The next morning we headed out on one of the many 4WD tracks on the Station to do some exploring. Half way along the single lane sand track the scrub opened up to a huge dirt freeway. It was a haul road for the mining trucks from the iron ore mine. After an hour we pulled up at a place called Nannys retreat. This was a beautiful little gorge with pristine water flowing through it. Yes I know, how boring, we have seen far too many beautiful gorges. We swam and cooled off for a while and went back to the cars to find out what Le spa was about. This track had one very steep climb which had Wendy concerned as she couldn't see the ground in front of the Toyota. Once the right gear was engaged the fully laden Toyota bounced up the rocky incline with Wendy saying "I want to get out". Wendy wasn’t too keen on the return trip either. Le Spa was a nice pool of water but the bubbles weren’t working due to the lack of water coming over the little waterfall. On the return trip Joe and Jen swapped drivers, Jen lost her cherry, she made her first river crossing.

Back to camp, Joe hitched up the van and we headed off to King Ash Bay. Another few hundred k’s on a corrugated dusty road. We pulled up in Borraloola late afternoon and decided that was enough for the day. We discovered at the servo that this town only sells XXXX gold and the beer shop shuts at 4 pm. Major catastrophe, it was now 4:05 pm and the beer stocks nearing ration levels. Off to the nearest caravan park to ponder our dilemma.