Fitzroy Crossing - Halls Creek - Warmun

We travelled about 450kms today from Fitzroy Crossing to Halls Creek then stopping at the Warnum Roadhouse (which used to be known as Turkey Creek). The scenery along the road was interesting but there were hardly any places to pull over near the best views.

One place it was possible to stop was at the Ngumpan Cliff Rest Area. The photo taken there does not show the best of the Cliff as seen from the highway, but it was still worth stopping. There was plenty of spinifex grass and some wildflowers. Most of the land was much greener than that to the west of Derby so we hope to see more wildflowers in this area.

We refuelled at Halls Creek but there was no reason to linger. The Coles Express was doing a roaring trade. There is an IGA in town but many of the local Aboriginals do their grocery shopping at the service station. At least Coles does honour its specials so we are still only paying $2 for 2 litres of milk and getting 4c off per litre of fuel. Diesel was $1.42 which is much cheaper than it was when we were in the Kimberleys in 2000. 

There is a small caravan park attached to the Warnum Roadhouse with powered sites. As we can smell gas in our van we are reluctant to run our gas appliances until we can have this checked out. The gas bottles are turned off so it is not a serious problem as long as we don't turn anything on. Without gas we need power to run the fridge overnight.

Warnum is an Aboriginal settlement and the roadhouse and art gallery are run by the local community, which in reality means backpackers work in the store and restaurant. The tourist attraction here is access to helicopter flights over the Bungle Bungles which are World Heritage Listed. Anita has flown over these in a RAAF aircraft and has great memories of the scenery. I don't do helicopters or small planes so I will not get to see this spectacular scenery until we return without dogs or cats and can drive in. The road is serious 4WD but from what I have read will be well worth the effort. The picture is from the official Australian tourism website just so you can see what you are missing!