Judy & Brian Tour Oz

Bit of catching up to do now that we have our electronical umbilical cord reconnected. Drove out across the Kimberly toward Halls Creek and Purnululu NP. Four Hundred kilometres in five hours, stopping for a cup of tea and break at Mary Pool, 100km west of Halls Creek. Mary Pool is a free camp, a few km off the road on the banks of the Mary River. We had heard on our way across that it was full the night we passed by – a 100 vans jammed in and two toilets. We were interested to see what the fuss was about, apart from being free, being 200km from Fitzroy Crossing and not being in Halls Creek. It’s quite a good spot actually, early birds get a spot on the banks of the dry river bed, the rest get a tree if they’re lucky and a bare patch of ground if not. There were 30 odd vans there already at 11am and more coming in all the time. Some looked like they had been there a while, others, like us, came in for a cuppa and then shot through. The road works we had encountered on our way ...

Crossed over into WA this morning, but this time we were ready for the strict quarantine, having eaten and disposed of all plant matter and or bottle of honey. We stopped in Kununurra to replenish the car and the caravan; and ourselves of course with coffee and rock-cakes. Judy checked out Nina, and decided that if we fail to get pearls in Broome, then another champagne diamond, perhaps necklace, will do. Suitably refuelled, we ventured out where we had not been before, taking the road out toward Wyndham but turning south at the only junction, toward Halls Creek. The scenery continued to be spectacular with escarpments on either side and that glowing red rock and dirt contrasting with the vivid lime green foliage of the trees. You drive the entire way through a series of mountain ranges, collectively called: the Kimberly. We finally made it into our park, about 100 km north of Halls Creek, and which resembles a MASH set with its array of red-dust coloured canvas tents; ...

The good news is that we are still going, albeit a few days later than expected. When I say 'not-so-good', I mean that its good that the Basil Cell Carcinoma on my nose can be removed quickly and cleanly, it bad that I left it so long to get a proper opinion about it and the consequence is that we have to wait until Friday week to get the Doc's clearance. On the same good/almost good news front, we finally have our spare wheel carrier completed and installed. On the back of the Nova we have the normal sort of bumper bar, which held the bike rack and the caravan spare wheel. As we are planning to go a bit feral this time, poking right up into the gulf and other places, I thought it might be a good idea to carry a second spare for the car. The plan was to mount it on the caravan bumper alongside the caravan spare. So I took the original spare wheel bracket off, measured it up and went looking for some metal to make another one. The first place I went wasn't the shop it...

Here we are heading off to places we haven’t been before. It felt good to be out there discovering new things again. The scenery is forever changing and as we approached Victoria River we decided a stop to have a look around was required. We crossed the Victoria River which is still a full and mighty river. The country is now similar to what we have seen previously with red soil and huge rocky outcrops. We feel as though we are now back in the outback. Once again you can feel the age of this amazing country. All around there are the remnants of mountain ranges of long ago. All that is left is rock strewn hillsides and the odd outcrop of huge eroding boulders. After a well deserved short break and refreshing ourselves with icecream we headed towards Timber Creek for our lunch break. A delightful little stop under the shade of large gum trees for 30 min or so before the last 200km to Kununurra. It was starting to get a little tedious counting down the kilometres to the WA border but fi...