It was, as predicted, a hot day, a VERY hot day. By the time we got back to Halls Creek, it
was starting to get close to the predicted 38 – 39 degrees. First thing we did was fill up the car. We didn’t really like the feeling of not
having a bucketful of fuel, so topping the tanks up to the brink was very
satisfying, and knowing it was good quality helped.
The next treat was an ice cream each. Funny, it’s the little things, but they went
down very well!! Ok, next order of
business, the caravan park. Did they
have a pool???? Bloody oath they
did. We booked in, set up, had a bite to
eat, and then marched off to the pool.
Dips at this time of the year are always enjoyable, but this one seemed
a little more so. We were re-set!
We contemplated the final treat of going out for dinner, but
the options weren’t that great, and it would also mean a late night (in our
terms), so after a 2nd dip and cool off, we produced another camp
dinner, had showers, teeth, milk, and then bed.
Very nice.
We managed to roll out of Halls Creek surprisingly
early. WA time was still treating us
well, being 2 hours behind east coast time, our body clocks got us up quite
early. We turned onto the Tanami, ready
to tackle it all again.
The 170kms to the Wolfe Creek turnoff slipped by easily, as
did the Billiluna turnoff. We reached
the Balgo turnoff mid morning, and discussed whether we wanted to make the diversion
to the intended art gallery. It would
have been nice to see, and very interesting to check out this well renowned
artwork, however we felt like we were on a roll, and had a little bit of the
‘just want to get there’s’. “It wasn’t meant
to be”, as we drove past the turnoff, and onto new territory!
From there, we started to head to the WA / NT border. This section ‘felt’ remote, probably due to
its stark, flat plains and low shrubs.
There weren’t really many travellers at this time of year (a few, but
very sparse), and the wide open views definitely gave you a sense of distance.
At the NT border, we pulled over for a quick lunch. The weather was still pretty hot here, but
the shade from Slim and the camper helped.
It was nice to stretch the legs, and feel the sand, but we were glad we
weren’t walking. Glenn did a quick check
over of car and camper while Amy threw together our normal wraps for
lunch.
 |
| Yay! It's lunchtime. |
From the border, you start passing through a number of
mines, some of them gold mines. It was
weird, out in middle of nowhere, to all of a sudden see infrastructure, heavy
machinery, buildings, airports and other cars.
We know of some people who work out here, and they all fly in – fly
out. Interesting workplace.
The other thing we saw through this section were a number of
grass fires. The plumes of smoke could
be seen from a fair way back, and was interesting to see them smouldering away
when we went past. A few of the fires
however were cranking, one of them so much so that when we drove past, you
could feel the heat through the glass.
Errk!
We hadn’t intended to get as far as we did, but the day’s
travel went so easy, and Amy did (yet) another fantastic job of driving. We ended up pulling up at Renahan’s Bore, a
marked and known campspot along the Tanami.
It was amazing to us the difference between this 8 hour day on the road
compared to our 8 hour day of a few days ago, during the Balgo adventure. That time we were totally wrecked, beyond
speaking. This day, we were happy go
lucky, feeling good, and on top of the world.
Being at Renahan’s Bore was good and bad. It was a lovely spot, and had a few other
campers around, which didn’t bother us.
What was bad however was all the toilet paper and other various deposits
spread around the camp area. Absolutely
amazing that people could do this. Hmm..
anyway, enough said.
A nice dinner as we ate dinner, and reasonably early to bed
topped of a gratefully successful day.
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