oldworleybirds go west 2012: TaNaMi Rd NoT sO bAd

12th May - Another noisy night, glad I don’t live here but apparently we were on wrong the side of town. We began the Tanami Road today expecting to take a few days, planning to check out the galleries along the way but everything looked closed at the first stop so moved on to Yuendumu for the last fuel for 762kms and to see their gallery. As we drove in to Yuendumu we decided we’d just get fuel, which was a task in itself and set off for one of the campsites on the side of the road. That didn’t work, they all looked pretty horrible and we were making such good time it was too early to stop so continued up the road which was in such good condition, we were travelling between 80 & 100ks most of the time, passed hardly any other cars and very few road trains.

Photos above show the different colours of the Tanami surface and variation in countryside. There are so many flowers out at the moment.

We saw few kangaroos, emus & dingoes but quite a few wild horses and cattle. The horses were in beautiful condition, I’m sure due to the vast amount of pasture to graze on.

Again it amazed us how much the countryside changed every now and then. Time was getting on but as we were going west it was still very light and we decided to stop at the next roadside layby just a few kms on the NT side of the border. We had the spot to ourselves as there were hardly any others on the road and felt a bit vulnerable but it was a lovely quiet night with only 2 trucks going past early in the evening.

We were so tired we didn't even unhook, just set the Disco up high to level off so no hooking back up in the morning

The sunset was amazing and the night sky is just magnificent out here especially as the moon is coming up later at the moment. It’s just magic out here.

13th May - Continued on to Wolfe Crater this morning and that was worth the short steep climb to the rim but we chickened out of the scramble down into the crater itself. It was blowing a gale at the rim and we didn’t need to risk the walk down the loose stone almost vertical track, besides we wanted to get moving rather than stay at the crater for the night as we’d first expected because we got there earlier than we thought we would.

We were about to go find somewhere for lunch and the car wouldn’t start!! Not the best place to break down! Anyway Ray looked at stuff (there’s not much more you can do with the Disco) and I had another go at starting while he looked and it eventually spluttered into life - phew!! So we didn’t stop for lunch just ate the fruit up before the ‘quarantine station’ to get us through to Halls Creek so we could stop and at least have phone service if the car failed to start again. Staying the night in the caravan park in Halls Creek. Despite what most people have said about it, Halls Creek is quite a nice little town, better than some of the communities we’ve been through lately. Hopefully the car starts better tomorrow and we can head for the Bungle Bungles.