Karumba to Cloncurry

Just a quick note before taking off again, we went from Karumba to Burke & Wills Roadhouse and took a right west to Gregory Downs. We thought we would spend the weekend there and visit Lawn Hill. The pub at Gregory Downs is really good, a bit pricey but good hospitlity. We opted to stay out the back of the pub where they provide water and loos for $7.50 a head (no power, can use generators) for two nights so we could leave the van there and shoot into Lawn Hill National Park for a squiz. Unfortunately on Saturday when we were half way there we got a flat and once I changed the tyre to a space saver one (standard with this model of Touareg) it was not smart to go on, so we turned around and headed back. I tried to get it fixed in Gregory Downs but none were keen to work on a hole as big as I had in the tyre. So Saturday was spent sitting doing nothing since we were paid up and I was over the driving thing for the day. Rachel caught up on some work and I chilled out playing a computer game in the aircon of our awesome little home the XK660. By the way it is going really well. It is up around 38,000kms now with no major problems. I have put a bit of sikaflex in the bathroom to add extra water tightness, put a couple of extra brackets under the microwave (go a little loose under there) but other than that she has been great!

We headed off Sunday to Cloncurry limping with the space saver tyre towing the van. We kept the speed under 80kms all the way as per the limits stamped on the rim and found it performed really well on mostly sealed road but sometimes we had to get off the road for oncoming cars and road trains. Well I am about to shoot into Cloncurry to get the tyre fixed, hope we can get it all fixed. By the way, we stayed at Wals camp at the back of Cloncurry last night, $8 for the two of us. Has water (not much in drought) and toilets, no power (can use generator though).