of the spires in the mists.

[Big Red]

I picked up the lock code from the Rangers office white board and headed out the rough and rugged 28 km 4wd track but about 10 minutes from the end of the track the fog lifted and was replaced by perfect blue skies as I came in sight of the formations.
I was sort of disappointed and sort of glad at the same time.

[Big Red]

I took a video while crawling along in the car ...

https://youtu.be/nu7lc3K2xD4

I drove out to the Arch [which they have now fenced off] and had a coffee while enjoying the scenery.

After a lot of pics I wandered off trying to find the Art site [which was just near the end of the track 8 years ago] but then realised they had stopped the track short and fenced it off.











Spiders and Bees