Tanami Part 2

Sunrise near the NT border

Stretch Lake

Blue tongue we just missed on the road

Jellybean the camel at Balgo

Artwork in the Balgo church

We didn’t get very far today. Got a bit lost on the way back into Bililuna, then discovered that their diesel pump wasn’t working, it seemed that only the electricity around the area of the pump wasn’t working, and their local football team was even sitting there in their minibus waiting to go and play somewhere, poor guys. We rang the Balgo store though, and they had some so we headed down there. We had hoped to go there anyway because it has an art gallery, and after nearly buying a painting in Broome we were kind of keen to see some of the smaller galleries down this road, so were looking for an excuse. We ended up staying in Balgo about 3 hours longer than we intended to – got our fuel fine, but then as soon as we got to the gallery the guy apologised and said he had to shut for about half an hour take ‘the girls’ to the mail plane (when it comes everyone drops everything apparently), so we had lunch next to the small church, which a nice woman came and opened up for us to have a look. She and her husband were here for 5 months from Victoria, volunteering for the Broome parish to come and look after the local minister. She said that their main service is on a Saturday night and it’s pretty full, mainly of indigenous parishioners.

Then when we got to the gallery we got a tour and the full story about where and how the artists paint, and then took some time to look at the piles of paintings, before managing to decide on one, which we’re very excited about (our first piece of proper ‘art’ ever). The administrator guy took forever to help us as well, basically because he kept being interrupted by locals coming in and wanting to send or receive faxes, or just milling about – a lesson in us getting used to Kimberley time.

At lunchtime we also got told that a camel was interested in our trailer, to turn around and see a huge camel (maybe they’re all huge) walking around it. I went to shut all the doors thinking maybe it smelled food, but it was still very interested, and when I was walking back to the table the kids pointed out that she (we later found out it was a she) was trying to eat the straps tying our trailer cover down! We shooed her away and that was when the woman who volunteers at the church came out and told us that Jellybean, as she’s called, is the local wild camel, and is pretty good natured, and apparently the local kids all like riding her. Because she’s so tall they run alongside her, and when she stops they plonk down an old oil drum kept specially for the purpose, and climb up onto her. She then tolerates them for a while and walks around, and when she’s tired of it she just rubs them off on a tree. Wish we’d seen that, the kids would have thought it hilarious. Anyway it was getting late when we left Balgo so we just made it 10k into the NT and found a clearing to camp by the roadside, which was lovely. We worked out we’ve been 2 ½ months in WA, and have had a great time, and seen amazing things. We’re also excited now to be in the NT though, looking forward to more amazing places – haven’t even been to Uluru yet!