Day 7 - Doing the Tanami track to Broome.
The next morning I had a quick breakfast; Weetbix (what else). Then it was back into the car and grinding along the dirt track. The corrugations were getting worse and worse. Like everybody I was concentrating on the road ahead to ensure that I slowed down when the road became worse or there was a corner to be navigated or the gravel layer was thicker, ie the possibility for a dry skid increased. I was basically looking for signs of increased danger so that I might slow down from my already slow 80 km per hour. I was also driving in the middle of the road as there was no oncoming traffic.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see in the rear view mirror, the cloud of bull dust I was creating. Then suddenly from out the bull dust I saw a blue Ford Falcon emerge which shot past me on the driver’s side at speeds exceeding 120 km per hour. I got such a fright that I almost pulled off the road. I just managed to see that there were 5 black fellas sitting in a car and they seemed to be in a hell of a hurry. They were doing this passing maneuver on the gradient or sloping side of the road. I shook my head in disbelief. They could have easily rolled their car.
Some distance further I saw an obstruction in the road ahead. As I got nearer it became clear that an emergency vehicle with flashing lights was parked across the road. There were other vehicles behind. I slowed to a crawl to pass the vehicles and had a quick yak to the person directing traffic. He informed me that a group of 8 cyclists had set off from the northern side of the track on large road bikes. On the loose gravel one of them had lost control of his bike and crashed. He had broken his back and now the group was waiting for an air ambulance to take him away. Luckily one of them had a satellite phone and was able to call the emergency services. As I drove off I saw the bikes and not one had off road tires (knoblies). They all had hard top tires. And they were going to drive 1000 km of bad gravel roads on that??? They must be crazy.
I had to turn off the track at Rabbit Flat Roadhouse to refuel as this was the last refueling point along this 1000 km long Tanami track when heading north. When I filled up I was astounded at the price of the fuel which was $2.26 per liter. This was 50 % more than in the cities. Talk about stealing! When my eyes scanned up the street I was even more astounded to see a bottle shop (grog shop) with the blue Ford Falcon parked in front and the black fellas filling up the boot of the car with many slabs of beer. That is why they were in such a hurry, they must have been very thirsty.
I returned back to the track and continued north west towards the Wolf Creek Crater which was still a few hundred kilometers away.The crater is some 15 km off the Tanami track and is well sign posted; you cannot miss it. It is also close to the north west end of the track. At some stage of the day I crossed the border from the Northern Territories to the state of West Australia. Immediatelythe condition of the road went from terrible to very good. It was clear that West Australia (WA) was spending more on road maintenance than their neighbor state.
Wolf Creek Crater
About 300,000 years ago a meteorite, weighing thousands of tons, crashed to earth here. The crater formed by that impact measures 850 meters across and is the second largest meteorite crater from which fragments have been recovered. Only the Arizona crater is larger.
The area is a national park and has a camping area with a log-drop toilet. I set up for the night, made a fire and cooked some meat. I turned in very early as I was tired from climbing around the crater wall and driving all day. I had enjoyed a spectacular sunset with stunning color changes, so all was good. Just for the record, there were four other groups there as well.
Day 8 – Onto the bitumen and down to Broome
The title says it all. The small print was as follows. The Tanami track joined the bitumen when it reached the Savannah highway some 125 lm further on. The Savannah is also known as the Broome to Kununurra road. The other detail is that there is another 675 km to go to reach Broome, once you reach the Savannah highway. The road was quite busy with a good number of large trucks transporting mining equipment.
Just shy of Broome, just for old time sake, a caravan threw up a stone a cracked the windscreen of the Patrol. Another 30 minutes I had reached Broome and pulled in at the home of my mate Jacko. I was to remain here for a week and have some fun with the boys.