The girls left early to beat the heat. I took an hour to limp into the gorge and hopefully see some freshwater crocodiles. There were a few splashes and one sunning itself on a rock away from the shore but not much else.

Then by 9:30 I was riding back out to the Fairfield-Leopold Downs road the 20 kms to the Gibb River Road. No great hassle except for the leg and foot getting very sore needing a rest every 10 kms.

On the Gibb a road crew was at the turnoff building up the road to get it ready for bitumen. After that there was another 5 km of bitumen before back to a good gravel road. The first thirty kilometres were uneventuful mostly gravel road, but it was a warm day and the last stretch to a tree for lunch was over a large, flat, hot claypan. After lunch up a small rise to find another road crew. This time the crew were making a 10 km stretch of road ready for bitumen. The leg was really hurting so had to stop a couple of times in that 10 kms.

At the end of the roadworks I collapsed under a tree to rest again. A large aboriginal roadworker in the white ute that is their uniform stopped to see if I was OK. He warned me to beware of the King Brown snakes, 3 m of dangerous bloodclotting danger hiding in the grass. I was on my tarpaulin on the long dry grass and if an aboriginal reckons its dangerous, I am listening. He also generously gave me his lunch, a box of pineapple juice and a medium rare steak burrito. I am happily amazed that the camp canteen is giving the road crews tasty healthy food rather than the fatty stodge of a few years ago.

I checked the Garmin InReach satellite communicator and GPS that Linda and I had been using to keep in touch. Linda and Christine had found a campsite off the road about 10 km further on so I headed off. Just before sunset I reckoned they must be on a side track about a kilometre ahead when I heard Christine calling from behind me. They had a spot in a spoon drain and were pitching their tents up against the edge of the long dry grass.

Our last night on the GRR was uneventful. We finally got to eat the packet of red lentils that Linda had carried from Kununurra, and quietly went to bed. I was told that the girls were not keen on walking into the long grass for calls of nature during the night. Neither was I.