Halls Creek

What a lovely alarm clock we had this morning! The barking owls were saying loud good morning at 4.30. To our surprise they again landed in the tree above us and were sleeping there, all fluffed up and comfortable.
We got out of the camp just before 8.30am - both feeling a little bit sad and sentimental that we had to leave this beautiful place and our owl friends - and proceeded to tackle the dreaded road back. It took just under two hours and at times Kat was just hanging onto the handle and I was using the steering wheel as a support to keep myself straight. We were lucky with the last water crossing as some guy decided to walk into the water and was standing there pointing out the rock bed hidden under the water. I think I would drive straight into it if it would not be for him. Phew, that was lucky.
Once we were out of the park, the phones started beeping - we were back in civilisation. I must admit, neither Kat nor I missed the phone signal.
Next stop - Halls Creek - a town that experienced the gold fever in late 1800s. We decided to check out the original Halls Creek town from which not much is left. It was located about 13 kilometres from the new Halls Creek. All what is left are a few ruins and a cemetery. It had an interesting story about the reverend John Flynn and his patient Jimmy Darcy and the establishment of the Royal Flying Doctors service idea. In 1928 the Australian inland mission arial medical service was established in Queensland, this service was renamed in 1942 to Royal Flying Doctors.
After this, we proceeded with a short stop on someone’s farm to see the ‘China Wall’ that is a natural phenomenon and supposedly extends over 6km. We could only see little bit so I decided to fly my drone and unfortunately cannot confirm the 6km info as even with the drone we could not see the wall distance.
We briefly stopped in Halls Creek to refuel. That was rather interesting stop as the fuel station was partially a Coles shop where locals came to do the shopping. Somehow it felt that the amount of people in there completely exceeded any capacity the shop had. We were happy to get out of there and carry on to the last destination - Larrawa Station. It took another 150km of comfortable driving. The station is great, it is a working cattle station. Most of the staff are gone for a few weeks now mustering stock. We had a brief chat with Tammy who is a cook here (for the staff only) and it was quite interesting to hear the logistics of providing food to 10 mustering staff that are many kilometres away. They have their own meat - beef, pork and lamb and they also try to grow some vegetable that is a little challenging so they have to order vegetable and fruit from Halls Creek. She also said that they have quite a number of females who go to muster, they are all inexperienced but the station owners train them and employ them. What a great experience this must be, hard not doubt. We also had a great chat with campers next door - Scott and Kerry. Older couple from NSW who were very nice. Their son manages the radiology in Albany - world is small. They will stop by next time they are down south and they also invited us to their farm. Kerry used to be a nurse and Scott was a GP, so we had a few things in common.
We now sit in front of the camper and just witnessed and amazing sunset. The sky above us is open with unobstructed views and the stars are already putting on a show. What a great country!Читать далее