All well on the truck front, the necessary testing proved everything was good to go.  A fantastic effort from the boys in Fitzroy Crossing who had never done anything like this before.  We are now in Broome for a few days, but more on that later.
After we left Home Valley Station, having wiped out the cane toad problem, we headed back east on the Gibb River Road.  Not sure if I have posted this already, but it was our intention to go all the way on the GRR to Derby and Broome.  We had allowed about a week for this.  Having talked to lots of fellow travellers, it seems much longer is needed to see everything along the way.  Rather than rush it, we decided to take the other route to Broome and hopefully come back to the GRR some time in the future when we have more time.  We hadn't been to Emma Gorge when we were at El Questro so we decided to stop there on our way back to Kununurra.  Along the way. we encountered two quite unusual sights.

It might not be very clear in the photo, but there are spots of rain on the windscreen!

A cyclist on this hot, dusty, corrugated, long way between stops road!

When we got to Emma Gorge, we thought we should do the walk to see the Gorge, otherwise we would just be there for a nice lunch at the restaurant, and I know you want to see more other than us eating and drinking.  So off we set, thinking this would be a nice pleasant walk on a day that was overcast, so not too hot.  Peter and Alan soon headed off like mountain goats, leaving Jude and I to muddle along by ourselves.  The pleasant path soon turned into a rock climbing expedition!  The path twisted and turned, always going up and always necessitating clambering over rocks.

We were passed by several people going up, and lots of people coming down.  We got several messages from those coming down, like "those two blokes up ahead of you said for you to keep going!"  Easy for them to say.  We did persevere, even after Jude had a fall and was left battered and bruised.  We kept getting more encouraging comments from those coming down, telling us it was worth the effort.  We were beginning to doubt it.

There were a couple of pretty pools on the way.  Just when we had nearly had enough, Peter and Alan appeared and said it wasn't much further.  They had already been up to the top of the Gorge and had a swim in the pool.  We eventually made it.

When we got to the bottom again, we read the notices that we should have read before we started - it is 3.2 kilometres to the top.  That means we walked, climbed, stumbled, clambered, complained for 6.4 kilometres.  Lunch and the gorgeous "Coco Loco" cocktail that we had in the restaurant was well deserved, so the photo is going in whether you like it or not.

Stay tuned for the next episode from Lake Argyle - a very special experience while we were there!

Still sitting at the caravan park at Fitzroy Crossing, homeless!  The verdict on the truck shouldn't be much longer.
Back to the journey, when we left El Questro, the next stop was Home Valley Station, further west on the Gibb River Road.  This station is owned by the Indigenous Land Corporation, is about 300,000 acres and is used for training indigenous workers.  We liked the look of the swimming pool in the book!
The Gibb River Road was quite a bit rougher as we went along, lots of corrugations and a couple of small river crossings.  Similar scenery to what we have become accustomed to - dramatic!

We stopped after one of the river crossings and discovered that we had a flat tyre on the boat trailer - quickly replaced.

We also discovered that the leg on the camper that didn't have a working motor to put it down, had fallen down and was bent.  Bit more of a problem, this required amputation with the angle grinder (doesn't everyone carry an angle grinder in their tool kit?)

Definitely wouldn't be taking the camper off the truck now.  Bugger!  Home Valley Station wasn't much further on.  We were looking forward to that pool, and having power for the air conditioners.  Have I told you it's hot up here in the north - no, I mean HOT!!!

The camping ground at Home Valley is much smaller than El Questro.  Being further along the GRR and not having the attractions of El Questro, it is not visited as much.  There is also not a lot of shade - never mind that, we have a pool and air conditioning!

The bar isn't bad either.

They are however not quite up with some of the modern conveniences.

We stayed at Home Valley for 3 days.  That would be long enough for anyone thinking of visiting there as there isn't much to see there.  There is however one thing to see that makes it a worthwhile stop.

I'm talking about the helicopter flight, of course.  This is the lovely Mike, who took the 4 girls for a lovely 40 minute scenic tour of the area, and then the next day took the 5 boys on an afternoon's fishing.  The scenic flight took us over some of the very large rivers, including the Durack and the Pentecost.

This is the area where the fishing expedition was to take place the next day.  We also flew over the stunning escarpments of the Cockburn Ranges.

The fishing expedition was very successful, with about 30 barramundi caught by the 5 intrepid fishermen.  For the fishing listeners the score was 860mm, 725mm and the rest between 500 and 700mm.  3 of the catch were brought home for dinner.   The head chef from the restaurant (there are 5 chefs) was with them on the fishing trip and dinner that night for us was a large platter of the catch of the day.

I know, more eating and drinking, but that's what we do!!
Sorry to introduce an ugly note to the conversation, but we need to discuss cane toads.  We all know how horrible they are and the damage they do to the wildlife.  When we arrived at Home Valley Station, there was a large goanna in the garden.  One of the workers there told us that they are very concerned about the wildlife there because of the cane toads.  Last November there weren't any there, but during the wet season they came.  They have had scientists up there testing animals that are found dead and they have all been poisoned by eating cane toads.  The cane toads are rapidly invading the north of WA now.  Each place where they are found have one of these boxes.

Jude and I decided one night to do our bit for the cause and went out hunting armed with a plastic bag and some plastic salad servers.  The idea was to flick the nasty creatures into the bag with the salad servers.  We knew where to find them - behind the washing machines and in the showers.  The plan didn't work too well, the toads didn't flick well.  Peter came to the rescue with a shovel and got the first one in the bag just fine.  The second one was a bit of a problem, when I opened the bag to get it in, the first one tried to get out.  This then led to lots of noise (from Jude and I) and a dropping of the plastic bag.  A little hit with the shovel (just a gentle tap) made the toads a little easier to manage.  Our contribution was 3 nasty big toads and a lot of entertainment for those watching.

That puts us up to about a week ago - more to come, bet you can't wait.

Update on the truck situation - after 2 days, the problem may or may not be fixed.  They are hopeful that final checks in the morning will be successful.  It's all to do with particle emissions and blocked things. The lovely Keith and Alex have been doing a sterling job, given this is not the sort of work they usually do.  The Isuzu service centre in Port Hedland (1,000 kms away if you missed that before) have been offering assistance by phone.  At this stage we are slightly confident only!  Stay tuned for further updates

Meanwhile, back at El Questro, we set up camp by the Pentecost River.  We weren't allowed to go past the main camping ground as we had things behind towed.  (After having a look later, we could have gone anywhere).  At least we were near the facilities for the girls in the tents.

It was VERY, VERY hot here, the river was safe to swim in so we were told, so that did provide some relief.

I have to say I was a little disappointed with El Questro.  I had wanted to go there for a long time and I guess I had very high expectations.  The photos you usually see are of the beautiful homestead and swimming pool above the river.  I knew we wouldn't be in anything luxurious like that (not prepared to pay up to $5,000 per night!), but we didn't even see the Homestead.  It is so exclusive that you don't even know where it is.  I suppose it's easy to hide something like that in 1 million acres of land.  The camping area was quite crowded even though it's not really into the main season yet.  In one are of toilet/shower facilities, 4 out of the 8 were out of order and 2 of the remaining 4 didn't have hot water.  There were 4 other toilets and showers, but these got very crowded.  There is however, plenty to do at El Questro, most of which involves driving over very rough roads - definitely need 4WD here.  We were a bit limited in what we could do as we couldn't take the camper off the truck due to a broken leg (on the camper, not one of us).  Some of the others went to Zebedee Springs which they said was lovely.  Warm water for swimming apparently.
We did go to Chamberlain Gorge one afternoon by loading up the other cars.  This was very scenic, but it gets a bit like the churches in England, after you have seen a couple of gorges, that's probably enough.

Definitely no swimming here - a crocodile was sighted here a few days before.

After this we went to a lookout where there is supposed to be spectacular sunsets.  This involved more rough roads and a very steep drive up a hill to get to the lookout.

It was worth the drive and I imagine when it isn't cloudy, it's even better.  There was quite a crowd up at the lookout, so it is obviously a popular thing to do.

The next day was Mothers' Day and my birthday, which has already been covered, and then the day after we moved a bit further west on the Gibb River Road to Home Valley Station.  That will be the next instalment to which you can look forward with much anticipation.
We are currently still at Fitzroy Crossing due to some mechanical problems with the truck. I have plenty of time to fill in so will be able to catch up on the blog posts.  Hopefully the truck can be repaired here although services are fairly basic.  Failing that it will have to go to Port Hedland (almost 1,000 kms away) on the back of low loader.  For those of you familiar with the drowned Chevvy saga a few years ago, this might seem to be a recurring pattern on our expeditions!  As the camper will have to come off for the truck to be transported anywhere and we can't get the camper off due to a broken leg, everything rests on the talents of Keith and Alex at Mac's Motors.  They are going to be working via phone link up with the experts in Port Hedland.  Everyone needs to cross everything and send positive thoughts to Keith and Alex and hopefully we will be underway again soon.  Bye for now! xxx

Well, here we are in Fitzroy Crossing with a little time to spare and strong internet connections so I will attempt to catch up on our activities.  It seems so long ago that I last told of all that we had been doing and I know you have been waiting patiently, so let's just see how it is all unfolding.
I'll skip over the "not much happening" bits and get to the good stuff soon.
Since Daly Waters, we have been at Timber Creek for one night.

I think I have waxed lyrical and posted photos of the stunningly dramatic landscape around here before, but these ancient red oxide rock escarpments are really something to see.

The true colour doesn't show up here, I think it is one of those things that you need to see for yourself.
Another part of the scenery that is very interesting is the boab trees which we are now seeing more and more of.

From here we crossed the WA border (the first time for us driving) after handing over our contraband at the quarantine station.  You can't even take honey over the border!
Kununurra (I have finally found out how to spell it properly) was our next overnight destination.  This was a very pleasant small town with lots more facilities than we had expected.  There was a tropical feel to the town and the caravan park, complete with cane toads and frangipani.  (I didn't think anyone needed to see a photo of a cane toad, so here is some frangipani).

Once again we managed to find a lovely place to have dinner.  I know there seems to be lots of  photos of us eating and drinking, but that's what we seem to do most of.

Next morning we made our way to the airport to meet up with the rest of our touring party.  Craig and Diane  from Drysdale came by plan via Darwin, Di's brother, Peter drove down from Darwin with Nick and Deb from Bellarine who had flown to Darwin.  We all headed for El Questro, with the new arrivals making a short  stop in Kununurra for supplies.
After we had been at El Questro for a few hours waiting for the others, they finally turned up.  It seems the Peter (the semi-local) had got lost!   Not just a little lost, but went about 100 kms towards Hall's Creek before realising he was not on the right road.  This was obviously cause for a lot of future comments!

This is the store and reception area at El Questro.  We stayed at El Questro for 3 days and there is lots to tell about this part of our journey so I'll save that for the next post.

One last thing - your fact for the day.  El Questro is a property comprising 1 million acres!  Not sure how that relates to small European countries, but it is very large!
See you soon (internet allowing). xx

Hello, my lovely blog followers.  So much to tell you since last we met, and so little time to do it.  We are currently is a bush camp between Halls Creek and  Kununurra, only bush around us and I have just discovered that I have internet access.  Not sure how that happens, but we are not far from Argyle Diamond Mine so maybe that is why.  (Apparently they don't give out samples, so we didn't bother going there). I'll have to review where we are up to before I post again.
Thanks to everyone for the lovely birthday messages on the phone and on FB.  I didn't get them until a couple of days ago as we have been out of contact for quite a while.  I had a special birthday celebration at El Questro.  I debated long and hard about putting this photo on the blog as it is probably as bad a photo as you could get, but it is the only birthday one I have, so here it is.  Make sure no little children are exposed to it as it will give them nightmares!

And to make up for that terrible one, here is one of my birthday dessert which is much nicer!

I know you are all desperately crying out "We want more", but that's it for now.  We have had some amazing experiences which I want to share with you, but no more time now.  Loving the comments from everyone.  If you can't leave a comment on the blog, email and facebook are accepted too.  Miss you all. xxx

We are out of the pool and sitting outside having a drink while waiting for dinner.  36 degrees in Katherine for anyone interested.  But, to go back to where we left off last time, we have spent the night at the oasis in the middle of nowhere, Barkly Homestead Roadhouse, where the beer was cold and the shade welcome.  Jude even managed to find a dress to buy out here.
Next stopover was Daly Waters and the famous pub.  The camping area was beside the pub this time, so we have broken the pattern of camping behind pubs.  If you haven't been there, do yourself a favour.  It is a fantastic place to visit, and the food is really good too.

There are collections of  just about everything, there isn't a spare spot on the walls, the ceiling or the posts holding up the ceiling.  It was a very enjoyable night, even though the music from the rodeo in the next paddock went on until 2,20 a.m.   And yes, I did say the next paddock, the pub is in a paddock!

Next morning we were Katherine bound, with a stop over at Mataranka to try out the thermal pools.  It was a very pleasant setting in the National Park, but the water is a bit too warm to be refreshing in these temperatures.

The park where we have been staying in Katherine is the Big 4, and it is one of the best we have stayed in.  There are lots of shady trees, a lovely pool, a bistro by the pool run by 2 very friendly young ladies and the owners are from our area - Jeff and Julie Smith.  They lived at St Leonards, and Jeff came from Inverleigh.  They know lots of people the Browns know (the Browns do know just about everyone in Victoria!)  Again, do yourself a favour if you are up this way and find this park - there are lovely cabins for those of you who don't have your own cocoon.  The park is very large, not overdeveloped, and they grown their own mangoes for the very delicious mango daquiris (don't know about that spelling) at a very reasonable $7 each at the bistro.  We thought it a good idea to have several of those, purely for the fruit content.  Dinner there was also excellent.

No, I haven't shrunk since I left home, it's just the photo.  And in case you are wondering, we have done some things on this trip other than visiting country pubs and eating.  Here's an example (oh, no, it involves eating and drinking too!)
Last night we had a fantastic experience, we took a sunset, dinner cruise through Katherine Gorge.  It is a spectacular natural feature of the area and seeing it at sunset was amazing.

And, sorry to mention food again, but the food they produced from the front of this little boat would do credit to any restaurant.  We started off with anti pasta plates on the table.  This was followed by absolutely delicious crocodile cream soup (who knows if it was really crocodile, it tasted good!).  Then we had sorbet to "cleanse the mouth" before our main course of barramundi or local beef.  How good is that - especially if you could see where they produced it all from.  The highlight was the dessert - watermelon, then kakadu plums topped with lemon pannacotta - magnificent!

Sorry - forgot to take a photo before we started them.

So it's goodbye to the beautiful Katherine in the morning and onward to Timber Creek, then Kununura (never sure how many ns to use there) to meet up with Craig and Di and head for El Questro.
Not sure when next we will meet, but until then we will do our best to enjoy ourselves - it's a tough life being a grey nomad.  xx

What have we been up to since Lake Maraboon,I hear you ask.  Well sit down, boys and girls, and I'll tell you.
After Lake Maraboon and the famous red claw, we headed off to Longreach via Emerald and Barcaldine.  The plan was to get there about lunch time, see the Hall of Fame, dinner at the Cattlemen's Bar and off the next morning bright and early.  The best laid plans ...  After a pleasant lunch in town, Jude and I wanted to look at a couple of shops.  Alan and Peter did what all men do when women are shopping, got lost (not easy in Longreach).  Jude and I went back to camp after looking everywhere for them and made a new plan.  Dinner as planned then Hall of Fame the next morning.

This time all went to plan - dinner was lovely and after a big sleep we visited the Hall of Fame and then headed off about 11 o'clock further west, towards the NT border. After a great driving effort by Alan and Peter we made it to the Walkabout Creek Hotel, of Crocodile Dundee fame (at McKinlay for those of you following on the map).  We set up camp in the very crowded parking area behind the hotel.

Lots more driving the next day, rocky outcrops around Mt Isa, long straight roads and hot sun.

More driving, crossed the NT border just after Camoweal.  Some excitement then - a car being pursued by 3 police cars.  Eventually passed the car pulled over about 60 kilometres further on.  We pulled into the oasis that is the Barkly Homestead at about 3.30.  Drinks, showers, more drinks and dinner in the bar, and we are all ready for another big days drive tomorrow.  From here we will head north to Cape Crawford, then turn west to Daly Waters for another night camped behind a country pub.  There seems to be a pattern emerging here!
It's all blue skies and happy campers here (although a trifle hot at times).

Now, we all know that it's a good day when you have learned something new, so here's a few things to pick from.

In 1870 Cobb and Co harnessed 6000 horses per day in Australia
We have now travelled 4,040 kilometres
The hottest temperature recorded in Australia was at Cloncurry - 53.1 degrees (not sure when, we went past the sign too quickly)
Fuel in Camoweal is $1.91.9 per litre
Peter Brown is super-competitive and will cheat to win
It is illegal in outback Australia to have more than 1 bend every 20 kilometres of road

There are hundreds of dead kangaroos on outback roads
Other dead things on outback roads are cows, sheep, emus, pigs, one caravan and maybe an echidna (not sure it was actually dead)
The speed limit on the Barkly Highway is 130 kph
People in black cars with dark tinted windows drive very fast in the Northern Territory
Policemen chasing people in black cars with dark tinted windows go even faster

I believe some people have had difficulty in trying to leave comments. A suggestion has been made that maybe only people on gmail can leave comments.  Anyway if you have tried, thanks for making the effort.

As we are heading into the wilds again, not sure when the next post will be, so until then thanks for listening, and you stay safe out there!  xxx