FRIDAY 8 JUNE   TENNANT CREEK TO DUNMARRA ROADHOUSE   360kms

Before doing anything else this morning, I sent an email to A and T, to send mail to Kununurra. Also sent emails off to son and daughter in law.

Today’s was a very routine pack up and move, straight north up the Stuart Highway – “The Track” in local parlance.

There were heaps of caravans heading north. The grey nomads well and truly on the move. Not many of them had stayed in the same caravan park as us though. It really had not been very busy at all. We seemed to spend all morning passing vans that were slower than our little rig.

I was a bit distracted by the passing scenery, but not enough to keep from feeling anxious about son.

We reached Dunmarra , which was just the Roadhouse, camping ground and associated buildings, about 3pm.  Refuelled – $1.58cpl.

Took a powered site in the rather pleasant little campground – $17.50 for the night. There was ample shade, and the amenities were adequate.

Only needed the basic, quick overnight unpack, being able to keep van hitched up.

Then sat around in the shade which made for very pleasant relaxing, watching the groups of apostle  birds that gathered around us. The antics of these very sociable birds were always entertaining – we had encountered them before.

Went for a stroll around the establishment, which did not take long, but gave the illusion of a little exercise.

A couple of really creepy looking characters came into an area of the roadhouse surrounds, that we could see from where we were sitting in camp. They were in an old sedan, with no plates or registration sticker. We noticed that they parked the vehicle off to one side, out of sight of the highway, before going into the roadhouse. They came out after a while, and drove away. I was pleased they were not staying.

We spent some time discussing tomorrow’s move. Essentially, everywhere west of the Stuart Highway, through as far as Broome, would be new ground for M, whereas we had visited those parts three times to date. It was not a part of the country we tired of, and there were still plenty of places we still had not gotten to.

We would take the unsealed Buchanan Highway to the NW. The issue was whether to continue through on that, to the main Victoria Highway, a route that John and I had taken before. It passed through the large Victoria River Downs station and then the Jasper Gorge. I wanted to take the Buntine Highway north from Top Springs, in order to visit the eastern section of Gregory National Park, which would be new for me and which had some walks to do.  For once, I won!