Going West today we were presented with a couple of noteworthy rivers. The first was the Gregory River which required getting our wheels wet on an interesting curved causeway. The second was the Nicholson River which was just before entering the Aboriginal Town of Doomadgee and was surprisingly wide but the causeway was dry.

Doomadgee was a supply stop for us as we had heared that it had a well stocked supermarket, and we are not going to see much in the way of food supplies now until we meet the Stuart Highwat at Mataranka. Just west of Doomadgee we came across this burnt out motorhome. It was a sobering sight, someones dream, up in smoke, not to mention the risk that lives were at risk (I am assuming no one was killed).

Driving was easy to day, mostly narrowish sealed roads, with interludes of good gravel, and very light traffic. We stopped early afternoon at Hell's Gate Roadhouse (see this link). Its a fuel stop, campground, basic motel and restaurant. It is run by and located on Cliffdale Station.

There is a brief history of the Roadhouse and station here.

The area got its name "Hells Gate" from a combination of a narrow pass in the rocks (making a gate) and the fact that in the early days of settlement in the area, police would escort settlers only as far as the "gate". West of that point was lawless "hell".