DAY 110 - 07/06/2010 - Halls Creek, WA & Spring Creek, WA

We got up nice and early. As expected the locals were partying all night. I was woken up by shouting throughout the night.

Today we drove out to the Wolfe Creek Crater. Its 152km away, along the Tanami Rd which is unsealed and corrugated.

we stop to check out some Wedgetail Eagles munching on some road kill

as soon as we stop they fly off

The convoy

Not only is this place famous because of the movie but it's also the 2nd largest crater in the world, measuring 850m in diameter. The biggest one is in Arizona.

We park our cars in front of the Wolfe Creek sign just like they do in the movie. It is very eery here. All you hear is the wind blowing and the sound of Kite birds up above.

wheres Mick?

Tadaar

We had just found out from other travellors that a man was here 2 nights ago threatening people with a knife and saying he was a serial killer. Noone got hurt and he was arrested and taken away. There's always one.

Its a short rocky climb up to the lip of the crater. Some stay up top and appreciate the view from above and some climb down into the crater and walk along the track.

Warren, Alicia and Taylah

view of the cars from the lip of the crater

We return back to our vans, hook up and head for Spring Creek.

There are quite a few vans in Spring Creek. Many leave their vans here and head into the Bungle Bungles to camp in tents. It seems quite safe here. The girls are happy that fires are allowed so they immediately start collecting sticks for the fire tonight.

DAY 109 - 06/06/2010 - Kununurra, WA & Halls Creek, WA

We left Kununurra fairly early but was held up at the information centre, getting our annual park passes. We also had to get fuel and supplies.

Our convoy is still in tact and finally we are on the road and heading for Halls Creek.

Halls Creek is a place that everyone we have ever met has said, don't stop, not even to get fuel. Halls Creek has a large Aboriginal community, probably around 90%. We didn't know what to expect.


We stop at Turkey Creek for a fuel and loo stop

Turkey Creek

and lunch at Spring Creek. We wanted to scope out Spring Creek because we are planning on staying here tomorrow night.

Spring Creek rest area

Arriving at the caravan park in Halls Creek we notice a double fence with barbed wire surrounding the park. The facilities are ok and whats common throughout the outback, is lots of red dirt and no grass so we are pretty used to that. We are right next to residential houses which means it will probably be very noisy tonight. What we have noticed throughout many towns is that Aboriginal people like to party all night, every night and shout. Other than that, its all good.

The caretaker has allowed us a late check out tomorrow so we can leave our vans here while we go out for the morning.

Quick and easy dinners tonight cause its an early start tommorrow and we all need an early night. Tomorrow we visit......Wolfe Creek. Its a long drive out there and we need to get back to the vans by 1ish.

DAY 108 - 05/06/2010 - Kununurra, WA

Today we visited Lake Argyle. Its a massive bright blue lake in the middle of nowhere. The scenery from the road into the lake was amazing.

Here we enjoy a picnic under shaded trees. Taylah managed to fall out of a tree and hurt her ankle and Lilly managed to find a farting machine called the fartomatic. She thoroughly enjoyed herself pressing the buttoms and hearing the beauiful and very real sound of passing wind. Warren tried to offload the machine into one of the other cars but it mysteriously returned.

All the kids went down to the lake and fished.

Oop Taylah gets a nibble

and she gets catch of the day

MWAH

View from the road

Taylah was the only one who caught a fish. She was so excited. The waters here are croc infested. We watched the freshys come closer and closer to where the kids were fishing. We heard there was a salty spotted in parts of these waters but thankfully we didn't see it.

We returned back to camp for dinner and drinks. The girls were buggered after a big day out.

Snuggle up for a movie

DAY 107 - 04/06/2010 - Saddle Creek, NT & Kununurra, WA

We crossed the border into WA and are staying in Kununurra. The people we met yesterday at the free stay have joined us. There's now a convoy of 4 travelling together for the time being.

The girls are stoked because they get more playtime with the other kids. They enjoy a swim in the resort pool, a bbq dinner and watch movies.

We are all having a bbq tonight and a few celebratory drinks in honour of new found friendship and life on the road.

DAY 106 - 03/06/2010 - Katherine, NT & Saddle Creek, NT

We left Katherine and planned on driving straight to Saddle Creek rest area. Saddle Creek is not far from the WA border. The plan is to spend the night here. This gives us one last night in the NT, where we can eat all our fruit and veg before we pass thru quaranteen tomorrow.

When we pulled into the rest area we notice that there were already a lot of vans setting up for the night. Lucky we came when we did. Any longer and there probably wouldn't have been enough room for us.

Saddle Creek rest area

Views from Saddle Creek

Our stay at Saddle Creek ended up quite good and we met 2 really nice families who have children similar ages to Alicia and Taylah. They are also headed in the same direction as us and no doubt we will be bumping into them along the way.

The girls had fun collecting sticks and building a fire. By the end of the night they were quite inseparable from their new friends.

DAY 105 - 02/06/2010 - Katherine, NT

Rise and shine bright and early for our Katherine Gorge cruise. We are doing the 3 gorge tour as it also includes morning tea and a swim at the 3rd gorge.

The Gorge was pretty and we saw some fresh water crocs basking in the sun. I think we are a little gorged out though.

A croc on the rock enjoying the morning sun

Alicia got a turn driving the boat

then it was Taylah's turn

Lilly met an orphan kangaroo

Now thats a big freshy

We stopped off at the Hot Springs for a swim. The water was nice but not as warm as Mataranka Springs. We met some nice people here that work on the Ghan and are on their 3 hour break.

Tonight is our last night in Katherine.