16th September, 2014

This morning started easily enough with a quick breakfast before we did the short walk into the Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater. It is amazing to think that all those years ago this huge object slammed into the earth and created this bowl. We walked up to the lookout and then down into the centre of the crater. Right in the middle of the bowl there is a circle of trees growing, almost like they were planted there.

Our friends Dave and Linda headed off for Alice Springs before us and we thought we would catch up with them at Billiluna, which is actually where the Canning Stock Route begins or finishes, depending on your route. 

We drove into this Aboriginal Community and got lost amongst the houses straight away. A young fella in a smashed up old Commodore gave me directions to the servo, which I followed, leading me to Dave and Linda. I put 50 litres of Opal in at 2.60 per litre (ouch) and we set off. Dave and Linda had a bit of a head start but after 30 or so k we found them stopped on the side of the road, same problem as yesterday. We tried the same procedure and it worked for another 20 k or so before they decided to turn around and head back to Halls Creek which was considerably less than the alternative, Alice Springs. 

We didn't want to leave them out there by themselves so we turned around and followed them back to Halls Creek. The tow truck from Billiluna (140 k) was going to cost $5500. It took us about 5 hours to drive the 240 k back to Halls Creek where they have put us up at the van park, brought us some grog and tried to pay for our petrol. They have been very generous considering the situation they find themselves in, they are beautiful people and we wish them the best for the rest of their trip home. Tomorrow we will have another crack at the Tanami.