96kms – Not Far Really

Ian, our lovely host in Derby, had recommend the Mimbi Caves tour. So we rearranged a few things to make that happen. It is only held twice a day, 8am and 2pm. And there is a camp site right across the road owned and operated by the same people.

We were met at the entrance by Ronnie, from the aboriginal community. Over the next three hours he entertained, informed, and fed us. It was great. He was funny and took the time to explain the history (which is just bloody depressing) and the mythology of the area (far more enjoyable than the bible IMHO).

Mimbi Caves: https://www.mimbicaves.com.au/

All part of the 350 million year old Devonian Reef system. The Gooniyandi guide takes you back to a time when local Aboriginal people inhabited this unique network of caves that have been carved out of this ancient fossilised reef system over millions of years.

There were only four of us on the tour so we were able to go at our own pace, ask lots of questions, and generally do whatever we pleased – my preferred way of operating as you all know.

At the end of the tour, before we walk back to our vehicles, there is billy tea, dampers (made by Ronnie’s 5^th wife – he thinks she is number 5), and a sing song, including an original by Ronnie himself. Most enjoyable.

As I mentioned the camp site is only across the road, and down a long meandering driveway. It is secluded and only four sets of travellers including us. It’s not a camp site as you would imagine it. But it has hot showers (exaggeration, it has warm showers), BBQ facilities, and toilets.

Our little fridge can happily run off the secondary battery in the truck so our beer and wine was still cold. Oh and the food, the food was chilled too.

We set up the turtle, cooked dinner under the stars.

One of the best things about this little site is the lack of light pollution, so the clear sky was filled with stars, stunning.

After watching a movie on the laptop we climed into the turtle and went to sleep.

Then the wind came, and never fucking stopped. The fly on the tent was whipping around like it was possessed and at around 1am even Jason had given up on sleep and we tried everything to make our little wind tunnel less noisy.

Climbing down the ladder, disconnecting the awning and trying to tie everything up.

Nothing helped. And there was nowhere else to go.

At around 200am I had a brainwave, out of desperation Jason ferreted out our Bose headsets, the noise cancelling ones you use on the plane to block out screaming children and complaining passengers.

In this instance the Bose was used to block out the wind. By 230am we were asleep. Thank you Bose, worth every dollar spent.

Note: the little turtle set up is great, but not in the wind, not at all, nope, nope, nope.

Breakfast in the cold wind, we jumped without hesitation into the warm comfort of dirty girl Keem. Time to hit the road. This time we are off to the Bungle Bungles. Yes, that is a place.

Bungle Bungles 311kms with a Brief Stop

Our next place of rest is the Bungle Bungles Caravan Park. We have to drive through Halls Creek to get there, which is a good thing as we will need dinner and lunch supplies.

It sounds like we stock up a lot, but actually our fridge is only 40 litres capacity, and by the time you put the beer and wine in there, there is very little room left. And my husband, bless him, has a habit of just dumping everything in without forethought. Salads are squished to unrecognisable so we just buy as we go.

We reach Halls Creek and, to our delight, find a fantastic butchery and a bakery!!!! Happy days.

The reason Halls Creek has the finer things, rather than supermarket only meat and bread, is because it supplies the local gold mine, which is still in operation.

We give Keem a good feed too, back on the road. Another 109kms until Bungle Bungle Caravan Park.

The road, you will be shocked to hear, is long and flat! An easy drive, but not overly distinguishable.

We arrive at Bungle Bungle Caravan Park just before midday. Very productive and relieved to have a rest from driving. The camp ground looks like a set from MASH, all army green and brown tents, with intermittent 100k caravans.

TANGENT: The grey nomads really know how to travel in style. A lot of the caravans have extension walls, pull out cookers, and one lady told me about the little wall mounted washing machine in her bathroom.