The Rest of Western Australia

By the time we left Broome it was 10th March. We have to be back in Melbourne for the 29th as we have tickets for the Grand Prix so the next couple of weeks are going to be a bit hectic with a lot of driving! After Broome we stop at Derby for a night in a very seedy motel, next day we check out the large Boab tree there which was once used as a rest place for prisoners en-route to jail, it was indeed a very large tree! Our next destination was Halls Creek where we were hoping to get a tour to see the Wolf Creek Meteorite crater. (Incidentally, Wolf Creek is also the name of a recent Aussie film, apparantly banned in the UK, as it tells the true story of english backpackers who are brutally murdered by some crazed local. We've heard mixed stories, some say he's in jail, some say he's not been caught and is still on the loose, tampering with peoples cars at Fitzroy Crossing and then being on the road to 'help' the unsuspecing travellers when they break down. Now, we haven't seen the film yet as I didn't want to watch it until we'd got past that part of Oz, which we have now so nobody need worry that we'll be murdered!!!).

So, on the way to Halls Creek we stop at Fitzroy Crossing to grab a cheeky half at the oldest pub in the Kimberley Region. However, when we arrive at said pub, there are loads of Native Australians hanging around, all pissed up (it was only about 2pm) . We're used to seeing them in the small towns sat in the parks and under trees, some of them drinking. But here there were about 20 or 30 little groups of them, a bit scary considering we were the only white people there and they were or seemed to be quite drunk and there were a few arguments going off here and there. So, we walk through the groups to get to the pub, when one group call us over, we go over and have a chat and they are very friendly and one guy kept calling Rich 'Retch' as he couldn't say Rich, apparently. We make our excuses and reach the pub only to find it closed! Bugger. Bizarrely, all around the outside of the pub (where the little groups are congregated) are signs saying 'no drinking in this area'. Accross the road is a park with a sign saying 'drinking permitted in this area', but it was empty!

So a few hours of driving later we arrive at Halls Creek and to the visitors centre to see if we can visit the crater anytime soon, but no, it's shut and won't be open for another couple of days! Bugger again. We can't afford the time to hang around in Halls Creek, nor would we want to with potentially a crazed murderer on the loose and the fact that Halls Creek is a teeny tiney little town with nothing to do there. So we ploughed on through to Kununurra and arrived quite late in the evening. Total distance covered today: 930 kms. Pretty Impressive huh?!

We spent 3 nights in Kununurra which was a very nice little town. We took a tour on the lake which was nice and we saw plenty of crocs (Freshwater ones though, they're only small and won't attack you, not unless you did something stupid to annoy them) and loads of colonies of flying foxes, these were cool, all hanging upside down on the trees overhanging the river!! We also visited the national park there to see the 'mini Bungles' (rock formations). We visited a distillery (the only one in WA) called the 'Hoochery' where we tasted some liquers and rums and Rich had a go on their whisky which apparantly was like moonshine!!

After Kununurra we were making a bee-line for Alice Springs, only stopping along to way to sleep, and maybe a few photos here and there