Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater & Halls Creek

Wolf Creek Meteorite Crater and the Halls Creek area very interesting  - arriving at Wolf Creek in the dark and putting up the tent after a log day's drive was not such a good idea, but the next day seeing it in daylight and the views at sunset made up for any grumpyness!

Then a bit of luxury saying at the Kimberley Hotel in Halls Creek. Tent is fine, car is great, having a great time ... air mattress has a leak somewhere so hope to improve on that in Kunnurra. In the meantime we have 2 days camping at Purnululu, Bungle Bungle Ranges coming up.

Flowers

Flowers, flowers and plants everywhere!

Lots of spinifex and native grasses, grevilleas, wattle, eucalypts, native bushes of many kinds of course, and then there are the most beautiful and delicate flowers appearing almost out of nowhere.

Photographed many, this is just a taste ... Enjoy!

Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary

Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary 

North of Alice, up the Tanami Road and just past Tilmouth Well is the turn off to Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary - another 2 hrs drive to this beautiful piece of paradise.

Originally a cattle station, purchased in 2000 as a bird sanctuary, now a total wildlife sanctuary with a great camping area, short walks, long drives to the various landform and vegetation areas.

Lots of sand dunes, rocky ranges, spinifex, mulga scrub, salt lake Lake Bennett... and no one else around for miles!

Saw dingoes, camels, bustards, zebra finches, hawks and pesky butcher birds around the camping area, and all in their natural environment.

Beautiful sunrise and sunsets a bonus.

Tanami Road

6 days on the Tanami Road. Plenty of corrugations, gravel sections and quite a bit of sealed road in the southern section.

The famed Rabbit Flat Roadhouse is now closed and no access at all to that property, so not even a photo opportunity to remember.
After Newhaven, camped at Renahans Bore, stunning rim of fire sunset, Indigenous communities at Yuendumu and Balgo, and then a long drive to Wolf Creek.
Missed out on seeing Lake Gregory near Balgo, have to do that another time!

Lake Eyre

Oodnadatta Track is close to the southern end of Lake Eyre, easy to see and check out close up as you can see!

Just south of William Creek is the turnoff to Halligan Bay, about 60km of corrugated road at 25kph! Took ages to get there.

Camped on the sandhills just above Lake Eyre - first night in the tent! Another spot nearby called ABC Bay, barren, red rock landscape, could be on another planet! 



Rain overnight, no leaks in the tent but boggy patches on the track back out to William Creek.

Then on to Oodnadatta for the night, camping on the gravel of the so called caravan park behind the Pink Roadhouse - painted bright pink!









On to  Alice Springs next. Always good to be in Alice, couple of good coffee spots to visit along with viewing some local art and making sure we are stocked for the Tanami Track.

Has been very cold at night and at sun up but sun soon warms everything and the daytime temp is just superb and warm at 22deg.

Oodnadatta Track

Overnight at Maree - the old Ghan Railway Line used to run through here, new line runs further to the west now.

Then on to the Oodnadatta Track. Pretty good road. Southern end of Lake Eyre is very close to the road here and easy to see, and heading north is Oodnadatta ... & the Pink Roadhouse!

Ouyen to Flinders Ranges

Day 2 sunrise at Ouyen and a cold start to the day ... however lovely sunshine all day which was great.

Beautiful drive through the sheep/wheat fields north of Waikerie up to Burra. Next day beautiful drive up through the Flinders Ranges to Blinman.

Stayed that night at the only pub in this tiny little ghost of a town,The Blinman Hotel. Big open fire in lounge and pizza special on Friday night,
red wine and heater and electric blanket kept the cold away that night. Next morning brekky at the local store and we were on our way north.

Burra is a picturesque little town with a copper mining past and present, although now they don't mine copper they process scrap copper into agricultural chemicals.

A 3 pub town - had a drink at one before dinner and only the two of us eating out that night at another one!

Great little antiques, old books & things + coffee shop for sale there if anyone is interested.

 

The Beginning ....

There we were, at the top of the Gibb River Road ... in 2010.

Now it is 2012 and we are about to take off again ...

Here’s the plan … leave Melbourne and head up to Lake Eyre, across to Alice Springs. Then on to the Tanami Track, Halls Creek, Bungle Bungles, Keep River National Park and then Kununurra & surrounds.

From here it is to Kimberley country, Gibb River Road to Derby, Broome, Port Hedland and inland WA down to Laverton.
On to the Great Central Road up to Uluru, Kings Canyon and back to Alice Springs. From here it is the Plenty Highway to SW Qld and eventually back to Victoria ... sometime !

Click on the photos to get a better view.