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Published: July 29th 2012
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Day 18 – Tuesday 17
th July – somewhere outside of Timber Creek to Mabel Downs Caravan Park,near the Bungles
We started the day with a very quick cuppa and the promise of a proper breakfast in Timber Creek, 60kms along the road from our dusty overnight stop at the side of the road. Timber Creek proved to be a few buildings, each multi-function. Tourist office-cum-café (where we bought some freshly baked scones), a hotel-pub-cum-fuel station and some council offices. The residential area seemed to be situated some distance from the main road, away from the noise of the road trains and trucks. We were directed to the Policeman’s Point Lookout for a breakfast picnic, which is a beautiful little spot overlooking the Victoria River. The Victoria River is an excellent place to fish and has a very rich abundance of wildlife. However we would not stay long enough to take advantage of the numerous boat trips on offer.
A couple of hours later along the Victoria Highway we reached the Northern Territory-Western Australia border checkpoint. This time we were fully prepared for the quarantine checks for fresh fruit and veggies at the border and had eaten or
donated all fresh stuff before we arrived. The inspections are pretty thorough and the officers insist on looking inside all fridges and food boxes to prevent contraband fruit and veg being brought into Western Australia. It was the first time in Western Australia for Mark, Anna and Luke.
The next stop was the town of Kununurra, pretty much the Eastern gateway to the Kimberly region and a great place to stock up (on fruit and veg) ahead of our trip down to the Bungle Bungle and the Gibb River Road. We also posted Phil’s glasses back and bought some cryovacced meat from the butchers. Just after 2.30 we hit the road again and headed south along the Great Northern Highway to our destination for the night – the Mabel Downs Caravan Park just outside of the Purnululu National Park, home of the famous beehive-shaped domes the Bungle Bungle. Crossing the border from NT to WA wins you 1 ½ hours as the clocks go back, so we had had a long day in the car by the time we arrived at the Caravan Park. Luckily we had booked a powered site by calling ahead while we were in Katherine
a week before, as the powered sites get booked up days in advance and we really needed to hook up to 240v mains power for the first time during the trip to deep charge the trailer batteries.
The campsite is on a working cattle station and some of the cattle freely roam around between the tents and caravans grazing. We had quite a shock when we walked away from the campfire to our trailer and were faced with the massive bull Hercules at the tent door! The caravan park also runs day tours to the Purnululu National Park as well as helicopter flights over the Bungle Bungle. They have a large campfire for all their guests to sit around swapping stories and travelling tips and we spent an hour or so making new friends and enjoying some cold beers. Keen to avoid having to do the washing up, the kids kindly offered to make dinner and they rustled up an excellent beef stew, cooked from scratch. I am hoping they will still be able to do this when we get home!
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