Friday 16th July - Spring Creek Rest Stop to Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater

Day 75 and our last night in Western Australia is at Wolfe Creek meteorite crater. We were advised not to watch the movie of the same name before we came, so we’ll have to let you know how our visit compares when we get back. It’s also the first time I’ve donned trousers and jacket in the evening since Exmouth.

We called in at China Wall on the way to Halls Creek, a quartz vein that does indeed look a bit like a mini Great Wall of China (from a distance at least). SPOT

Refuelled (surprisingly 10c a litre cheaper than Kununurra; we should have waited to fill the jerry cans), we finally reached the Tanami Road which will take us the 1000km to Alice Springs.

It used to be the Tanami Track, but has been upgraded to a maintained road, periodically graded since the gold mines near the Rabbit Flat roadhouse reopened. It was closed last week due to rain, more to stop the surface getting chewed up than to avoid motorists getting stuck, and from the heavily rutted and waterlogged sections we experienced we could see why.

Still a gravel and dirt road, it’s fairly well travelled as a shortcut from the Kimberley to the centre, but we texted Nic, my brother, to tell him that if he doesn’t hear from us in a week then please call the police!

The 835m wide, 50m deep crater at Wolfe Creek is either the result of a meteorite impact 300,000 year ago, or the spot where a huge rainbow serpent emerged from the ground.

You choose. Either way it’s pretty impressive and we spent a good few hours wandering around before returning to our campsite.

We took advantage of the sun still being up to wash our hair courtesy of the solar shower, hopefully that will see us through to Alice Springs and a proper shower in a few days. SPOT