Blogs from Halls Creek, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania

So we had a slight intermission to our OZ travels. In Darwin we each took a flight in different directions. Goff down to Sydney to visit his Mum, me over to “Deutschland” to visit mine. Was marvellous to see Mum and to see Germany in autumn with all the leaves falling was pretty special too. Ate myself through the seasonal onion cakes and new wine. Now after 2 and a bit weeks we regrouped and are back on the road. Darwin prooved hot, sticky. We rode the bikes to pools, went to markets, enjoyed an open-air concert at the wharf. Did all the other touristy things, government house, parks, Cullen Bay etc etc and found ourselves at Litchfield NP a few times whilst waiting for flights. Most important mission was to find water to hover in. ... read more

Sunday 21/7 We left home at about 0730. Refuelled at Paynes Find, swapped drivers to Rags. Still can't work out size of fuel tank, seems larger than 90 litre but the fuel consumption was not good due to towing a trailer and a fair speed! We had a lunch stop at Mt Magnet before continuing on to Kumarina, discussed on way and decided not to stay there - expensive and Trip Advisor said it was terrible. Stopped there for tea though and both had fish, chips and salad. Rags had his grilled and he had a huge, thick fillet of one of the best pieces of fish he has had for ages. Would go back for another. We continued in the dark for about another 50 kms and camped at a truck bay. Cal slept on ... read more

We rolled into Halls Creek bright and early … everything starts early in the outback. The Halls Creek Information Centre was even open at 8:00 am. A gay, cheery young man was full of good advice on the Tanami Desert Road which we needed to take if we were to go to Wolfe Creek Crater. “A few corrugations and a bit of a rough patch near the end. You should go, it is great. Of course you can take your caravan. There’s a great camping ground at the crater. We can even sell you the Wolfe Creek movie if you like.” 2 ½ hours and 130 kms of bone jiggling, teeth chattering, caravan vibrating corrugations later, we arrived at a very hot, windy, dusty almost treeless camp ground to assess the state of our vans. They ... read more

Halls Creek 25th June Leaving the Bungle Bungle Caravan Park we continued to head back down south towards Halls Creek, the site of Western Australia’s first payable gold discovery, Halls Creek sits on the northern edge of the Great Sandy Desert and is located between the towns of Fitzroy Crossing and Turkey Creek (Warnum) on the Great Northern Highway. It is the only sizeable town for 600 km on the Highway. Halls Creek was initially a gold mining town, named after prospector Charles Hall. In 1885, he and others in his prospecting party found the alluvial gold that led to the Kimberley gold rush, the first gold rush in Western Australia. Halls Creek became home to more than 15,000 prospectors from all over the world during this golden era. Halls Creek moved 12 km west from ... read more

Second free camp.... read more

Tuesday 27th April Banka Banka to Daley Waters Left Banka Banka at 9am. Refuel at Elliott and looked for somewhere to repair the tyre. The tyre was too damaged with the inner tube having melted creating balls of rubber and the wall of the tyre bulging. So bought a new tyre. Stopped for the night at Daley Waters Inn. The pub (was the original farmhouse), is very well known for it’s ‘steak & barra’ special. When you arrive you book into the campground via the pub and you are asked if you would like their special for dinner. We opted for the barra without the steak, now also on their specials board. You are asked to select a time for dinner 6.30, 7 or 7.30pm, you then turn up at that time and your name is ... read more