Our Journey Continues.

Nothing is close in Western Australian! Yes, we hope to visit all these places.

When we left Fitzroy River Lodge this morning at eight fifteen, the air was calm and the temperature around thirteen degrees. 

Only went a short distance before we stopped the car to take a walk across the Fitzroy River Bridge. 

It was h

eartening to come across an Indigenous Australian with a huge smile and a cheery 'good morning'. O

ne more positive thing to add to an already beautiful day.

Driving along the Great Northern Highway, the landscape changes often and dramatically. Soft lime-green spinifex gives way to rocky outcrops, to sweeping plains, to ranges far and distant or only metres from the road.

A bird of prey soaring above Ngumpan Cliff.

Ngumpan Cliff and Mary Pool provide picturesque scenery and a spot to either camp or picnic. The size, shape and colour of termite nests changes consistently from small and thin to bulbous and tall, from soft beige to dunn, to brilliant pindan. 

The spinifex changes colour too, from soft lime-green to dusty brown to bright green and back again. 

The trees are either non-existent or sparse and the mighty boab is no longer present. Bloodwoods are common now.

Ngumpan Cliff.

Less than one hundred kilometres from Halls Creek and rounded, faded-terracotta coloured boulders spot either side of the highway. 

The temperature is a bit cooler today, helped along by a headwind to keep the heat under control. 

Some of the tourist literature labels this region as 'uninspiring' yet Andrew and I find it tranquil and a welcome change from the harsh Pilbara country. 

We arrive in Halls Creek just on noon and go straight to the Halls Creek Visitors Centre for information about Purnululu National Park and the Bungle Bungle Ranges. 

The standard information is received: Road bad, will take two to three hours to travel fifty odd kilometers. Maybe you'd like to book a one day tour – cost? Almost three hundred dollars per person. No thank you. 

Andrew telephones the ranger at the national park. The Visitors Centre would not make the call for us as they can only call 1800 numbers. (They wouldn't be tour operator numbers now would they?)

On the public telephone, Andrew is told by the ranger that the road is 'pretty good' and people are completing the fifty odd kilometres to the park's visitors' centre in around one and half hours. Also, there is ample camping available. 

We decide to have lunch at the Kimberley Hotel, buy some groceries from IGA then do some sightseeing around Halls Creek and tackle Purnululu tomorrow. 

China Wall is an interesting phenomenon of a natural quartz formation of an unknown distance and after visiting the wall the two of us drive out to look at Old Halls Creek. 

But everything is an adventure here and thinking that Old Halls Creek Town would be just around the corner, we instead find ourselves driving eighteen kilometres out of Halls Creek proper only to discover eighteen kilometres  of corrugated dirt road. 

Oh well, it is a nice drive with spectacular scenery. 

Unfortunately there isn't enough time to explore the old town ruins because we've decided to drive another one hundred kilometres east along the Great Northern Highway, to a rest area not far from the national park entry, where we will camp for the night.  This way the drive out to Purnululu N.P. can be completed while still feeling fresh. 

The wind has calmed down, the temperature is mild, the light is softening and the shadows getting longer. 

Hope to arrive at Ord River by about four thirty.

 
China Wall, near Halls Creek.