The road tracklog
from Nillibubbica to De Grey River
from 16/11 to 22/11/2009 

The 16/11 was a small driving morning to head to Broome with for main target a cybercafé to publish an update of my website and to read my mailbox. Oh happiness, there were Michelin tyres in Perth of the size of those of my truck. I thanked Olivier Lecourt's friend, Markus who gave me a contact with Michelin in Perth. His website is rich of information and of pictures of his journeys in particular in Australia. But there was no answer from ACF about the carnet de passage en douane of my vehicle. The town of Broome does not have well anything of exciting, it is a balneal city like so many others. I had bought postcards, but the post office was not open to buy stamps because a power failure did not make it possible to open the doors! One is always betrayed by technology. I moved at the beginning of afternoon towards Crab Creek where Patricia had indicated to me a bivouac at the seashore.

Crab Creek 
Broome 
16/11/2009 

Crab Creek, sunset 
Broome 
16/11/2009 

On 17/11, I had decided to have rest at Middle Lagoon. On the move I was diverted of five kilometres to see the well-known Sacred Heart Church in Beagle Bay whose altar is covered with mother of pearl. The whole was surprising neither really beautiful nor really ugly, fusion between Aboriginal art and baroque German art. It was the work of a German congregation, imprisoned in 1915 during the First World War, with the help of local aboriginals converted to Christianity.

Sacred Heart Church 
Beagle Bay 
17/11/2009 

Sacred Heart Church, Altar 
Beagle Bay 
17/11/2009 

Middle Lagoon is at the end of a gravel road at approximately 170 kilometres away from Broome, which in general has a good surface quality knowing that some sections are corrugated. But the last kilometre was a horror, a martyrdom, not of loophole, it was necessary to undergo; the spectacle then was worthy. I remained two nights there.

Lookout 
Middle Lagoon 
17/11/2009 

Lookout 
Middle Lagoon 
17/11/2009 

On November 19, I left the peace-haven of Middle Lagoon, I was alone on the spot. I again traversed the 170 km of the gravel road up to the junction with the Broome Road to return to Broome in order to consult my mailbox and to answer the many emails, alas nothing from the ACF concerning the carnet de passage en douane. I could also buy stamps, the Post office had electricity to open  doors and to use automatic tellers, main reason of its closing on Monday.

En route vers Broome 
gravel road 
19/11/2009 

After a rapid lunch I left towards the south by the Great Northern Hwy. Landscape changed, the road was sealed, the neighbourhoods were greener than in the north. With a covered sky and a sea-wind located at 10 km away in the west, temperature was more bearable. But the straightness of the road and the quasi absence of traffic made the move extremely bored. I bivouacked on a rest area out of the Hwy.

En route vers le sud
Great Northern Hwy 
197/11/2009 

The following day was still a day on the bitumen, what a monotony! Despite everything the landscape changed, again red and barren earth. I stopped to lunch on the spot of Sandfire Roadhouse where road trains had a pause, I saw again one of them a few times after in bad posture.

Bush landscape 
Great Northern Hwy 
20/11/2009 

Sandfire Roadhouse
Great Northern Hwy 
20/11/2009 

It was a road train with two trailers whose second carried a car and a machine of building. It had overtaken me before Sandfire. By overtaking another road train and by folding back too abruptly the second trailer oscillated and lost the machine of building ; then by brutally slowing down the car on the trailer was projected forwards between the two trailers. Conclusion the machine of building and the car were badly roped down. Road trains roll at the authorized speed, here 130 km/h. The maximum weight with four trailers can up to 250 tons!

Accident 
Great Northern Hwy 
20/11/2009 

Sandfire Roadhouse
Great Northern Hwy 
20/11/2009 

The day after I had a wallaby's visit who hesitated to go upstairs in the body.

Do I go up? 
Eighty Mile Beach 
21/11/2009 

Well no.
Eighty Mile Beach 
21/11/2009 

On 22/11, I left Eighty Mile Beach after having lunch to reach the Rest Area of Grey River. Since two days the Great Northern Hwy skirted the Great Sandy Desert. Pictures show that it does not resemble the deserts of the northern hemisphere such as the Sahara, Rub Al Khali or Thar.

Red sand dunes 
En route 
22/11/2009 

Great Sandy Desert
En route 
22/11/2009 

Heat was intense by arriving at the spot, there was 42°C in the body and 47°C under my truck. Fortunately the bivouac was very shaded and the wind came to give an impression of freshness.

Bivouac 
De Grey River 
22/11/2009 

Under trees
De Grey River 
22/11/2009 

It was a driving week with two rest stays in Middle Lagoon and Eighty Mile Beach.