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Day 349 – Mary Pools, WA (28 August)
Another early morning and it was warm, 25.7 degrees at 6.00am! We are leaving Kununurra today and heading west to Halls Creek (380kms) where we may overnight depending on the look of the town and caravan park. On route we stopped at Turkey Creek to refuel - $1.80/litre! Turkey Creek or Warnum as it is more commonly known is basically a small rundown roadhouse with a small caravan park attached. It has an Aboriginal community close by. Turkey Creek is 50kms from the Bungle Bungles turnoff. Some travellers leave their vans at the park to go into the Bungles. The roadhouse caravan park had powered sites available, we (I) did toy with the idea of staying there and spending the day in the Bungles Bungles which would allow you to see the highlights albeit a little rushed, we didn’t feel comfortable doing that particularly with Coco being in the van. For info the road into the Bungles is another 53kms and is 4WD only. It takes between 1.5 and 2 hours depending on your driving skills. Another option that travellers do is leave their van at a free campsite (unpowered) just outside the Bungles park entrance which is a really good option however not possible with Coco. So we reluctantly decided not to go to the Bungles this trip and are now thinking in the future we will come back and do the Bungles, Wolfe Creek Crater, Karijini, Millstream Chichester in WA, Keep River, Gregory and Lawn Hill in NT and any other parks in the vicinity. This would be a trip without Coco and probably the van – would be more camping – anyway something to think about. We stopped for lunch at a rest area and a curious hawk kept flying overhead, it was flying really low and circling us. John threw it some chicken in the hope it would grab it but it didn’t so we watched it grab the bits of chicken from the ground as it swooped down in flight and grabbed the chicken it in its talons, incredible to watch. They must have fantastic eyesight. After lunch we get to Halls Creek and refuelled at $142.9/litre, cheaper than Kununurra and they take the 4 cent discount Coles vouchers double whammy. We got a quick feel for the town and decided refuelling and moving on was the best option. 118kms west is a free camp called Mary Pools and a few travellers had recommended it to us, so we continued on. Mary Pools is a very very nice campsite and we got here about 4.00pm and there would be at least 40 other campers in their vans, camper trailers, tents, cars etc! In the busy period there can be 150 campers here literally on top of each other, not nice. We had lots of places we could choose today. It is obviously a very popular spot and easy to see why, we crossed a river to get in here which only had pockets of water at the moment – one of those upside down rivers - and the camping area is big with cows wandering around. So we got ourselves a quiet possie and then took Coco for a walk in the river bed and along the river bank. So nice for her to be able to run free without us having to worry about park managers being on your tail. She even went for a little paddle in the pools – yes the croc signs are up but looking at how dry it is unlikely crocs would be around (fingers crossed). We had been leap frogging a van from Busso today and they are also camped here so we went for a quick chat. We seem to be bumping into the same travellers quite a lot now and expect to for a little while longer. Guess it is because less roads to take until you hit the coast. After our walk we sat and looked at the stars and a particularly bright star that kept moving around we marvelled that we weren’t being attacked by mozzies or midges. Despite a very warm start to the morning, today has been a perfect day weather wise, slight breeze and mild temperatures (well about 32) and tonight is actually cool (well 26 in the van) after what we have experienced this is bliss and despite many people being here it is remarkably quiet. Nothing beats free camping when it is like this, mild weather, nice refreshing breeze (haven’t had a breeze for ages), quiet, nice walks and surroundings. Have to say that we have found WA has the best free camping sites in the country usually away from the road and in some really nice spots.
Another early morning and it was warm, 25.7 degrees at 6.00am! We are leaving Kununurra today and heading west to Halls Creek (380kms) where we may overnight depending on the look of the town and caravan park. On route we stopped at Turkey Creek to refuel - $1.80/litre! Turkey Creek or Warnum as it is more commonly known is basically a small rundown roadhouse with a small caravan park attached. It has an Aboriginal community close by. Turkey Creek is 50kms from the Bungle Bungles turnoff. Some travellers leave their vans at the park to go into the Bungles. The roadhouse caravan park had powered sites available, we (I) did toy with the idea of staying there and spending the day in the Bungles Bungles which would allow you to see the highlights albeit a little rushed, we didn’t feel comfortable doing that particularly with Coco being in the van. For info the road into the Bungles is another 53kms and is 4WD only. It takes between 1.5 and 2 hours depending on your driving skills. Another option that travellers do is leave their van at a free campsite (unpowered) just outside the Bungles park entrance which is a really good option however not possible with Coco. So we reluctantly decided not to go to the Bungles this trip and are now thinking in the future we will come back and do the Bungles, Wolfe Creek Crater, Karijini, Millstream Chichester in WA, Keep River, Gregory and Lawn Hill in NT and any other parks in the vicinity. This would be a trip without Coco and probably the van – would be more camping – anyway something to think about. We stopped for lunch at a rest area and a curious hawk kept flying overhead, it was flying really low and circling us. John threw it some chicken in the hope it would grab it but it didn’t so we watched it grab the bits of chicken from the ground as it swooped down in flight and grabbed the chicken it in its talons, incredible to watch. They must have fantastic eyesight. After lunch we get to Halls Creek and refuelled at $142.9/litre, cheaper than Kununurra and they take the 4 cent discount Coles vouchers double whammy. We got a quick feel for the town and decided refuelling and moving on was the best option. 118kms west is a free camp called Mary Pools and a few travellers had recommended it to us, so we continued on. Mary Pools is a very very nice campsite and we got here about 4.00pm and there would be at least 40 other campers in their vans, camper trailers, tents, cars etc! In the busy period there can be 150 campers here literally on top of each other, not nice. We had lots of places we could choose today. It is obviously a very popular spot and easy to see why, we crossed a river to get in here which only had pockets of water at the moment – one of those upside down rivers - and the camping area is big with cows wandering around. So we got ourselves a quiet possie and then took Coco for a walk in the river bed and along the river bank. So nice for her to be able to run free without us having to worry about park managers being on your tail. She even went for a little paddle in the pools – yes the croc signs are up but looking at how dry it is unlikely crocs would be around (fingers crossed). We had been leap frogging a van from Busso today and they are also camped here so we went for a quick chat. We seem to be bumping into the same travellers quite a lot now and expect to for a little while longer. Guess it is because less roads to take until you hit the coast. After our walk we sat and looked at the stars and a particularly bright star that kept moving around we marvelled that we weren’t being attacked by mozzies or midges. Despite a very warm start to the morning, today has been a perfect day weather wise, slight breeze and mild temperatures (well about 32) and tonight is actually cool (well 26 in the van) after what we have experienced this is bliss and despite many people being here it is remarkably quiet. Nothing beats free camping when it is like this, mild weather, nice refreshing breeze (haven’t had a breeze for ages), quiet, nice walks and surroundings. Have to say that we have found WA has the best free camping sites in the country usually away from the road and in some really nice spots.
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