DAY 26 13 JULY DOOMADGEE TO HELLS GATE ROADHOUSE
Brian and Christine up well before sunrise as usual fixing tea and porridge. On the road by about 8:30 on bitumen. Bruce stayed behind to do more blogging while in range of the Doomagee phone tower
About 2/3 bitumen and ⅓ dirt to Hells Gate. A good pace (for me but perhaps too slow for Christine) . Christine eventually looked longingly down the road so i said ‘meet for lunch at the end of this section of bitumen ‘. Twenty kms later no end to the bitumen (despite ‘gravel road’ signs or sign of Christine) so Brian and I stopped for lunch under a tree. Back on the bikes to find both Christine and the end of the bitumen 400m down the road!
Another 13km of rubbish dusty corrugations and the occasional wrecked car with signs painted on showing how far to the roadhouse later we arrived at Hells Gate. The rock formation, not the roadhouse. Another km and there was the roadhouse, a green oasis of respite on the long road.
A Hell Burger, 1.25li of softdrink and a Lemonade Popsicle later and time to book into the caravan park.
Minimal stores for sale but they did sell us UHT milk by the multiple 2l, eggs by the dozen and bread. Dinner was chicken and vegetable pie.
We planned a rest day next day to allow me to get over the trauma of the two surprisingly exhausting days from Adeles Grove to Doomadgee.