Day 239 – 08 Aug 09

Five nights at Pentecost River and to tell the truth, I could have stayed there until my supplies ran out, but I need to push on.

Drove through to Durack River on the recommendation of a chap at Penetecost. Crossing the Pentecost River was no problem. The water was only about 500mm deep but the bottom was rocky so I had to take it really slowly to avoid bumping things around in the van too much. I learnt from a previous creek crossing where, when I opened the van afterwards, it looked like it had rolled over!

The road between Pentecost and Durack was reasonably good. A lot less washaways, so I was able to sit on 80kmh and even out the corrugations. Arrived at Durack and, as advised, camped on the East bank overlooking the river. The crossing itself was just a mudhole, but downstream the river was full and wide. We’re still fairly close to the coast at the crossing, so, even though there were no signs warning of crocodiles, I didn’t bother with swimming – I’ll leave that until later on.

Firewood was very scarce close to the camp areas, but I went for a walk along the river for a couple of kms and found plenty further away. Only trouble is, it takes me three hours to collect enough firewood to burn for two hours. Hardly seems fair somehow.