Saturday 18 August – Hard to believe but we actually left the caravan park before 9am and arrived at today’s destination (Halls Creek) at about 2pm after a 360km drive.  The day was fairly uneventful apart from a couple of things, but I’ll start at the beginning.

We left the camp and went into town to fill up with petrol, then pointed our noses west.   As we approached the Halls Creek turn off from the Victoria Highway (about 45 km out of Kununurra) we were pulled over by two policemen doing breathalyser tests.  We had a chat to them while this was happening and discovered that they were based at Wyndham when they asked us if we had been there.  When we told them we were there yesterday they asked what we had seen, and we seem to have checked off most of the features.  I then asked them what is exported from the Wyndham port, as yesterday when we were returning from Wyndham we counted at least 8 or 10 road trains (4 trailers long) heading to the port and we weren’t sure what was in the trucks.  As well as cattle, the main export is iron ore from a mine (Ridge Mine) we passed about an hour and a half further down the road. 

Then they asked where we were heading, and told us to be careful as there were a few single lane bridges, with one being badly situated on a corner, and last night a caravan was cleaned up on one of them.  He told us we would see it down the road.  They also warned us that there are a lot of road trains on the road, and the iron ore ones weigh around 200 tonnes fully loaded, so you wouldn’t need to tangle with one of those. 

Well we did see it down the road – it was actually at the first bridge and was quite a mess.  There was another van pulled up by it (perhaps offering assistance), and what appeared to be the vehicle pulling it was also stopped there, but didn’t seem to have any damage.  It’s hard to tell what happened, but the whole front corner right across past the middle of the van was smashed in, so it would have been a big mess inside.

We had a couple of short stops – one to give Grant a break from driving, then another for me to hand the driving back to him when my eyes became too dodgy, and a slightly longer stop for a lunch break.  As we got about halfway here the countryside became very rugged and mountainous, so the scenery was really lovely.

The park here is pretty good and we were settled in by mid afternoon and enjoyed a couple of cuppas as again it was very hot today – around 33 degrees.  Late in the afternoon (a bit after 5pm) an off road van came in next to us with a young couple and their two little girls (2 and 5 years old).  They had experienced a pretty tough day, driving from before 9 this morning and turning their clocks back an hour and a half as they crossed the border into WA, do all up about nine and a half hours across the Tanami Desert, and had some major car and van problems.  They’re not sure where they can get them fixed, as there’s nothing here to help with their problems.  And though they had intended to drive the Gibb River Road, they have had a rethink and now will give it a miss.  They had linked up with another couple doing the same drive, and they had four punctures today – so they’ve also had some interesting times.

We’re just having a one night stop here, and tomorrow we will make our way to Fitzroy Crossing.  Once we see what is doing there we will decide whether it will be a one or two nighter.

We’ve actually got wireless reception tonight and Grant is listening to the Maggies get beaten.  With only about ten minutes to go in the game, it’s not looking good.  Can’t help bad luck, can you!!