A stop for the night at Hell's Gate Roadhouse. In the early years travellers from Queensland towards the Territory have been accompanied by police officers up to this point. Then they had to continue their trip alone. Hence the flowery name.  Today air planes using the local airstrip actually stop in front of the roadhouse. If it's really that many "international flights" as the sign suggests, well we don't know.

On the way to lawn hill National Park. Only rugged vehicles ride out the trip. But this once definitely very solid truck more likely died from senile decay. As so often in Aussie we ask ourselves how the farmers manage to feed their cattle.  

Lawn Hill National Park. A real oasis within hundreds of kilometres of bone dry farmland.

The Upper Gorge of Lawn Hill National Park.

Lotus Flower in Lawn Hill NP.

Karumba, a magic word. During the first couple of months of our trip we met many friendly grey nomads from the southern states, who all told us that in winter they are leaving for Karumba. To be honest, initially we didn't take it serious. Karumba, you know, that sounds like Bullamakanka, Back of Bourke or Behind the Black Stump. But after a while, we noticed that this must be a real place. So we had to go there too.
During the season Karumba's population surely triples. The plain truth about Karumba is, you can't do much except for fishing (and only if you have a solid boat!). There's no swimming or other water activities, and nothing else. Our friend Dave Lamb would say: "The good thing about this beach is, there are no sharks. Because the crocodiles ate them all!". I tell ya mate, there's both crocs and sharks in Karumba! Anyway this place is special. The Barra and Chips from the local fish & chips shop are delicious and definitely worth the little side trip and the sun always shines.

Huge flocks of Red-Tailed Black-Cockatoos close to the beach in Karumba. No wonder, there's heaps of almonds, falling from the Tropical Almond Trees. They absolutely love them. Accordingly, the noise is incredible.

We had to travel far to see our first Brolgas. They belong to the crane family.

The Jabiru is the only Australian stork. With a wing span of up to two meters it is really a huge bird. Mrs. Jabiru's iris is yellow, while Mr. Jabiru's eyes are black.

On the campground of the Undara Lava Tubes a Roo with is visiting our campsite.