Fitzroy Crossing

Thurs 30 April…. Hall’s Creek, that was a tip of a place that we won’t be going back to. We’ve stayed at a few places like that where the owners are taking the money and not putting any back in. The taps were loose, tiles were cracked and no hot water and the whole site untidy and unloved. We have a couple of free camps earmarked for the return journey. So, onwards and upwards. The road is taking us away from the Kimberley for the time being. We are moving south west towards the Great Sandy Dessert though we will only be on the fringes. The countryside changes as we go along from scrub to nearly dessert, flat plains and then every so often, great lumps of rock in heaps, also at intervals long escarpments.
As we approach Fitzroy crossing, where we are staying the night, we call into the town which heaving with aborigines. It must be dole day as they are all in the supermarket stocking up with food. This is a dry town with no Bottle-o. It is possible to by drink at the local hotel but if anyone misbehaves it is an instant ban.
We are on a campsite which is part of a holiday complex and bears no resemblance to last nights tip. Everything is first rate and we are only paying $3 per night more.
Today’s journey was 290K, 3 and a half hours driving. A bit like driving from Newbold to Carlisle, except there wasn’t a house, village or town to be seen on the way until we reached here. There are Aborigine villages along the way but they are off the road, often a closed community, so you are not allowed to go there anyway without a permit. We have another 400 to go to Broome and we were going to do it with 1 more stop, but we have heard that Broome is filling up with grey nomads up from Perth so tomorrow we are going for it in one hit, and hopefully will get there in good time to get a good site.