Friday 22nd June 2018
Well we got up early, 5.40am, before the sun today and headed to watch the sun rise on the crater rim. It was a brisk walk/jog to the top, which we were happy to do as it was very cool. The area of the crater is about 800m wide and 60m deep, it was originally 120m deep. It has a ring in the centre which indicates extra water coming from somewhere. Will have to ask a geologist what causes that. After watching the sunrise, a few photos, a partial walk around the rim, we headed back to camp.
With 900+ kilometres to travel today we wanted to get on our way early. As we were almost ready to go, 2 caravans left. DB wanted to then have brekky as there is no point following their cloud of dust. I suggested we should go anyway and try to get passed them before the main road. So we headed off by 7am. Luckily the 2 caravans had headed to the crater first. So no need to worry about passing them. Hopefully we have got an early enough start for the ones coming from Halls Creek. They do suggest no caravans and trailers, but only time will tell how many people heed this advice.
At the start the road is very corrugated and deadly rocks all over the place. What are our chances of getting to the other side without a puncture. Fingers crossed we make it. DB is so careful when driving in these conditions. The road changes condition so many times today, as does the scenery. Even the road colour changes a lot. We even have a little respite with about 5-10km of bitumen. There are many shredded tyres, whole tyres, piles and stacks of tyres along the way, as well as burnt out cars and dead roos. I have really enjoyed the drive, with the change of scenery, but I am not the one holding the steering wheel. We even had a bit of phone service at lunch time. We arrived at Tilmouth Well at about 6.30pm NT time, treated ourselves fish and chips as it was pretty chilly and headed to bed early. We are almost at Alice Springs ready for the next adventure. Who knows what that will be.
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Sunrise on the rim of Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater. Was a little bit chillier this morning.
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Panorama of Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater. It was very difficult to fit it in a photo.
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Looking back on our campground. DB thought there would be no-one here last night. Sometimes you can be so wrong. We struggled to find a spot to camp.
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Walking around the rim of Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater
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David just ducking up a bit higher for one more look at the crater
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A little bit of information of Kimberley National Parks. We have covered this area pretty well I think.
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A little info about the crater
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There were lots of young termite mounds everywhere here
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See how the colour of the road keeps changing
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One of those trailers they suggest you don’t take on the Tanami Road
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Woohoo! A little bit of bitumen and lots of green trees
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Even the spinifex is green here
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The scenery is quite changeable in all the photos along the way.
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A little bit of corrugation. It was of varying levels along the way
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Oh, and a caravan as well. Naughty naughty.
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After over 9 weeks I think we did justice to the West Coast and Kimberley regions of Western Australia, we have finally made it to the Northern Territory Border.
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The sign in the previous photo and this 44 gallon drum with WA I NT written on it mark the border crossing on the Tanami Road. No fancy signs here.
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Welcome to the Northern Territory…
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..and within a blink the road was a lot smoother.
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There were varying levels of barren land
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Plus lots of early dry season burnoffs
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I loved how the plant life and road kept changing.
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Now a thousand termite mounds a bit older than the earlier ones.
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We saw many, many burnt out cars along the side of the road…
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..and zillions of shredded tyres.
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Sorry, I love the colour changes
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A quick dash up to Quartz Ridge Lookout for lunch and a fuel stop. In hindsight it may have been a bad move as the rocks were really worrisome.
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Making use of that 40 litre jerry can…
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…Should take away some of the stress levels about reaching our destination tonight.
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We only passed a couple of road trains but it was quite interesting. First you saw their dust..
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..Then you saw them, then they passed you..
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..Then you were left in the wake of their dust.
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Yay. Bitumen again…
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..but only for a moment.
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We would have seen over 500 tyres on the side of the road. Luckily not one of ours.
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We finally made it to the end of the dirt road and on to bitumen by sunset. Only 103km to tonights stop.
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This is how our second tank read when we arrived at Tilmouth Well. Without the 20 litres in the main tank that we put in from the jerry can, we would have been very stressed. We have done that before. Hope to never do it again.
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Just put in enough to make a comfortable trip to Alice Springs. Hopefully it is a bit cheaper there.
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An indication of the shortcut we took. We would have had to go north to Kununurra, around to Mataranka and then south to Alice Springs which was over 2000km. The Tanami Road was only 1055km. A big shortcut. A massive driving day for DB but almost done today. Only 169km to go tomorrow.
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We are now a little closer to home. Only 3066km to go and 33 hours straight driving. We might inch our way closer over the next week and then do some more big driving days.