Over the Bungles

Saturday, another grey morning, cold and windy over breakfast, and the drizzle will not quite go away. This sort of weather is not supposed to happen!

We left Hall's Creek, and drove the 150km down the road to Turkey Creek, there was very little traffic, I think most people have just stopped and are waiting for the roads to open again. The vegetation was beautiful, as it was cool and overcast, so the silver, purple and grey foliage was splendid.

Last night reminded me of the wagons circling for protection from the Indians,in the wild west, as all night outside our compound the indigenous people of Hall's Creek partied loud and long, in acompaniment to loud live music from the Halls Creek pub which went to about midnight, but didn't keep us awake.

In the face of the road closures preventing us getting into the Bungles, and believing that Kununurra will be over-crowded again (there's a writers festival there this weekend), we decided to take a helicopter flight from Turkey Creek over the Bungles, so we can drive on tomorrow to Lake Argyle, hoping that it will be a good place to camp for a couple of nights. The rain is absent at the moment, but threatening to return next week. It is the coldest, wettest "dry "season here for 50 years, we heard today. As we only have a week left to camp out, we do not want to get stuck anywhere, and luckily the roads we will use now are sealed.

The helicopter flight was magic: Elaine, I had a look for you. I sat up with the pilot, and of course there was no-one in the Bungles, or on the road in. There were lots of pools of water, and a couple of falls running due to the amount of rain, and I have never seen such spectacular scenery, the rocks were so coloured, and you could see the silver-green lichens on them, it was great from the air.

There is an Aboriginal community near here, it looks to be dry, which is just as well, based on what we have seen. The houses all have air-con and they have a clinic and school there. There are some well known artists living there, selling paintings etc. Most of the people have been down to the store by the look of things today, our campsite is a good spot for watching. Turkey Creek is a basic little road house. We are sandwiched on a muddy site (everything is muddy), between the road house and the road, not very glamorous.