We made an early start for Wolfe Creek. After about 50km on Highway 1 we turned onto the Tanami Track, a good quality gravel highway. This gave us hope that the Gibb River Road might be feasible. We estimated that, if the Gibb River road proved impassable, we would have enough time to retrace our tracks on the bitumen, and get back to Kunnanurra in time for our flight. There were a small number of road trains on the Tanami. These consisted of a large truck followed by two articulated containers – over 50m long all together. They create a lot of dust, and thankfully, the ones we saw were travelling in the opposite direction. We were fascinated to see masses of small termite mounds, much smaller than the large red and grey ones we had seen in the Bungles. After around 100km we turned onto a rough track for the last 25km to the crater.
The Wolfe Creek crater was amazing – the rim was about 35m above the surrounding plain. It was an especially exciting visit for John, who had wanted to see the crater for more than forty years, and an interesting visit for Cheryl. We were the only ones to walk around the whole rim of the crater, though some went half of the way and back through the centre. At the halfway point we descended 20m on a track into the centre of the crater, which despite hundreds of years of erosion was still a number of metres higher than the plain outside. The vegetation in the crater grew in circles. There were a few dry sandy pools, small trees, hakeas, and grevilleas. Returning to the rim we completed the circuit.
Back in the car park we again met the Kolfens and exchanged advice on what to see. Cheryl drove back – her first 100km on a gravel major road. We had time to visit Old Hall's Creek, the site of the 1885 gold rush. It was a depressing, but interesting site.
We returned to the Kimberley Hotel, this time for a huge steak meal, again beside the pool. Noise from the local aboriginal community outside the campsite continued till late into the night. It seemed a sad dysfunctional town.
