3-6 June 2008
DAYS 96 - 99 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip
TANAMI TRACK
After lunch we set out on the long awaited Tanami Track. Ever since our first trip to the centre I have wanted to do this track. I didn’t have a reason why but just a desire to this particular track.
The Tanami Track is 1054.8 km in length through what is considered harsh desert landscape. It is considered to be a well traversed track as it is the shortest route to Alice Springs. It is considered to be a harsh landscape as extremely little rain falls here. There were some interesting hills as we started our trek.
The road was in reasonable condition and there were road works early on along the way.
We were surprised to see a car saying wide load come towards us and then more surprised as two semis with 24 wheeler trailers carrying a mine dump truck each appeared before us. There are gold mines further in on the track.
Then we were further stunned to see what we assumed was a broken down car that had been stripped on the actual road. We called it ‘spare parts’ for passers by. However, we soon realised that there were quite a few abandoned and/or burned out cars along the way.
We continued on until the turn off to Wolfe Creek Crater and hit the worst road we have been on during our entire trip. The 20 km trip to the crater was slow as the corrugations were bad. Hubby said it was difficult to find a comfortable speed on which to travel through them. I thought the car would fall to pieces.
Our first stop was at the Wolfe Creek Crater campsite. After setting up we walked the 400 metres to the start of the 200 metre steepish climb to the top of the rim. This extraordinary geological feature is a result of a meteorite crashing into earth here about a million years ago. The crater originally was 850 metres across and about 120 metres deep. Over the years the crater has filled up and is about 20 metres deep consisting of a salty base.
The view of the crater was great. The pictures I had seen of it did it justice. It is difficult to capture it in a photo. The tress on the rim appeared stunted in their growth.
The view back to the campsite was great too.
Eventually we made our way down back past flowering native cotton
and lots and lots of termite mounds.
Today was also the first day that it didn’t hit 30 degrees – 29.6.
In the morning we gritted our teeth as we set out back over the same corrugations to the Tanami Track. The track was good for much of the way to Balgo turn of. After that the road deteriorated and this section of the road to the Northern Territory border was the worst bit besides the road to Wolfe Creek Crater. The road was so bad that a truck coming from the opposite direction was driving alongside the road and taking out any bushes and small trees along the way.
There are a number of gold mines on this part of the road. There were also lots and lots of termite mounds along the way. At the intersection to Coyote Gold Mines we saw what we thought at a distance to be two workers by the side of the road. What a joke – as we got closer we found that they were termite mounds dressed up.
The surrounding landscape was flat except for the odd rocky outcrop. At one stage a low hill ran parallel to the road. We were surprised at how much rubbish there was along the road. Empty beer cans, empty cartons or as I mentioned earlier burnt out/abandoned cars.
After crossing into the Northern Territory the road improved but was still full of corrugations. About 124 kilometres on we came to Rabbit Flat Roadhouse. The proprietors of what is considered to be Australia’s most remote roadhouse, Bruce and Jackie Farrand are supposed to be quite legendary personalities. They set up the roadhouse over 30 years ago. We were quite disappointed as they did not interact with their guests at all. They served you from behind a grated screen. All available items were shown through advertising material hung on the wall.
The campground was a little walking distance from the roadhouse. To get through to the campsite I had to move a barrel from the road. Met some interesting fellow travellers including two blokes doing the trip on their motorbikes. We sure didn’t envy them their ride over the corrugations.
We woke to a very brisk morning and our first day not in singlets for a long, long time. We were in tee shirts instead. We set out again over another 90km of corrugations. Much more rubbish the further east we went. There was no sign of this sort of rubbish in Western Australia.
In places there was hardly any vegetation except for thousands on thousands of small and narrow termite mounds.
Occasionally there were mulga/gidgee trees and a few spots with really huge termite mounds. Then an occasional rocky outcrop would appear.
After the Granite Gold Mine the road improved considerably and had been graded so driving was much easier than earlier in the piece. I decided to have a go at driving on this section as well.
We turned off into Yuendumu and were shocked at how littered the place was. It looked worse than the areas we had travelled through when we went to the centre in the early 80s.
We drove around looking for the art gallery. We eventually found it and saw some fabulous pieces of work by the local artist but had to wade through piles and piles of work as there was no hanging space for but a few of them.
From Yuendumu we made our way to Tilmouth Well Roadhouse. The road to Tilmouth was much better and there was even a bitumen section for a part of the way in this section of the road. How different this roadhouse was from Rabbit Flat Roadhouse. The people were friendly, no grated screens and a beautiful setting. There was a gallery here as well and again some beautiful work by the locals at very affordable prices.
The landscape changed again as more interesting landscape features started to appear
and eventually the MacDonald Ranges started to make their appearance.
From Tilmouth Wells there are road works underway for about 6 kms to prepare for sealing the road. The last 118 km are on a sealed but narrow bitumen road that is only wide enough for one car. If someone comes from the opposite direction someone has to go off the road. There were only three passing lane sections on the road for that distance.
We decided to stop at the Roadside Stop 123 km out of Alice Springs. The day was much cooler hitting only 22 degrees. As it was getting dark another car arrived with an indigenous family. They came and asked us for water bottles but we had none. They then let their car battery go flat by keeping their headlights on. They couldn’t start the car and asked for help. As it was an automatic the only way to start it was by towing it at a particular speed. We tried it with them but it didn’t work. So they decided to camp for the night as well.
Bright and early in the morning we made our way towards Alice Springs on the last section of the Tanami Track. The MacDonald Ranges are such a contrast to the flat pastoral land. We saw kangaroos grazing in the fields as well as huge eagles circling above.
So finally we have done the Tanami and it was no where near as difficult as I expected. There was about 350km of rough corrugations otherwise it was okay.
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