Little overcast this morning but no threat of rain. Had a cooked breakfast in camp with everyone this morning and then starting the day off with the Fitzgerald and Dempster River 4WD trip with a drivers meeting at 9:00am.

MacGyver had already headed off to Albany earlier in the morning to pick up a new radiator fan, he bloke all the blades off on the old one in a mud hole on the Doubtful Island run. MacGyver was going to catch up with us at the mouth of the Fitzgerald River about lunch time.

Handed the reins to Pluto to lead this trip today and he handled the drivers meeting beautifully.

Pluto at point on the new Garmin GPS all plotted with groups of waypoint and onward in convoy we crawled quietly out of camp with headlights on. Doing a radio check as we hit the main gravel drag out of camp.

The going was a little slow due to the convoy achieving a safe distance between each vehicle in the bull dust, the roads were exceptionally good, looked to have been just graded. The convoy was so far spread out that track marshals in the middle of the convoy had to relay messages to the tail end from the lead vehicle. All running very smoothly with the likes of Tazzy and Wizard helping out the T/M's.

We arrived at the over night stay area at the Fitzgerald inlet just in time for morning tea and to start airing down all tyres. The mosquitoes at the spot are horrendously annoying. How can anyone stay here overnight with plague proportions of Mozzy's, unbelievable.

Pluto back in the lead with me and Bronky just behind, little anxious to get my already deflated new Bridgestone M/T's on the sand to see how the would go. I wasn't disappointed, they were just AWESOME in the soft sand. I was so far in front when I arrived at the Dempster, I had time for another cuppa before anyone else turned up... like more fruitcake for Froggy, you little bloody beauty :-) Next to arrive was Wizard. Pluto had to air down some more to get the big GU through the soft sand a bit easier.

Parked all the vehicles and settled there for some much needed R&R, some of the lads went fishing when many others were just happy to chill out, have a chat and watch the kids and big kids have a game of soccer on the banks of the Dempster inlet with the Mt Barrons sweeping up majestically behind us. What a serine place to just chill out for the day, just great.

Movie of the young ones at heart playing soccer Click here! about 3meg.

Movie of Bonky's motor and wrapping up the compressor. Click here! Just over 2meg.

Pluto, myself, Wizard, Jonesy and Tazzy went for a bit of drive up into the dunes to have a look see, accompanied by Bullet in the V8 Land Cruiser and Brenton in the diesel turbo Pathfinder. Found a nice hill climb to practice our sandy hill climbs and descents on, Pluto eventually making the summit, no problems for the Land Cruisers, all three of them. Brenton getting the Pathfinder over the top too.

Headed back to the Dempster to pick everyone up and then head back to the Fitzgerald River. Still no sign of MacGyver, so some of the lads dropped a line in to see if anything was biting, whilst Craig, Brenton, Pluto and myself went off to see if we could find a route through to Point Charles from the end of the Fitzgerald River. Spent the most part of an hour trying to pick up a track, but unfortunately there was no 4WD tracks to be found. MacGyver showing up as we headed back to the others on the beach fishing.

Afternoon tea there on the beach and then off out the way we came in, back to the Mozzy infested spot to air up all tyres. The lads getting pretty good at airing up as all vehicles were aired up within 15 minutes, excellent.

Some of us dropping in to visit the old ruins and a rather huge birds nest. A bit scratchy getting in there but not too bad. Bullet ended up with the lead back to camp.

Settled in for the evening, bit chilly and it would have been fantastic to have an above ground campfire to keep us warm. But as with the new owners, the evening was rather cold, no warmth... we just made the most of what we had... its amazing how alcohol can warm the insides up, that's for sure ;-) But everything in moderation, yes?!

Click on the images below for a larger more detailed view.