1998
Lionel the Landcruiser
and Tap-Tap go Walkabout

Still lost!
Day 8
Tanami - Purnulu

Up at sparrow's fart again - or earlier actually 'cos we could still see the stars - we packed up and were away by about 6.30. After a while as it got light we noticed that the road was very churned up and there was a rather newish track along side the road. This must have been the spot where the truck was stuck yesterday, but there was no sign of it now (shucks - I was going to offer to pull it out - he he he). On the whole the track has been pretty good with only a few places with bad corrugations and the odd puddle mentioned earlier. The book we are following reckons that the WA part is worse than the rest 'cos there are fewer road trains so they look after it less, but from our point of view there is really no difference. It does get a bit twisty near to the end at Ruby Plains, but then it has to 'cos it is going through some small hills (woop de de - scenery).

Slow Down! - in the local language.

Before then, however, we'd stopped to have a look at Wolfe Creek Meteorite crater - the second largest in the world (guess where the largest is - yes - Arizona USA). It is really worth the detour (20 km each way) 'cos you can stand on the rim and look right down into it. It is about 800m across and still 40-50 m deep in the middle despite all the vegetation etc. That is also quite different - inside the crater is apparently much wetter than outside so there are quite different trees and things.

We checked the batteries while we were there - and found that the second mounting bolt on the auxiliary battery had broken (remember the first one simply disappeared around Docker River? Go back and check your notes.). Rather luckily, we had bought a whole new bracket in Alice so we have fitted the new one completely rather than muck around. We also had to saw off a bit of the bolt 'cos it was a bit long and my bonnet wouldn't shut properly - ouch rather like having toothache I imagine.

There was also a quarantine stop just before we got to the main (sealed) road to Halls Creek where the little man there thought we must be locals cos we didn't look like all the other tourists with their pretty new machines. I should think so too - I have character - everyone says so. And then we were in Halls Creek by about 11. We filled up, asked the Police about the roads and got a phone number to check with the rangers at Bungle Bungle and just had to find a phone that worked! Took a few goes by which time we had covered all 4 petrol stations in Halls Creek which is not bad considering that there doesn't appear to be very much else! Hild phoned in her report to Liz Petersen (who is our nominated contact person - i.e. who rings the alarm bells if she doesn't hear from us at regular intervals). We also had a nice chat with a woman in the BP station who was very friendly even if we hadn't bought petrol from her.

Wolfe Creek meteorite crater.

Then we were off again to Bungle Bungle, with a quick stop at the Ord River (or rather where the Ord will be next time it rains, right now it is a - very big - dry creek) for lunch and battery check. (Our whole lives now revolve around battery checks - the little $15 battery tester Hild picked up in K-Mart has seen a lot of service in the past couple of days!)

Yes, there is a road. We're not 'bush-bashers'!

The road to Purnulu is fun. Four-wheel drive only and 51 km through someone's cattle station all of it really interesting and some of it pretty challenging driving. You can easily see why the park is closed from January to April 'cos if there is any rain the road will be impassable. We had to cross dry creek beds about 4 or 5 times and then along some tracks which could easily be washed down the hill if there was much rain. I hope it doesn't rain tonight or we will be here for a while!

We found ourselves a nice little spot in the campsite and Hild cooked in my back as usual, only this time with the mozzie net over the whole thing to keep the flies away. We had such an engrossing time sorting out the roof-bars and the spare wheel, that we left Conan the Compressor on too long pumping up the airbed - and now we have a flat bed! I couldn't believe it, he's not that powerful but there it was - a rip about 3 cm long in the air bed. Oops. It seems like we can't go a day without breaking something! Hild had packed the little spare bits of fabric - but there was no glue with them so we are sleeping on top of the sleeping bags tonight. Not a big problem as it is pretty warm, but not a long term solution either.

It turns out that we have got some Araldite with us, but I'm not too sure that will work. I think Hild will probably have a go tomorrow after the walk. The plan tomorrow is to drive another 20 km or so to the car park at Cathedral Gorge and the to walk up Piccaninny Gorge - about 15 each way if they do the whole thing (I bet they don't though - without me to drive them they don't usually get too far). But if that is the plan we'd better get some sleep.

Bye for now.

Lionel