15 July - Boodjamulla Campground to Trackside camp along a track down to Nicholson River between Doomadgee and Burketown.

A cool night which makes for lovely sleep, especially following our active afternoon on and in the water yesterday. 

Sadly, it's time to pack up and move on from this part of the world. While I've seen and done most of the walks, it'd be nice to sit, read, swim, relax for another day. 

Easy to see why Mum and Dad raved about this place all those years ago. 

Our Lawn Hill almost packed up and ready...nawww!

Some little birds flitting about, couldn't get a good shot. 

Really red little birds, again hard to get a shot.

One of the little red guys in a tree.

Headed off to Adel Grove, J to pick up his tyre fitted to the rim and put back onto car and fuel. Fuel and ice cream for Dad and I. Sarah fuelled up. Steve dumped his tank gunk and the Dundek's did a little shopping and an ice cream. Then we headed north towards Doomadgee along the development track through Lawn Hill Station. We saw lots of Brahman cattle, interesting mineral licks, a cattle back scratcher device for tick control, some horses here and there too. 

We spotted a cross on the hill but no one offered to go for a look. Stef and Milani decided to drive up and see what it was all about. As they were tail end Charlie we all tootled on slowly. 

Stef's shot, looking back down the hill from the cross.

Milani's pics of the memorial up on the hill.

Great shot of the Disco and the Cross.

The Gravestone up there.

 

Sign posts through the station. Not sure what KFC actually meant.

More Brahman cattle.

Beautiful tonal colourings.

The escarpment.

Someone had a breakdown.

Great patina on the paintwork

The old spring seat has seen better days. 

Some of the tall grasses at the roadside.

We lost radio contact and heard some scratchy comms mentioning a flat tyre but then a message it was all good. Turned out it wasn't. Meg and J turned back and about 6 kms later found Stef and Milani changing the tyre. 

We all pulled up and had lunch while we waited. Eventually the other two vehicles had lunch too. When it was time to get back  on track - Steve was going nowhere. Car wouldn't start. It wasn't battery, so off came  a lot of underbody parts to get access to something to turn the motor over. Almost two hours later, they checked another fuse. That seemed to be the problem. So some wiring was re_routed and it was all go. Then the vehicle had to be put back together. It was about 30 degrees so needless to say it was hot work. 

Our lunchstop, Stef and Milani had caught up by this stage.

Under the shade of a tree, while cars were being looked at.

Under the bonnet

Time for a tow, to see if they can turn the crank over?

Steve's driving lights are definitely not loose anymore...not lighting up much either.

Beginning to unhitch, but no need, the Disco will tow the whole lot

First attempt at getting the clutchy thing to turn over - failed.

What else can we try?

Nope, let's turn around and tow it into some shade for further investigation

Just like elephants. 

around this tree, to some shade.

There we go.

now for some serious dismantling, looking for a starter motor at this stage I think.

Getting very friendly under there fellas.

There were lots of helpers and looker oner'ers.
Someone else had the camera at this point.

Meg shot.

Carmel...yes the flies were very annoying. 

Jadon.

More cattle

Just love their droopy ears.

This was one very big bull. 

Tail swishing.

More Moodlu.

Very red in the sunshine.

 The track today was a good one, mainly soft dirt track through the cattle station, with some views of the escarpment and a variety of changing vegetation. 

Finally back on the go about 3.00. Onward through the station we went. 

We passed a bunch of capok trees with lovely yellow flowers and green pods. 

Capok trees we think.

Bright yellow flowers. 

and green pods of some sort.

  We then hit the bitumen - A1 road and headed happily. 

a cool grass that was everywhere, like a perfect little Christmas tree.

Eventually  pulled into a potential river frontage option for the night , but we struck a fence which prevented access to the dry riverbed. However we Found a likely spot along the track in. 

Our campsite.

Jadon was out to the right

 Jadon is leaking brake fluid. The verdict is in all the mud at Diamantina that the mud had rubbed a hole in the brake line. So poor Jadon needed to take his wheel off and a patch was fashioned using some rescue tape, some tubing, a couple of hose clamps, and some cable ties. There was also quite a few wet ones and paper towel consumed in the process. 

Yep, that $@$^ tyre is off again. J has a leaking brake line. So repairs are called for. The verdict is that the mud rubbed it through. Very messy repair. (But seems to have done the trick)

J and Stef - sorting out the leaking brake line.

 A lovely campsite as it turned out. Some shooting stars were spotted. 

I did a bit of night photography with Milani as a model. Then a cuppa and bed.  

Milani posing with my Lumi light.

The night sky.