Its gripped....sorted....let's off road!

Finally got to play on some real dirt. 50 km track in to see the bungle bungles - great name, weird rocks - is strictly high clearance 4x4s only, no caravans. Left Tigger in a roadside stop where we spent the night, took all of the crap out of the back of the truck and replaced it with shovel, planks, tools, spare jack and Julia and Trevor in the back seat. Another English couple we met on the road a couple of nights previously heading the same way as us in a Toyota motorhome they call Platybus that was definitely not suitable for going into the national park, so offered them a trip in with us rather than having to pay the local tour operator mafia. Plus it gave us an extra couple of hands to get out and push if we did get stuck :-)

dropped the tyre pressures and off we went. Rocks, some steep twisting bits that you had to crawl over before you could see which way the track went, a couple of sandy bits and half a dozen water crossings that were upto a couple of feet deep. Gave the truck a bit of a wash for all of 10 seconds, then just gave the next load of dust something wet to cling to.

Navara coped with it all admirably, despite my hamfistedness - didn't miss a beat, just chugged along quite happily with no dramas. Great fun. Then only took about 90 minutes to pump the tyres up again when we got back to the tarmac.

Bungles themselves were definitely worth the trip - I'm sure Maria will post pictures in due course.

Now in kununarra for a last night in western Australia, and will head into the northern territories tomorrow. We have had some good times in wa, especially with knees and Clive visiting and seeing Jenny and harry again, and seen some great sights, but up here in the northwest it has been the most expensive and traveller-unfriendly area we have been to. No really nice stops where you would want to spend more than one night, every shire council trying to get as much money from you as possible for providing as little resources as they can, and more no camping signs than you could shake a stick at. I know we changed our plans under unfortunate circumstances, but i am glad we didn't start our tour up here as it would have put me off for the rest of the country.