Monday 18 June 2012


Day 13 or 14 loosing track of time and days
Rolling again and this time ended the trek up the Tanami road into WA and the small town of Halls Creek. Hot day when we arrived and just set up camp before we went on a shopping trip to the supermarket to refill the larder. Being honest travellers we dumped a small amount of fruit and veggies in the quarantine bins just outside the town. Good place to dump all our rubbish as we left nothing behind, only footprints.
Good place to dump empty cans as well as vegetable peelings etc. in the quarantine bins. Too lazy to segregate the rubbish.

Halls Creek is a place you would like to miss, although they did have some good fish and chips.

Booked into the Bungle, Bungles for the next two nights. I had received an email saying they would not take anybody that did not give them 48 hours notice of staying, which caused a bit of an issue as we do not want to stay here two days waiting before can get in.
Contacted the ranger diurect and they let us in with no question about prior notice.
Both our phones are useless here so the sat phone came out of it's case and the lady booked us in there and then. Not sure of why she wanted to know if I has a pension card or not, maybe they give preference or discounts to the nomads.

Thursday 14th.

Said good bye to our travelling companions for the past few days as they are heading for 7 days at Broome and Cable Beach. Good to have another vehicle to travel with through the nearly 900 km of Tanami desert.


Left Halls Creek after replacing my UHF aerial which snapped off towards the end of the Tanami road. Also taped up the brake cable under the trailer which had been patched before. Cable ties useless, good ol duct tape saved the day. Bitumen all the way up the Great Victoria highway to the Purnululu (Bungle Bungles) turn off.

Just under two hours to do the 52km on the road from the highway to the park.
Once inside the park it is four wheel drive on all the time according to the sign at entry.

Registered at the rangers station and off to follow the map to our campsite.

Good road surface but for the unwary a few surprises. Sudden crests, blind corners and three or four water crossings. Walked the first as it looked a bit deep in the middle and did not want a bath so early in the day.





Lovely grassed campsite all mowed and trees around. Fireplaces and toilet available for comfort but we do not need the extra heat today.




Walked the ten minutes to a lookout for sunset. Nothing marvelous but great sight. Long escarpment of red rock to our rear catching some of the sun as it went down and to our front a wide expanse of beautiful flat grassed Australian country. As Jenny from NMIT said after she travelled the same country last year, “This is a beautiful country, why would anyone want to go overseas”

                                           Starting out among the domes the first day.



                                           The Cathederal  often used for publicity pics.
                                 

                   Here a Bungle, there a Bungle everywhere a Bungle Bungle
                                                    
                                               Along the mini pines trail


Not all just solid treking up the river beds  here we had to squeeze between huge bolders of conglomerate to get to the end of this trail.   A lot of the trails are along river beds  made up of round pebbles ranging from sand up to bigger than a football so you have to really keep an idea on where you put your feet.


Another squeeze through 200 metre cliffs


One of the locals coming to say good bye as we left Bungle Bungles.
Many more pics taken but too time consuming to sort, shrink and insert to add here.


Left the Bungles and arrived Kununurra .   Had trouble finding a powered site as all the parks are nearly full.   Went to the Agricultural showgrounds and the chap there let us poor travellers in for 3 nights.   He is supposed to only let in the BIG Rigs, that is the really big caravans and travellers with pets.   We have some pet rocks that have been gathered  so I think that counts.

Filling up with food etc and doing a side trip tomorrow Ready to hit the Gibb River Road Wednesday all going well.   Had to fix a bullseye chip in the windscreen where a rock the size of a semi hit right in the middle of the passerger side of the windscreen.     Well it was big when it hit.

Probably out of touch for 5 to 8 or more days while on the Gibb but will take pics if there is anything to look at.   Hopefully some huge Barramundi if the crocs let me get near the water.



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