Borroloola NT

We could tell we were off the main tourist route as instead of passing hundreds of caravans heading north yesterday, we only passed a couple heading east to here. However, there are more campers here than we imagined - many of them fishing people. At Cape Crawford - which incidentally isn't anywhere near the coast, we found this Heart Break Hotel - quite a neat and tidy place:

            

About 70kms from here we passed a huge zinc mine - the largest deposit in the world we read - and the road widened and improved from a narrow bitumen strip to a substantial road for the mine trucks. The zinc is sent to a little spot north of here called Bing Bong. It's on the Gulf and all sealed off from the public but we got a glimpse of the loading facility from a lookout tower. 

     

We also got a glimpse of the gulf - more than Bourke & Wills did!! 

      

It's a quaint place here and not situated right on the McArther river as we imagined but on the banks of the flood plain and the river is some distance away. It's a beautiful big river but of course not suitable for swimming because of those darn crocs!! 

       

We set up in a shady spot and we were happy to be able to have our camp fire to cook on again. 

Some fellow travellers came over - one lot to admire our vans, and another lot to tell us they'd just travelled on the Savannah Way to Hells Gate but the track was rather treacherous so we've decided to be wimps and stick to the bitumen.  We'll head to Barkly Homestead on the Barkley Highway and then onto Mt Isa. We see where there's been big rains east of us but luckily not here and not where we are going. 

There'll probably not be service for a while so I'll post this and send our love to everyone ❌❌❌❌❌