We awake with the screaming of our Bahamian – “There’s a spider in my tent. Get it out.” Hyperventilation, scampering. “I think it’s poisonous”, jokes one of the boys. More scampering, more hyperventilation. We calm down, we giggle, we get rid of the spider.

We’re now on our way to El Questro. Even though it’s a long haul, deliberations among the group have set us on a path straight to ElQ in an effort to spend more than just one night at our next destination.

7 hours of varying landscape – from dirt road to paved to stone, lead us along the Gibb River Road to our destination. And wow well worth the drive. Horses graze as the sun sets, a Roadhouse with a bar and shop, a restaurant and lots of shady trees. Yes well worth the effort.

From dirt road to…

.. paved to dirt road again.

What’s your best time today?

That quick morning swim in the Manning Gorge before breakfast – cool refreshing and just invigorating enough to get you through the long haul ahead.

The fabulous panoramic view of the Cockburn mountain range was a stunner. We all gasped and of course made our own contribution to the hippy rock piles and move on. The Trini etc. posse was definitely here.

Cockburn Range in the background

Crossing the Pentecost River

And simply, some of us are just awed with the facilities at ElQ – just gives you an idea of what we’ve been through over the past few days. “This is what I’ve been looking like for the past few days!”, we comment in sheer disgust. But really who cares.

The really best part of the day however is right now, sharing our ‘best parts of the day’, sipping a glass of wine, Josh teaching Ben to cook a fabulous meal of lamb chops, mashed potatoes and baked beans – laughing, sharing, being. Blessings!

Are we really camping?