Day 15 - 13 June - Hell's Gate Roadhouse to Roadside Camp - 91 km

The day started off well with an early start. To get to Borroloolla, the next town is 315 km so we really need to do at least 100 + km per day and it's dirt the whole way. The first 25 km went well even though there was a number of bad bits.  The second 25 was as hard as any dirt we've done.  Corrugations and sand.  We had to do a fair bit of walking.

Reached the QLD/NT border after about 54 km. Not much to see. We had a rest and had lunch of wraps and canned corned beef.  Believe me this is like having a Pal sandwich. Salty and yucky texture.  The general store at Hells Gate did not have much to choose from.

We had been told that the roads in NT were better, and they might be for cars, but we had to contend with very rocky roads with large loose stones as well as more sand, particularly at river crossings.   Still had corrugations as well.

Had a rest at the turn off to the Redbank mine at about the 80 km mark.  Headed of again about 4:00 to do another 20 km.  There was a massive hill to go up at one stage and we both ended up pushing the bikes up the hill.  This bike was at the top of the hill.









Had a bit of excitement.  As I was riding along I could see a lot of smoke about 2 km away.  As I got closer, about 1 km from the main smoke I could see many spot grass fires like this one along the side of the road.  I waited for Joe (about 10 mins) all the time watching this grass fire flare then die down and hearing the constant crackle of the fire.  Not very comfortable.








 When Joe got there we rode through the main fire which was on both sides of the road.  We had seen many of these burnt areas in the middle of nowhere and not sure how they get started.

Where's the CFA when you need them Phil?

We were a bit tired and after 10 km started looking for somewhere to camp for the night.




Found a very rough spot to camp and had tea.  Yes you guessed it sardines and pasta.

A little concerned about our water situation.  We normally would use about 4 litres a day, but we drank more today because of the heat, the hard work on the roads and I reckon the saltiness of the corned beef.  We should be OK but might stop some travellers and ask if they have any spare just to be on the safe side.

7:00 pm  I've finished writing up the blog and so will have a read and get an early night.