Smooth sailing ... or not

So just in case you think it's all fun, games, adventures, swimming in gorgeous pools, watching beautiful night skies with shooting stars and rocking out the times tables during the long drives, there have been some hiccups along the way! Here are some of our first world dramas ....

Broken tent door zip - inconvienient and fingers crossed the zip on the other side of the door doesn't go as well.
Stove valve leaking - probably after a day of corrugations so now we have to disconnect the stove after use until we get an inline valve in Darwin.
Big chip in the windscreen thanks to an inconsiderate muppet who didn't slow down passing us on a narrow, gravel road. Hasn't spread thankfully and we'll get it sealed properly in Darwin.
Back seat catch no longer working so we have cable tied it to the hook. This means the kids seat doesn't squash them on every bump. Cable ties are just the best!
Cracked weld on a under tray toolbox. That's what we get for buying a piece of cheap ass Chinese one. Another job for Darwin. Hopefully epoxy putty will fix that.
Broken inside upper door handle/coat hanger. Not meant for a bloke to hang his full body weight off isn't that right Dunk!
Broken roof rack. This is the biggest problem. Thinking of moving the rack back onto the canopy as we can't trust the claws and I'm sure we will see heaps more corrugations yet. Another job for Darwin.
And the ultimate problem - leaking beer cans. We have learnt how to put a hole in a beer can tho by placing it next to a food can on rough roads. Not a fun find! We also sprung a leak in another couple by putting them next to a bolt head (it was even round) so won't be doing that again!

As for the roads ...
Normanton to Bourketown - half sealed but pretty good condition
Bourketown to Hells Gate was mostly sealed and in really good condition.
Hells Gate to Borroloola, unsealed and not too bad except for a massive 50m pothole of bulldust 5km west of the border crossing. It was large enough to swallow a donkey!!
Borroloola to Lorella Springs. Ok this was a new level of corrugation we haven't really seen before. Big wide ones that were just numbing and loud and painful to drive across. This tested everything in the car and that's where the roof rack went (althou possibly its been on the way for awhile we just hadn't noticed). It'd be pretty rough with a caravan but we did see plenty trailers seem to handle it ok.
In Lorella Springs we had a lot of bull dust but mostly ok corrugations. Plenty low 4WD stuff as well but as long as you went low and slow especially on the creek crossings it was ok.
North out to about 100km east of Mataranka was dirt and corrugations, dips and bulldust. Slow and rough goimg on the vehicle and aside from the roof rack we went ok.