We didn’t have too far to go today, but the headwind and slight incline made the fuel economy shocking.  By the time we reached the Tanami track turnoff we’d used 60L of diesel in a touch under 300km.  Not good.  We decided to continue in to Halls Creek to refuel before tackling the track.  It was 18km each way, out of our way, but cheap peace of mind.

Back to the track and I let down the tyre pressures and removed the weight distribution system for the van.  Plugged as many holes as we could, jammed as many rattly things into places as tightly as we could .. and hoped for the best.

Heading off down the track for 135km each way is a little daunting.  The road is quite good in places.  Some is hard and rocky, some is sandy.  There’s quite a few washouts too.  The main feature though is the corrugations.  They don’t really let up too often.  The road is generally good and wide though, so you can usually pick a smoothish way through the bumps. Not exactly good vibrations.

We passed a few others travelling the same way going pretty slow and finding it a bit difficult.  I can only imagine what they were thinking of being passed at 70kmh by an Expanda.  We saw a few campers and off-road trailers on the drive, but no other caravans.  I didn’t think the road was that bad! Just gotta find the ‘right’ speed and float on top of the corrugations. It’s uncomfortable until the rig finds it’s proper speed and then it’s bearable.

We stopped and checked the van and car out every 10-20 km, just to make sure everything was OK.  We had a milo tin lose its lid.  The screws holding the van door on unscrewed themselves.  Lots of dust got in, even to sealed cupboards.  One of the gas bottle hoses snapped.  Nothing too major.

We passed a few massive eagles on the side of the road, but they all took flight when they saw us coming … and they saw us long before we saw them.

We also passed a couple of oversized loads headed for the gold mines dotted along this track.  The loads looked like oversized washing machines … and maybe they were.

When we got to the turnoff to Wolfe Creek Crater the road conditions got much worse.  I couldn’t bring myself to get up enough speed to float on the corrugations.  They were pretty severe.  The track itself was also quite rutted in places and there was also stock on the road.  This meant that even if you could get up to speed, you wouldn’t be able to maintain it … and it’s those last few kmh that are the worst.  So just before you get up to speed and also just as you start to slow down … EVERYTHING shakes.  Lots!  So we sat on about 30 kmh and nudged a bit quicker when the road allowed.  There was 22km of this and we were glad when it was over.

The kids played DS the whole way in and were overjoyed to find we were staying at another ‘patch of dirt’ free camp.

We were initially the only ones setting up camp here so we took the biggest, bestest spot.  Near the water tank, not too near the loo.  Big open space.  Lovely.

Path to the top of the crater rim

Plenty of light left in the day so we donned our hiking boots and ascended the crater wall for a peek inside.

Looking down inside

Quite an interesting place this one.  The crater was formed about 300,000 years ago.  A 50,000 ton meteor struck here and made quite a bang.  Fragments from the explosion have been found 4 km away.  What’s left of the meteor is now about 100m underground.  The crater itself is 570m across, making it the 2nd largest in the world.

 

Blakey at ground zero

The inside of the crater holds water really well, not that much falls out here.  When it does rain, the water has to evaporate since its got nowhere to flow.  This has caused the centre of the crater to become really salty.  Only salt bush and a few other salt tolerant plants can grow here.  Surrounding that is a ring of trees that like the moisture, but not the salt.  The rest of the crater is coated in needle sharp, spinifex type plants.

They don’t recommend climbing down into the crater, so of course Blake and I tackled the steep, slippery climb down into the crater.  There’s a geocache down there, but you need to brave 100m of snake infested spinifex to retrieve it, which we did.  Mum and Hannah, happy to be rid of the boys for awhile, went back to the van.  They were nearly eaten by huge wasps that were hanging around the water tank along with another huge snake living inside it.  Hospitable place, this one.

We surprisingly had quite a lot of company here tonight.  About 8 other campers had drifted in while we were off exploring.  None of the others had trailers, let alone a caravan.  They were a bit amazed that we managed to get in here with it.  One of them said it was the worst road he’d ever driven on, “And I drive for a living!”.  Tee Hee.  A pommy backpacker was sure there had to be a better road into here and was going to tackle the station roads out tomorrow.  His face dropped a mile when I told him he’d get halfway and find a locked gate … and the road would probably be worse anyway.  Another great bloke, Mick Taylor, a tow truck driver, offered to tow us out of here if our car didn’t start in the morning.

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