Alternative Savannah Way - Hells Gate and Borroloola

At the camping grounds in Boodjamulla NP, we had met some caravan people who were also keen to take the alternative Savannah Highway route that we were going on. So we promised to give them a road report as soon as we could get telephone coverage.

The first part of the road through Lawn Hill Station was really very good. Whilst it was just a single track at times, few people obviouly travelled on it and so we found it to be good. The scenery was interesing and we wove our way through rollling hills and through several creek crossings. So it didn't take long to reach Doomadgee.

Inside the roadhouse store, whilst purchasing fresh fruit and vegetables, we began talking to two women that had come from Borroloola. They were looking for glue and silicone etc to make repairs to their caravan which had received quite a battering from the road. We thought to phone Angela and Greg (our caravan friends from Lawn Hill) to let them know what the road to Doomadgee was like, but decided to wait a bit until after we had experienced the road further along.

The road to Hell's Gate was also good. We stayed the night in the grounds of the homestead, before setting off again in the morning to Borroloola.

Now the road turned nasty and unpredictable. Deep ruts and corregations with loose material over the top. It took a great deal of arm strength to keep the car on the road. There were also deep holes, sometimes filled with bulldust and other times with sharp rocks.

There were three wet creek crossings, some with very steep entries and narrow tight footings. We saw only one caravan on this road, who were slowly, very slowly and gingerly heading towards Hell's Gate.

The awful road stretched 362 klms ahead with no reprieve from the bumping and sliding. Our average speed was about 45klms per hour. At one stage we saw fire in front of us. We found the flames licking the side of the road and thick smoke accross it. Huge numbers of raptors were swirling through the smoke above the road catching insects, reptiles and small mammals that were attempting to escape the flames.

So we arrived in Borroloola very shaken about and weary. In our phonecall to Angela and Greg, we said, "If it was our caravan, we wouldn't take it on that road", and they could make their own decision.

Borroloola was dirty, hot and dusty. Peter wanted to stock up on some beer, but the bottle shop didn't open until 2:30pm, so we made the big mistake if buying lunch of barramundi and chips. More like rubber with rubber! Yuk!

Then we discovered that you could only buy twelve mid-strength beer per day. So we left for Cape Crawford and The Heartbreak Hotel.