1st August Halls Creek

Tanami Wildlife...

Wolfe Creek Crater (wasn't there a horror movie about Wolfe Creek?)

Fellow Road Travellers

The "little" ant hills of which there were literally thousands

The Tanami Road :)

We have made it across the 1000 odd kms of the Tanami Desert... not the best part of our trip to date. It started to rain as we left Alice and pretty much followed us all the way here to Halls Creek. We didn't get away from Alice till late on Thursday and the weather was so miserable we continued on to the campground of Tilmouth Well where we were lucky to have a break in the weather to set up and have dinner before it started raining again. It had partially cleared again in the morning and we headed out to Yuendumu an Aboriginal Community quite well known for it's art. They were opening a new store there so there was a bit of a ceremony, unfortunately although we glimpsed a few of the aboriginal women in their traditional costume (or painted bodies), we missed the dancing. Enjoyed the art gallery where we purchased a number of items. Its amazing the difference in prices of art. If you buy paintings on wood or bark, it is very reasonably priced. As soon as you want anything on canvas the prices start at around $400 but are more likely to be in the thousands. The gallery is well run by mainly white female volunteers and the art all from the local community and going back to the community so it seemed like a good place to purchase some work. Christopher had been looking out for clap sticks and we got a number of them there. Sorry Dad, a big parcel coming your way!
From there we headed back to the Tanami where it had just rained so we had fun literally skidding our way up the track, with one particularly hair raising incident, but we came out ok. Very little traffic except some road trains. Camped out near a bore which was not particularly spectacular except for the sunset. Back on the road again it was a long hard slog of a day, corrugations periodically but not too much mud. Raining on and off and very little to see. The boys were really good,with no are we there yet? Stopped for lunch at Rabbit Flat, a very dismal place that is closing up this year after 35 years. Not sure how they have survived so long. We were joined by some local aboriginals well on their way to having an afternoons football game, if they actually got there would have been interesting to see. The landscape is still incredibly green and flat and not really desert like. No signs of wildlife except for massive termite hills. We passed a number of gold mines that you are not permitted to enter. Our campsite last night was a bit more pleasant next to a billabong with some wild brumbies. Thought we had got through the bad weather to wake up this morning to more and more rain, leading to mud :) Waited for it to stop before doing the final leg. Gambled on having enough petrol to make it to Halls Creek and visit the Wolfe Creek Meteor, which we did manage. The meteorite site was very interesting and caught the boys imagination. It really is a massive hole with large walls in a big flat plain. Quite lush in the middle of it which we walked into. From there it was an easy drive and the most pleasant to Halls Creek. Mountains have appeared making the landscape more interesting. The weather has closed in again and the shops are all closed, so we are holed up at Halls Creek Caravan park, not the most exciting place in the world. However, hopefully tomorrow the weather will be better and we head to the Bungle Bungles to meet the Cracknells ( and their new caravan!) tomorrow afternoon. It will be nice to spend a number of days in one place before heading to Kunanurra and the Gibb River road. Everyone is well, but very relieved to be off the Tanami. Au Revoir.