24th September 2012 (Fitzroy Crossing to Kununurra)

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Days on the Road = 86 Days (12 Weeks & 2 Days)

Today we set off towards Kununurra with a view to stopping overnight in a free overnight campsite as it is quite a distance to go and we didn't want to arrive at night.

What we have noticed particularly since Broome is that there have been significant bush fires along the way and today was not exception. Burnt bushland after burnt bushland.

Not sure whether any of you have watched the movie "Wolfe Creek" but it is really scary and we've decided not to visit as it would be too freaky so instead we take a photo of the sign as we pass! Hahaha.... Our first pit-stop is Halls Creek for a brief and I say brief lunch and toilet break, it is not a town that I would stop overnight at and in my opinion is good for filling up your vehicle and moving on.

The scenery after Halls Creek is absolutely picturesque with soaring ranges and plentiful boab trees. As the temperatures have been in the high 30's we had already decided not to stay or visit the Bungle Bungles as temperatures can get up to 45oC+ whilst walking around in there as again the rocks hold and radiate the heat. It's a shame but we will have to leave it for another adventure.

Our next stop along the way was Warmun (Turkey Creek) where we filled up with diesel before heading off again. There is a caravan park at Warmun where you can stay and then travel into the Bungle Bungles for the day or you can take scenic flights over them which would have been nice. Today wouldn't have been a great day for flying over as the visibility didn't appear to be very good due to fires that must have been burning close by.

It's early afternoon when we reach the overnight camp site that we had planned to stay at but it's too early in the day to stop as the temperature is still 38oC, so we continue on to the next stop, Cockburn Rest Area which saw us pull in at just gone 4.30pm. We set up and watched the sun set which was really beautiful then set in for a night in the van with the canvas open on the bed ends waiting for that breeze to come in to cool off the van. It was approaching 7.00pm at night when we get a knock on our van door and an indigenous lady was asking whether we knew where the local bus stop was! We were in the middle of freaking nowhere.... how would we know! I'm not sure how long she had been standing there but she could well and truly see into our van as we had the ends down. Charles shone a torch in her face, which she didn't like and told her that he didn't know where the bus stop was. She then when back to her vehicle and had a heated argument with the male driver and Charles went out to observe from a safe distance. After that we didn't feel safe and we were in the middle of nowhere, so we decided to leave. We bundled the kids into the car and very quickly prepared the van to move out and onto Kununurra in the dark. We arrived in Kununurra at our caravan park and had to ring the emergency reception phone to see whether we could get in for the night. Luckily, they were really good and found us a site that we could just back into and stay hitched until the next morning.

It's unfortunate that this happened and we haven't had any problems yet at staying at overnight campsites but we were happy to be in Kununurra and have a restful night’s sleep.

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