We are on holiday!

Thursday 11th August 2022

Whilst the plan had been to jump up and leave early, to secure a camping spot at the next location, we instead had a pretty relaxed morning in the cabin. We had a slow breakfast and showers before packing everything up again. Whilst the clock told us we were leaving at 9, that is actually 10:30 for us, so we were pretty slow!

Richie dashed into Coles to try his luck with veggies again, hoping they had stocked the shelves overnight. Apparently it looked much better, he grabbed a couple of things to supplement our supplies, then we were off. Kununurra looks like a beautiful town – very lush, lots of water. Apparently the town was only formed in 1961, when they dammed the Ord River to create a reliable water supply. That was obviously successful, the town seems to be thriving.

Th drive towards Halls Creek was quite stunning, the landscape looks so different. Lots of red rocky outcrops, very hilly. We also again drove through extensive areas of burnt/burning land, which made parts look very desolate. We had a couple of roadside stops, both of which were littered with toilet paper so we didn’t poke around too much. 🤢

We turned off at Halls Creek to head to Palm Springs campsite. This is 40 km out of town on dirt road. I did call the visitors centre about road conditions last week, as Richie is particularly worried about how the car will handle stretches of corrugated roads, and it sounded like it wasn’t too bad. We stopped and reassessed a little way in, as the road was quite corrugated, but I was quite keen to push on off the beaten track a little. Because of our car limitations we are missing Purnululu NP and El Questro, both of which came strongly recommended, and many other places. Of course they will be there for another time with a hardier vehicle, but the idea of trying something off track but accessible appealed to me. The campsite is also listed as a good swimming spot, which was also appealing. We pushed on ahead – the road was corrugated and rough in parts but not too bad. I hoped it wasn’t an omen that we saw four abandoned cars in various states of trashed and burnt along the way. 😬

We pulled in around 2:30. The site is directly on the roadside, but next to a beautiful waterhole and quite stunning. We discussed for a bit whether we try push on to the next site, 6km away – Sawpit Gorge, which sounds amazing but less likely to have running water this time of year, and apparently a trickier road. In the end we decided to stay at Palm Springs and set up camp. One of my concerns about coming out here was that the campsite would be crowded already, so I was surprised that no one was there! We set up right next to the waterhole – which I guess means we will get a bit of foot traffic if it does get more campers on a Friday night – but we have some pretty great views!

We did a bit of bird watching. There was a group of crimson finches next to the campsite, various honeyeaters, a pheasant coucoul and we watched a black kite take fish out of the waterhole! We had a swim and snorkel in the pool – a lot of little fish in there, though a bit hard to see as the sun was quite low by then. The water is a nice temperature though. It is also a much nicer temperature outside – a little cool even as the evening settles, which is a relief!

We watched the sun set and the full moon rise with g&ts, cooked dinner on the fire and had a pretty relaxed evening. There has been a little bit of traffic going past – I’m guessing there is a community out this way somewhere? Otherwise we have the place to ourselves.