We got up early after a great nights sleep accompanied by the sounds of the gurgling Gregory River. I was excited as this day we would be crossing another place off our bucket list….Adels Grove and Boodjamulla National Park. I have long wanted to go to this remote oasis and finally we were doing it.

I had read that the road from Gregory to Adels was not great so our expectations were not high. We were surprised at the first third of the way though. It’s 90km from Gregory Downs to Adels Grove and the first 20km is a good tar road. The next 10km is a good gravel road. Sadly the road gets worse after that. It alternated being a rough corrugated gravel road with intermittent tar sections. The gravel sections were awful and on a lot of those we were down to 15km/h. We let some air out of our tyres and that helped a bit but it was still slow going.

Finally, after 3 1/2 bone jarring hours we arrived at Adels Grove. We pulled up at reception and I went in armed with a print out of our booking. It didn’t take long and we were told to just go and find a camp spot. There are two camping options at Adels Grove. One is The Grove and this is a beautiful shady area alongside Lawn Hill Creek. The trees are very close together and there are lots of low hanging branches. Also it is very shady so our solar panels wouldn’t get much charge.

We chose the other option which is just called The Top Campground. It is a huge area, higher up from the creek on the red sandy soil. There are lots of sites marked out with rocks. Taps are scattered around the whole area although you are not meant to connect to them permanently. They are really only for filling your vehicle. There are amenities blocks with toilets and showers.

We found Catie & Robert, Brian & Helen, and Mandie & Pete all set up on sites so we found one close by and were relieved to be out of the vehicle. It was hot! I think it was 34 degrees when we arrived.

We spent the afternoon swimming in the cold creek to get cool. There is a restaurant at Adels and the others had booked our group in for dinner. What a disappointment that was. There was only three menu items. You could have grilled barramundi, steak or chicken schnitzel, all served with coleslaw and wedges. That was it! Oh well. Fletch and I ordered the Barra and I have to say it was pretty good. It wasn’t overcooked and the wedges were cooked just right too.

Everyone got their meals except Brian & Helen. We’d all finished ours before Brian went to check. Oh no…..they’d been forgotten and now there was no Barra, no wedges and no coleslaw left. They got a steak and an overcooked schnitzel served with sliced tomato. Not great! Customer service was woeful and there didn’t seem to be any organisation.

We won’t be eating at the restaurant again!