Day 14 - 12 June - Doomadgee to Hell's Gate Roadhouse -

Woke up about 5:30 in a nice soft bed.  No back pain like I've been getting sleeping in the tent. Great.

Bikes still there so that's a bonus.

Breakfast of Nutra Grain and toast all provided.  Wild horses wandering around the town which seems to be normal for Aboriginal towns.

Headed off on asphalt for a few ks then into the dirt. Said Gidday to a few kids that just seemed to be riding around on horses.  Not a bad surface for awhile then we got the corrugations, sand and broken clay.  Makes for much slower riding and it's tiring because of the concentration of reading the track surface.  Arms, wrists and shoulders also aching because it is much harder to keep the bike on track.

We still made good time and after a few stops every 20 km to rest my aching bum and to feed the engine.  There seems to be a fascination with putting clothes on ant mounds.  Normally it's underwear, but this one was better dressed.

Did the 80 km to Hells Gate by about 1:30 pm.

There was meant to be a general store here, but they don't have much at all.  We will be living on corned beef for the next few days.  The lady serving was also depressed and depressing, but over time Joe seems to have charmed her. He has a way with the over 65 year olds.

Pretty dilapidated camping area. Toilets looked OK from the outside, but no shower curtains on showers, outside urinal, taps not working and overall run down and dirty.  Also cows wandering through the camp.


We were the only people here for awhile but about 6 cars and caravans ended up staying.

Yet another meal of pasta and sardines for tea, but we lashed out on ice creams to finish off the meal.