Bedourie to Diamantina River - 144kms

So we left Bedourie and headed off to the Diamantina River.    This was a rough road once again and unfortunately for us, just 5 kms from our camp we blew an inside tyre.   The noise was explosive inside the bus.

The very best thing about this Safari is that everyone stops, slows down, or calls on their CBs to see if you are OK.   Here we have Peter & Frank, helping us out with our blown tyre.   Frank, in the blue t shirt is 79, and didnt hesitate to slide under the bus and do the jacking up and help with the repairs.   It helped that Frank was the thinnest of them all and prob. the only one that could get under the bus anyway.    The wives busied themselves making lunch & coffee for the men.   Frank emerged with skinned arms where the gravel had bitten into him.   The only way he could get out from under the bus when the jack was let down was by his wife Lauren physically dragging him out by the ankles.   So we slowly limped into camp, dusty and down.  Knowing we didnt have another spare.   Rick was a little shook up by the whole thing.   We then discovered we had damage to one of our front tyres so the decision was made to take it off, put it on the back and take a better tyre to the front.   That way if a back tyre goes, we still have one to keep us moving, being twin steer.    3 towns later, we still cant get any tyres.

This camp spot was a shocker.   Rocky, hot and had absolutely nothing going for it. The 5 amigos tossed up moving on and out of this god forsaken place, but by the time Rick had changed the tyres, he wasnt in any shape to move on.   A very hot sunny happy hour was had by all.  Questions raised as to why they had chosen this crappy place, but the reasons were that it was too far between towns to justify travelling those distances.   Then at 3.00 in the morning it started to rain.   We were camped facing down towards the dry river and it was decided very quickly that everyone must pack up and move to higher ground.   If the ground became wet, it would be a week before we could get out.    Mad scramble as we quickly dressed, packed and moved.   It was 4.30 am by the time we were all resettled.   We opted to go back to bed.   Others stayed up, watched the electrical storm and then moved on very early.    We then had to make a quick and early exit ourselves as everyone seemed anxious to hit the road by 7.    Showers and breakfasts waited till further on down the road.   All that excitement.   A strange end to a very crappy day.