Halls Creek lived up to its reputation - scruffy and uninviting - so it's on to the Mary River or failing that we will press onto Fitzroy Crossing but that will make it a very long hot day.

Our latish arrival at Mary Pool (river) gave us a bit of a surprise because as drove into the access road to the camp site, to our dismay, we discover the camp site is on the other side of the river and the river is in flood with about 600mm of water flowing over the crossing. There were another couple of vehicles parked on this narrow road with people scratching their heads and deciding what to do. We decided to turn the van around ready for a quick getaway and then camp for the night right there.

After walking down to the river we learnt that some people had been trapped over there for about 5 days and one fellow in a light truck had foolishly come across the ford and stalled in the middle. He was only able to move the truck by using the starter motor and jerking over part of the way. That enabled someone in a 4WD to get a rope on and haul him the rest of the way. His truck was still running but a lot of damage had been done.

The top picture shows the river in flood and the bottom picture shows me doing my washing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fitzroy Crossing - the next place of interest also has a crossing with a reputation for sometimes being too difficult to cross so we have been monitoring the weather as best we can in case there is any heavy rain around. This was going to be one of the potential hazards in our way.
When we arrived, we were surprised to discover that the notorious crossing was closed and a new road and bridge had recently opened so weren't we lucky? The new bridge is very high above the river but in spite of that sometime recently had been

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