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| Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater |
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| Lake Stretch |
Our first day on the Tanami Track today, and it was a pleasant surprise to find that it isn’t as bad as we thought it might be (so far). We came back through Halls Creek, filled up with water, fuel, and more treats from the bakery (Conor had the biggest cream bun you’ve ever seen), and headed towards the Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater. It’s the second biggest crater in the world, the biggest being in Arizona, and is 300,000 years old. Apparently when the meteor slammed into the earth it created a hole over 100m deep, but over time and with the walls of the crater being eroded, it has filled in to only about 20m deep. It’s still quite wide in diameter, but I guess it made it easier to climb down into the crater, not being so deep any more. Inside the small bit of rain that falls each year apparently pools in the centre, but there’s very high evaporation so the ground in the centre is very salty. We had a look and had lunch in the small square of shadecloth provided, then decided that as the road wasn’t too bad we would keep going today to Bililuna. We got there 5 mins before everything shut at 4pm to find the general store jam packed, but got a permit for camping with no problem.
The lady at the office, a South African who’s just moved here from Melbourne 3 weeks ago (talk about culture shock) said that they’ve got the store closed at the moment in an attempt to get parents to send their kids to school – they won’t open it unless every kid is in school. I think it’s largely to do with the census which happens here on Monday, in that they want to make sure that they get enough numbers at school so that it doesn’t get taken away. In most towns around here there’s shop signs saying that kids won’t be served in school hours, but I think they’re fighting a losing battle. I think today was Centrelink payment day today, because there were a lot of families (and oldies, just like Woollies in Cooleman Court on a Thursday morning) in Halls Creek doing their shopping in the morning (kids in tow). Nick heard the Visitor’s Centre in Halls Creek saying that they have census forms arriving for travellers tomorrow, so we’ll have to enquire in Alice Springs about what we’re supposed to do.
We’ve ended up at a lovely camping spot 15k out of town, on the shores of Lake Stretch, or Nyarna in the local Walmajarri language. It’s apparently a popular swimming spot and I got in to knee depth to give myself a douse – getting pretty smelly in this heat over the last couple of days with no prospect of a shower any time soon. It was a beautiful temperature but really muddy slimy bottom, which wasn’t particularly inviting! There’s quite a few nice birds around too, and hardly anyone else so we feel like we’ve got a private spot right on the lake, with available wood for a fire too.
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