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15th September 2008.
The drive from Fitzroy Crossing to Halls Creek is not the most interesting of drives and there's not much to see at all. About half way we came across a three trailer Road Train that had crashed and caught fire. It was still smoking and smoldering and we later found out that it happened the previous night when the driver fell asleep behind the wheel and he was okay, a very lucky man. Then a few minutes later we come across the shattered remains of a caravan. This accident also happened the previous day but we don't know if the people are okay or not.
Halls Creek:
Another community town and it's quite small with not much here. The only caravan park in town has very strange sites where you park your van facing the cement pad. Unfortunately when someone pulls in the other side of the pad, you're looking at each other with your awnings facing and almost touching each other, very weird and no privacy at all.
A dirt road out of town takes you to China Wall, Caroline Pool and the Old Halls Creek. China Wall was worth seeing but nothing worth seeing at the other two
The visitor centre advised us that one of the tour helicopters crashed at the Bungle Bungle yesterday killing the pilot and his three young tourist passengers and that all flight are grounded until further notice, so can't book a flight.
Bungle Bungle:
Left the caravan in Halls Creek and heading north, the dirt road turn off is 108kms from Halls Creek. As we're opening the gate to go in, a few travelers coming out warn us that the road is extremely bad and the 52kms in takes about 2 hours. Well about 10 kms in, we hear this almighty bang and I already know what it is. Left rear tyre sidewall has blown so we now proceed with extreme caution coz we're still waiting for our second spare rim to arrive from Perth. Sure enough, it takes over 2 hours and is probably the worst road conditions we've come across so far.
As we're driving towards the ranges, see a helicopter flying nearby and so head to the airport where flights have been resumed. After the flight, had a quick look at the bee hive like structures by doing "The Domes Walk" before setting up camp for the night..
Cathedral Gorge:
Packed up camp early in the morning to get as much done before the heat gets the better of us as it's still reaching 40 degrees plus during the day and as there was some rain yesterday, it's very muggy and humid. WOW, the colours and shapes, it's just unbelievable. They look like burning embers with the rich red and orange colours and they actually look like they're glowing.
Echidna Chasm:
The sweat is pouring off us as we head up the rocky river bed and Marlene struggled a bit walking over the rocks and pebbles in the sweltering heat. All of a sudden we come across some Livistona palms and it looks like an oasis in the desert, other than the 200 metre high ridges above.
As we continue, more palms and some shade. Once in the Echidna Chasm proper, we are left spell bound. Never seen rocks and colours like it.
Life on The Road:
We didn't do the Mini Palms Walk as time was getting away from us and we were pretty exhausted from the other two walks and the extreme temperatures. We saw 2 couples stranded in the park coz they had destroyed their spare as well and the ranger was trying to help them out. It was a slow drive back until we reached the black top and headed back to Halls Creek. So far, The Bungle Bungle has to be up there amongst some of most amazing places we've seen.
Managed to get another tyre sent down overnight from Kununurra to go on the spare and the new wheel rim finally arrived from Perth, so now have two spare wheels :)
We're leaving the caravan in storage in Halls Creek as we head off and do The Gibb River Road tomorrow. Renowned as one of Australia's last adventure drives, caravans are a no no due to the rough terrain and conditions. There are lots more gorges and waterholes to see along the way and really looking forward to the adventure. Once out the other end, we'll then come back down from Wyndham to Halls Creek, pick up the caravan and continue heading north again.
We will probably be out of phone and internet contact for at least a week and hope to be back on line with lots more news by the beginning of October :)
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Our Trip 
