Burketown

I arrived earlier this afternoon (Sunday). I got bored with the beaten track and so I took a shortcut through Hells Gate. Quite aptly named as it turns out, what I was expecting to be a gravel road turned into an interesting 4wd track complete with half a dozen river crossings. I can now call the previous owner of the caravan an idiot with good reason. He added a split system A/C unit and mounted the external half on a carrier he welded onto the back of the van. It had the effect (other than cooling the van when running of course) of adding more weight to the very rear of the caravan, I suspect this is why it is so exciting to tow. He welded 2 bits of box tubing onto a couple of the exiting floor supports running down the length of the caravan, he should have welded it to the actual chassis or something structural. The flexing of the A/C unit on the back basically broke the caravans back just over the axle. I noticed this in the middle of nowhere and had no choice but to continue to Burketown at a reduced pace. The caravan will need some welding and strengthening and some floor repair work before I can leave here. I also need a new leaf spring. The biggest pain is that everything is full of red dust, the only things not covered are the contents of the unopened cans that I have, although to be honest I won't be sure until I have opened them. I asked where the nearest hardware store was and was told Mt Isa, that's a 900Km round trip. I guess I will be visiting the local dump and looking to borrow an arc welder from someone local then....
I've been told that there are other flying people arriving tomorrow and that there won't be a MG for a few days.
I'm uploading pics to Flikr now....