Wednesday 22nd June TED
First lesson for today: do NOT empty the toilet at a free camp that has 70 vans in it each night. I don't think I need to go into details do I?
Heavily traumatised we hit the road by 9:05 and make it into Halls Creek mid morning. Not one of the highlights of the Kimberley but we did duck into the IGA to grab a couple of bits and pieces.
We also seem to have stumbled on a convention of SIPA, otherwise known as “stupid, inconsiderate, pillocks anonymous”. Now that I think of it maybe the A doesn't stand for anonymous but lets go with that in this family oriented forum.
Exhibit A: 4WD towing a van stopped in the middle of the highway while he decided whether he was going to turn into the petrol station or not.
Exhibit B: excelled himself and upheld all the great traditions of SIPA. He had pulled up for petrol at the two bowser local petrol station and decided he needed jack up his van to check on something. So he did, all the while blocking one half of the driveway and bowsers. The guy at the petrol station was loathe to say anything to him on the basis that if he was that stupid he may also be unstable.
Lesson 2 for the day: Humans maybe at the top of the food chain but it doesn't make them intelligent.
OK, deep breaths Stephen. Move on. So we did. Move on that is.
Normality was resumed when we pulled over at a roadside stop for an iced coffee and piece of Jean Leary fruit cake. Aaah, better than valium, possibly more addictive though.
Our plan for tonight was to amble into one of two free camps about 100 kilometres north of Halls Creek making it a very easy day's travelling. Unfortunately neither of them really appealed.
The first was in a nice setting and we had a walk down to the Ord River and had a look around. Unfortunately the layout wasn't all that flash and we couldn't find a good spot to set up for the night.
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| In the wet season, you can't see this weir |
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| I wasn't kidding about the water in the wet season Look closely and you can see a log that is stuck in a branch at the top of the big tree in the foreground |
The second camp site was also quite large and a reasonable setting but again no good spots to set-up. These free campers stop travelling very early in the day. We were at both of these camps between 12:00 & 1:00.
Editors note: Di heard a story the other day from a woman who had met a couple with a car and caravan who were only travelling 50 kilometers per day. We have heard of people on push bikes doing more k's in a day! That's going to take a long time to even get out of WA, let alone all the way round
Anyway, after sandwich lunch in MM it was back on the road and off towards Doon Doon Roadhouse. Given our budget conscious mood we ended up driving on past the Roadhouse (even though it looked very nice) and ended up at a free camp 20kilometres up the road.
Third time lucky. A really nice area, well setup, it even has gravel areas laid out for each van. All for the extremely reasonable price of – nothing. Amazing
So, quite a few extra kilometres driven today than we had planned, over some of the worst roads we have had since NSW, but through some really beautiful Kimberley countryside.
After eating tea inside tonight, because of a bit of insect activity, I did make Di come outside with me to check out the stars, to avoid any repeats of last night's incident.
Even managed an episode of NCIS LA. I don't think Di is as committed to this one as the original though.
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