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Published: October 14th 2012
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Massive termite mound
The termite mounds have changed shape, but they continue to cover the landscape. We headed west out of Kununurra on a very hot sticky morning in pursuit of somewhere a little less humid, and with the expectation that we would have a few nights of ‘free camping. Halls Creek here we come!
The landscape changed frequently from flat lightly wooded plains to vast areas of irrigated sandlewood plantation to stunning, craggy escarpments. Stations changed names and the odd head of cattle hung at the roadside nibbling on the soft young grass. These and groups of horses paid little attention to noisy traffic rushing by.
A constant barrage of blue and yellow branded road trains all with four dogs headed in both directions. Those coming towards us were full and the other direction empty. The full ones thundered along at a rapid rate of knots until they came to a hill at which stage they could slow to as little as 20 kph. We had followed one such on our day to Wyndham so were grateful the empties were going our way. We knew sooner or later we would come upon the source, and surprise, surprise once we did, we hardly saw another roadtrain.
In Turkey Creek we did our good deed
for the day. A very fair skinned lady intent on protecting herself from the harsh sun with her very large floppy sun hat and scarf (Could have been Nicole Kidman stepping out of the plane in the film Australia), approached Greg asking if he could give her a lift about ½ km down the road to the Medical Centre. After clearing some space in the back of the 4WD she hopped in and off we went. We assumed she knew where she was going and we would just drop her at the edge of the highway. After a tour of Turkey Creek, her life history and lots of advice on the aboriginal arts centre she disembarked at the Medical Centre and we were on our way again having a good laugh.
We had chosen our ‘free’ camping spot from the trusty bible and arrived around lunchtime as expected. The highly recommended rest stop fell short of our expectation. We decided there was no way we could stay there as there was virtually no shade and it was stinking hot. The only shady spot was already taken. So we turned around and headed back to a spot we had seen
some 7 kms back. This site was perfect, big shady trees, toilets and a creek with lots of mossies. Within a short time others had joined us. Like us most of them had been to the other site first.
It was here we met Pat and Marion. Pat and Greg had a similar desire to head to Wolfe Creek Crater and both were a little unsure about heading there alone as the word on the road conditions was ‘Don’t take a van.’ After some discussion the agreed plan was to head into Halls Creek in the morning, to find the local spin and then make a final decision.
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