The beast of a ute we have is towing the trailer as if nothing is attached. I have to keep looking in the mirror to remind myself it's there then remember I should be looking ahead for animals jumping out in front of me so I can announce to the boys we've seen a living creature just before I plough through it and add it to our on-going road kill tally.

The drive was ok and we managed to add a few miles despite leaving so late from Karalee Dam. Fraser Range Station was the goal and we managed to make it there but had a change of mind as we thought it was a bit of a waste of money camping somewhere that was just as good as our free place the night before. We're glad we did as Newman Rock was the place we decided on and turned in at about 4pm to find it completely empty. We set out to pitch our tent at the top of the site looking down over another granite rock and into a beautiful natural pool that the water neatly runs into when it rains. It was lucky we camped on the top and not near the water's edge as suggested by the boys as it absolutely pissed down overnight and we learnt lesson number 2. Don't leave the annex on untethered and don't leave the Engel under the camper trailer if it rains.

When we woke up. (which for me was 11:30pm, 12:45am, 1:30am, 4am, 5:20am, 6am and then 6:45am worrying if we ever going to be warm and dry ever again….) we looked outside and saw the beautiful picturesque rock pool was now an overflowing death trap that would have drowned us all had we camped in the spot next to it….. Lesson 3 don't camp near the water….

We managed to pull stumps a lot quicker this time around as our repacking had done its job the day before and we headed off after about 30 minutes. We even had time for Fi and I to get our kit off and have a proper bush wash in the rock pool. All very romantic despite the temperature of the water which had me looking more like Fi than Chris when I came out.

The weather was looking bad as we left and we thought we may be able to outrun it but the rain was clearly following us and we were set for another wet night.