Halls Creek, Kimberley Hotel 18 14 S, 127 40 E
Quite a nice place this, motel rooms around central bar & restaurant, swimming pool - and good airconditioning in the room - in this heat, essential.... The weather changed along the 350 km stretch from Kununurra - less and less cloud, less and less humid -no signs of the wet here yet..... A lot of cross-wind and the occasional dust devil buffeting the van though, so I had to drive slower than usual to avoid being blown into the path of oncoming road trains - especially not the one with an additional big sign on its front - EXPLOSIVES!
By chance I was reading last night about the guy who invented road trains - an Ozzie with a very Scandinavian name - Kurt Johannsen - who figured out the mechanics of how to link up 3-4 trailers to a truck so that they all followed the same track. This revolutionised movement of stock to market - before this they had to be herded by drovers over long distances, arriving at final destination to be slaughtered in poor shape. Now they're driven by road train to Broome and Wyndham, from where upwards of 200,000 live cattle are exported to Asia and the Middle East every year......... So now you know!
Interesting changing geology and landscape too today - first ear the coast, but decided not go see the croc farm at Wyndham, then along the faultline I flew over today, then a far-off view of the Bungles (I should have mentioned they're in the Purnululu National Park - Purnululu meaning "sandstone" in the local Kija tribal language of course (of course.......)). But couldn't see much - they were far away - 53 km along the only access gravel road, 3-4 hours by 4WD. And that was closed today because of the raging bushfires I saw from the plane yesterday.
I was thinking about the immense areas I've seen that have clearly been ravaged by fires this dry season - they've mainly burnt up the grass, not many of the trees, and although most have black trunks from the burn, they're still alive and sprouting new leaves - I guess as soon as the rains start the new grass will grow (like the Californian chapparal, some of the plant seeds actually need fire to crack their pods open!) and by next year all will be healed..... Ain't nature wonderful? Interesting too though that there's rarely been a recent fire on both sides of the road at once - the roads, narrow as they often are, must work as firebreaks.....
Had my first meal in a typical outback pub tomight, food ok, but not exceptional - I should have chosen the Thai menu! Sat at a table with a truckie, interesting chat - he drives on average 1100 km a day, unlike some trucks he's only allowed to drive in daylight - I forgot to ask why.... After a while I asked him about aborigines/indigenous Australians (confused as to which is correct - he said either) - his view is that the government is now doing what it can (finally!), but few take up the opportunities they're offered...... I guess it's very complex, and why are our western cultural values any good anyway? Reading more and more about indigenous beliefs, the dreamtime, the songlines - fascinating - the park ranger I talked to the other day said the aborigines believe that everything, everything goes in a circle, life, death, all of nature (including carbon dioxide - that's their view on "global warming" too....). Meanwhile in the tragic present, 65 % of Halls Creek population of 1600 is indigenous and 90 % of pregnant indigenous women are registered as alocoholics by the local hospital, 30 % of babies born having problems because of alcohol poisoning in the womb....
Ah well, on to Fitzroy Crossing and another geological World Heritage site today - absolutely the longest no-service single haul of the trip at 290 km, just under the camper's limit.....
Quite a nice place this, motel rooms around central bar & restaurant, swimming pool - and good airconditioning in the room - in this heat, essential.... The weather changed along the 350 km stretch from Kununurra - less and less cloud, less and less humid -no signs of the wet here yet..... A lot of cross-wind and the occasional dust devil buffeting the van though, so I had to drive slower than usual to avoid being blown into the path of oncoming road trains - especially not the one with an additional big sign on its front - EXPLOSIVES!
By chance I was reading last night about the guy who invented road trains - an Ozzie with a very Scandinavian name - Kurt Johannsen - who figured out the mechanics of how to link up 3-4 trailers to a truck so that they all followed the same track. This revolutionised movement of stock to market - before this they had to be herded by drovers over long distances, arriving at final destination to be slaughtered in poor shape. Now they're driven by road train to Broome and Wyndham, from where upwards of 200,000 live cattle are exported to Asia and the Middle East every year......... So now you know!
Interesting changing geology and landscape too today - first ear the coast, but decided not go see the croc farm at Wyndham, then along the faultline I flew over today, then a far-off view of the Bungles (I should have mentioned they're in the Purnululu National Park - Purnululu meaning "sandstone" in the local Kija tribal language of course (of course.......)). But couldn't see much - they were far away - 53 km along the only access gravel road, 3-4 hours by 4WD. And that was closed today because of the raging bushfires I saw from the plane yesterday.
I was thinking about the immense areas I've seen that have clearly been ravaged by fires this dry season - they've mainly burnt up the grass, not many of the trees, and although most have black trunks from the burn, they're still alive and sprouting new leaves - I guess as soon as the rains start the new grass will grow (like the Californian chapparal, some of the plant seeds actually need fire to crack their pods open!) and by next year all will be healed..... Ain't nature wonderful? Interesting too though that there's rarely been a recent fire on both sides of the road at once - the roads, narrow as they often are, must work as firebreaks.....
Had my first meal in a typical outback pub tomight, food ok, but not exceptional - I should have chosen the Thai menu! Sat at a table with a truckie, interesting chat - he drives on average 1100 km a day, unlike some trucks he's only allowed to drive in daylight - I forgot to ask why.... After a while I asked him about aborigines/indigenous Australians (confused as to which is correct - he said either) - his view is that the government is now doing what it can (finally!), but few take up the opportunities they're offered...... I guess it's very complex, and why are our western cultural values any good anyway? Reading more and more about indigenous beliefs, the dreamtime, the songlines - fascinating - the park ranger I talked to the other day said the aborigines believe that everything, everything goes in a circle, life, death, all of nature (including carbon dioxide - that's their view on "global warming" too....). Meanwhile in the tragic present, 65 % of Halls Creek population of 1600 is indigenous and 90 % of pregnant indigenous women are registered as alocoholics by the local hospital, 30 % of babies born having problems because of alcohol poisoning in the womb....
Ah well, on to Fitzroy Crossing and another geological World Heritage site today - absolutely the longest no-service single haul of the trip at 290 km, just under the camper's limit.....
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