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Wednesday 29th June and today we were heading for Halls Creek. It’s another fairly lengthy journey and not a lot to see on the way. We have heard some bad reports about Halls Creek, both the caravan park and the behaviour of the locals although our recollection from last time didn’t support negative views of either. True it’s not the most attractive place in the world and true the caravan park lacked some of the glamour of many that we’ve stayed at. But, once again, Halls Creek is conveniently placed on our onward journey towards our next chosen stopping place, The Bungle Bungles. In the meantime, though, we were able to secure a powered site at the Halls Creek caravan park and to find a garage with reasonably priced diesel which accepted another discount voucher. The town is much bigger than Fitzroy Crossing and supports a much bigger aboriginal community which has a bit of a reputation for mis-behaviour. But we didn’t witness anything untoward and would have no hesitation in staying there again if we had to. Our near neighbours (the sites are so close together that they were VERY near neighbours) were a couple in their seventies who had
sold up and had been living “on the road” for 8 years. They were very pleasant and gave lots of tips about places to visit and places to avoid. He was very keen on sport so he and Graham easily wiled away a couple of hours in earnest conversation.
On Thursday morning we set off for one of our most anticipated locations where we hoped to stay for a couple of nights. We were in no hurry as it was only 106 kilometres away so we had a very casual start, even visiting the shops before connecting PIE to Sweetie. Before we left I managed to get another blog launched while we were still connected to power. We knew there were no powered sites available for at least one and possibly both of our two nights at the Bungle Bungles Caravan Park and besides that we wouldn’t get a phone signal. So this would be my last chance to launch a blog for a while. We left Halls Creek at about 9:50am – possibly the latest start to a journey we’ve had on the whole of our trip. Eight years ago we were lucky enough to fly over the
strange formations known as The Bungle Bungles – one of the most fascinating rock structures in all of Australia (and they’ve got lots). It acquired World Heritage status in 2007 and, to try to accommodate the ever increasing interest in visiting the area, some on-going tourist developments are taking place. One of these is a very new caravan park on the outskirts of the Bungles adjacent to the only road in. We had booked a tour into the Bungles while we were in Halls Creek and this included one free night at the new caravan park (albeit without power) from where the trip would start and finish. We booked another night immediately on arrival at the park but such is its popularity, that too had to be an un-powered site.
As we drove away from Halls Creek the countryside became more undulating and interesting. It was a lovely, comfortable journey with little traffic going our way although we met quite a few large trucks. One vehicle, a “Wicked” camper van, overtook us and Graham immediately recognised it as one we had seen several times in the last three or four weeks but it soon left us way behind and
we lost sight of it. Seemingly, in no time, we were at the approach to the Bungle Bungle National Park. To get to the caravan park it was necessary to negotiate about 800 meters on a gravel road and to pass through the gateway to the Mabel Downs Cattle Station which had to be opened and then secured after we had gone through. Then we spotted the caravan park which is made up of a series of temporary camping structures as there are no permanent buildings as yet. The office, the staff accommodation, the kitchen and restaurant (yes – a restaurant!) are all under canvas. Everything about the park is still “a work in progress” so although there were some obvious areas for powered sites, campers staying on unpowered ones were simply encouraged to “find a suitable spot”. We were able to select a spot on the end of what passed as a gravelled area and we placed the car and caravan with a view across the neighbouring countryside to some hills beyond. We didn’t need to unhitch or to level the caravan as the area was very flat – essential if we were to get the fridge to run
on gas. Amazingly it worked first time at the simple press of a button and, as we had our own supply of water “on board”, it augured well for any “free” camping we may choose to do in future. We also have a large re-chargeable lantern, head lamps and a couple of torches so we can survive very well in the dark evenings. Sarah and Darryl did lots of free camping throughout their trip and we’re beginning to feel that we could manage without electricity if we had to.
The restaurant area had a huge camp fire and free barbecue facilities for those who didn’t want to eat at the restaurant and all visitors were encouraged to sit around the fire as the evening wore on. We didn’t need the bbq tonight though as we had a left over chicken/mushroom concoction that I had made the previous evening. The twenty or so people on the day’s tour had returned and together with another twenty or so who, like us, had arrived today, made for a good atmosphere and we were happy to enjoy the fire and the company, despite the smoke, until quite late. Our tour was due to
start at 7:00am so we couldn’t afford to stay up too late and actually set two alarms to make sure we were up and ready in good time.
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