Day 78 - Bungle Bungles to Halls Creek

A 112km drive this morning saw us arriving at Halls Creek.  It is a smallish town and suffers from what most places do out here - red dust.  There is barely a blade of grass at our camp site for tonight.

After lunch we headed out to see the sights of Halls Creek.  There is not a lot to get excited about in the 100km trek but we did our best. 6km out of town along a bitumen road is the China Wall, a silica dyke in the other red rock.  The contrast between the colours was good and the usual grey trunked trees and spinifex grass added that inevitable outback look.  After China Wall the road changed to gravel. It was pretty rough and corrugated but we soldiered on to Caroline Pool, Palm Springs, Old Halls Creek and Sawpit Gorge. Old Halls Creek was the site of the first gold find there in 1885.  They have the remnants of the old Post Office circa early 1900's, covered with a new roof system for preservation.  The walls were constructed with bricks made from a mixture of spinifex and termite mound mud.  It is not surviving well, hence the cover.

While each of the places we saw was interesting, they were not a patch on the experience of being passed by five cattle road trains.  We were enveloped in dust and could see nothing for a few minutes.  We now know why there are warning signs about road trains and danger from the dust they create. Our clean car is clean no more.

We are now wondering if we should have done the drive into the Bungle Bungles yesterday.  It could have been no worse than today.

23014 China Wall near Halls Creek

23014 China Wall near Halls Creek

230614 We did the right thing with the gate on the road into Caroline Pool

230614 Caroline Pool 15km from Halls Creek

230614 Caroline Pool 15km from Halls Creek

230614 Cattle road train

230614 Cattle road train

230614 Spinifex grass on a red hill - typical of the country

230614 Palm Springs

230614 The creek at Sawpit Gorge

230614 Cattle road train - hold your breath

230614 The spinifex/termite mud bricks in the old Post Office

230614 The preservation structure over the Old Halls Creek Post Office

230614 A memorial for the first gold discovery at Old Halls Creek