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Published: June 13th 2009
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Sturt Desert PeaSturt Desert PeaSturt Desert Pea

Beautiful Flowers Native to the arid regions of Central and North Western Australia. Extends into all mainland states except Victoria
DAY 215


Andy was out of bed just after 6.00 this morning and I got out shortly before 7.00 and went straight in for a shower.

We are leaving Fitzroy Crossing this morning and will drive as close to the Purnululu as we can get today, today we will drive through Halls Creek, which from what we have heard is one of those terrifying places that you imagine warring communities and cars burning in the streets. I am sure it will not be that bad, we are both looking forward to seeing what Halls Creek is like so that we can form our own opinion of it.

We were looking at the Bower Bird’s gift this morning, Andy tells me that someone had been up to it and was tampering with the nest, when I say tamper, they were obviously fascinated by it and were looking to see how it had been built, this in turn seems to have upset the Bower Bird who was now starting to pull bits of twigs out of it and had become very vocal. I left a few pale shells nearby in the hope that the Bower Bird (the one that
Sturt Desert PeaSturt Desert PeaSturt Desert Pea

Found these in HallsCreek
had nicked one of my crackers yesterday) would find them and in some way pacify his angst.

Kirsty tells us not to worry as Bower Birds do spend time building and remodelling; I think we have found the Laurence Llewellyn Bowen of the bird world.

We used the camp kitchen this morning for our breakfast, as we had been busy packing away and had already disconnected the gas etc.

Andy went round and checked all the tyres for our onward journey, once the trailer was hooked up we checked the lights were working, once we were satisfied and Andrew and Kirsty were ready we pulled out of the Fitzroy River Lodge back onto the Great Northern Highway and toward Halls Creek.

We will stop at Mary Pool on the way to Halls Creek, this is listed in Camps 5 as a good overnight stop and apparently is very popular, but as it is early in the day we will only stop for lunch.

On the road Andy tells me that I was talking in my sleep, I don’t think I do very often or maybe I do but because Andy usually sleeps so well he does not hear me, I have noticed in the last couple of nights that I have been dreaming heavily and weird dreams at that.

We pass the Bohemia Downs and Louisa Downs Stations this morning that we read about in Sheryl McCorrys book, Diamonds and Dust., the fascinating thing is the combined acreage of these two stations is 2.25 Million Acre’s, Again we contemplate how tough life must be on a station, especially during the summer when it can be exceptionally hot, humid and wet. We notice that we are gathering a lot of dust as we travel; I guess dust like this becomes a part of your life if you live here.

Soon we are pulling into Mary Pool, there is a river crossing that you have to cross to get to it, however as it is the dry season there is not a lot of water around so the crossing is bone dry, there is a sign up warning you of the potential of crocodiles in this area.

We stop for a rest, a little bit too early for lunch, but the site is already quite busy with people who look as if they are in for the night. This seems to be quite a nice site, I would not have a problem staying her overnight if it was necessary.

We push onto Halls Creek, only another 100kilometres (approximately). We find a small town with a population of 4,000, there is not a lot to see here, but we do pop into the visitor information centre to ask about facilities here, there are two small independent supermarkets down the road a butchers and a Coles Express in the fuel station.

We have a sandwich and a cup of tea, before fuelling up, popping into the supermarket for a couple of extra supplies to take into the Bungle Bungles, we also popped into the Butchers to pick up a small leg of lamb to cook in the camp oven. We noticed that the Butcher also sold flip flops (thongs), cigarettes, postcards and apparently (I did not notice this but was dutifully informed) T-shirts with "Halls Creek Butcher" on them. Hmmm.

So Halls Creek was not too bad, we did not get caught in any crossfire from warring factions and indeed did not get any strange looks, so nothing unusual here, except that it is still daylight and we were told not to stick around after dark. We are pushing on anyway so there is no problem with that.

We knew that we would not get into the Bungle Bungles tonight, it is a 50 kilometre track in for 4wd only and we have been advised that it will take around 2-3 hours drive. So Andy and I plan on stopping by the entrance to the park at a free camp, however Andrew and Kirsty will have to drive on an extra 50 kilometres to stay at Turkey Creek tonight, they will need to leave their caravan there to come back and meet us first thing in the morning (first light maybe??) and we will travel in together.

There are more Wow moments as the landscape starts to change again, we suddenly find lots of rolling green hills in front of us as the road also winds and dips to suit the terrain. We see Andrew’s brake lights come on and then a smallish Red Kangaroo jumps out of his way across the road, must have been a close call.

We have to slow down several times to avoid the cattle on the road, for some reason there seems to be a lot more cattle on this road than we have come across so far.

Eventually we arrive at Spring Creek, which is our overnight stop, we find the bottom car park already full of campers, and the top car park only has two so far, well now it has three including us.

Andrew and Kirsty drive on and Andy and I set up camp for the night, we take advantage of the last light of the day to relax and read for a short while before dinner. We see another car pull in for the night. Andy and I have a bet, I think that we will see another 4 vehicles pull in for the night and Andy thinks 5.

An American chap called Red stopped by for a chat, Andy immediately puts his guard up as this chaps approach was a little bit sudden, not the usual way that someone would approach you to stop and chat, so he was a bit suspicious, however after a while it seems that he is ok, we pass about 10 minutes or so talking about our respective countries and the politics. The funny thing is that we both feel that he was actually after something but neither of us could put our finger on it.

We see a tour bus pull in, one of those fabulous trucks that have been adapted into a bus for bush tours and camping. They all pile out and within minutes there is a fire on the go and the swags are set up for the night.

An easy dinner for Andy and me tonight, we cook up a packet spaghetti carbonara, which is ready in about 7 minutes.

It has been a long day, we are both tired, I get on with the blog, but the outside temperature has dropped and we are both feeling the cold so Andy gets into bed while I just sit inside the tent to finish up.

It is 8.20pm and I think it is about to be the earliest I have gone to bed on this trip yet. Well there is nothing else to do when it is dark outside, except that the stars, millions of them look amazing and the full moon tonight is as spectacular as ever, the moon has an orange glow to it.

Goodnight!


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