We are in Western Australia ! - at Wolfe Creek Crater
I haven’t seen Mick (for those of you who have seen the very scary movie) , but I think we will be okay as he appears to target back packers. Glen wants to know with our grey hair and now that we are in Western Australia, are we Eastern Grey’s?
We set the alarm again and again it didn’t work :( Woke at 6.45am just before sunrise. We had breakfast, packed up and were on the road just after 8am. The road mix was about the same as yesterday 70% very very good road, 10% light corrugations 10% medium & 10% really rough. We met another couple of grader teams, doing a good job.
Here we are (little red arrow) heading west for the border, check our speed on the road 90.2 klm never thought we would be doing this on a smooth dirt road on the Tanami.
We passed another couple of gold mines. The Tanami Mine and Coyote Mine. The scenery was changing and there were more rocky outcrops. Most of the “mountains” are just over 450 metres and considering that we are driving at 400 metres above sea level, they are just little jump ups.
The Bike Rider
On my previous calculations, I figured we would catch up with the bike rider today – and we did. Just near the junction where the Tanami Rd veers from the original track. He was walking as it was too sandy to ride the bike. We had seen his tracks when we first started driving and they looked fresh, so we knew that he wasn’t far away. Very wobbly tracks because of the corrugations and depth of sand. We stopped and offered him water, but he had his 3 litres and any more was too heavy, depending on motorists towards late in the day to stop and replenish his supplies. We said that we had seen him at Tilmouth Well (he remembered us), and he was confused as to where we had been the past six days. We explained that we had been at Newhaven. I asked him how many kilometres that he travelled a day, and he said 80 – 90 klm, so my original calculation was quite accurate. We left him to trudge on and he will be another 5 days getting to Hall’s Creek. We may see him again if he is heading south, as we are heading north then south.
We are getting closer to Hall’s Creek – lots of camper trailers, here’s a caravan coming.
The road is being prepared as we drive it, -
how thoughtful :)
Today’s wildlife
We saw another desert bird – a Bustard, they are really big up to 1.3 metres high. We have seen them previously near Longreach. We still haven’t seen a dingo this trip, but plenty of time.
Around 10am we crossed from the Northern Territory into Western Australia – new time zone, so maybe the sun will come up earlier :)
There were no greetings in to Western Australia (guess that’s what happens when you use the back door) , only a warning to declare all our fruit vegetables and seeds and to hand them into Kununurra ? – it’s a very long way from where we are. Another warning that we were under surveillance? Sure, did they see who destroyed all the signs and put graffiti everywhere, I don’t think so….
Much like me I suppose….
Anyway we cheered when we crossed the border, our first time in W.A.
We refuelled at Billiluna. The Tanami guide said that the store was closed between 12pm and 2pm. We arrived at about 20 to 11 to refuel discovered that they had changed their closing time from 11am to 3pm…. We were so lucky…. The fuel price was $2.60 per litre and this is the system. Go into the shop estimate how much fuel you want to purchase and pay for it, they take a card deposit of $5 and load the card for that amount. Don’t be like the guy in front of us and over estimated and then had to go back in and buy a fuel can to put the rest in. You swipe your card, nominate the bowser, pump the fuel, then take the card back for your $5 refund. Just as we were taking the card back he was locking up the shop for 3 hours.
A couple of signs at Billiluna – it is the start of the Canning Stock Route and finally an undamaged sign. Okay, it used to be called the Tanami Track and now it’s the Tanami Road, but calling it the Tanami Highway is going a little too far…
From Billiluna we travelled 76 kilometres to Wolfe Creek Crater. The road out to the crater has to rate as the worst road we have encountered on our entire trip. We were down to 20 kph. We just met another couple who also camped at Rabbit Flat last night and totally agreed that the 16 klms into Wolfe Creek Crater was the worst of the entire drive along the Tanami, they even wanted to turn around and not bother.
The crater is visible 16 klms away, must have been one very big bang when it hit.
We were here early just on lunch time, because of our early start, so have scored a pretty good camp site with a view of the crater.
Nulla Nulla Cotton Flower
The Crater
Believed to have occurred 300,000 years ago
A late afternoon walk to the top of the crater walls. The afternoon sun made the walls very distinctive.
Just one very big bowl shape We think that the pink in the centre of the crater is Nulla Nulla in flower
Tomorrow is our journey to Hall’s Creek. We are off to Palm Spring / Sawtooth Gorge and then up to the Bungle Bungles and down the Gibb River Road – via National Parks to Derby.
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