The drive from Derby to Fitzroy Crossing was pleasantly uneventful. The car drove fine although we had to re-learn what all the switches were for. Being a Volkswagen,  everything was back to front and we kept turning on the windscreen wipers instead of the indicators. But if that was all we had to worry about, we were more than happy.

We decided against attempting the Gibb River Road again and instead took the bitumen (Broome to Cairns being The Savannah Way). Although  the Lonely Planet describes Fitzroy Crossing as ‘a true outback town…with a large Aboriginal population hailing from Gooniyandi, Bunuba, Walmatjarri and Wangkajunga communities’, we were happy to stop for fuel and keep going.

We camped for the night at a terrific free camp called Ngumpan Cliff Rest Area. We were too late to get a spot on the cliff with a great view, but we were very happy with our camp. Once again, it was very busy but there were plenty of camping spots. We watched a beautiful sunset to the west and a rising supermoon to the east. It was stunning.

We woke to a freezing cold wind that seems to be gripping most of Western Australia, so we didn’t venture outside until about 8am. After a breakfast of bacon and eggs, we took off towards Halls Creek. It didn’t take long for the day to warm up.

The scenery along this stretch of road is mostly flat with lots of termite mounds of various shapes and sizes. Every so often cliffs and gorges appear out of the blue then it goes flat again. Other than the occasional wallaby, cow and wild cat, we didn’t see much wildlife. Even the many eagles and hawks we saw everywhere around Derby, were becoming less obvious.

Halls Creek is another outback town. It sits on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert and is home to the Aboriginal people from the communities of Kija, Jaru and Gooniyandi. Apparently gold was discovered there around 1885 so it was once a bustling town.  Again, it wasn’t a town we felt like exploring for long. So, after fuelling up and buying groceries from the supermarket, we took off to find a camp for the night. (I must say, I was very surprised at how well stocked the IGA was in Halls Creek, especially with nice, fresh looking fruit and veg).

A couple of hours later, we pulled into Leycester Rest Area, another great free campsite.

As I mentioned, we have done some of the Kimberley before so have by-passed some great spots such as Tunnel Creek and Windjana Gorge. If we had not had car trouble on the rough roads, we would have taken time to see these places again. However, at the moment we are playing it safe. We did, however, plan to do a tour of the Mimbi Caves but it was closed on the day we came through.  We also wanted to  have another look at the Bungle Bungles as we thought they were spectacular last time. But another camper told us that the road in was in a very bad state at the moment. So that is not looking good either.