Wall of China & Palm Springs - 28th August

We headed down towards old Halls Creek township which barely exists any more bar a few pieces of mud brick wall of the old post office and some monuments with plaques but along the same un-made road are some interesting places to visit including Caroline Pool which has very little water in it at this time of year but is still a pretty spot to go with red rocks, grey-green grasses, water and a bluer than blue sky that we keep seeing up here. When we got there, a fellow came up to us to have a chat about it and told us that he was there with some school students to do a bush tucker lesson. When we went down onto the creek bed, there were several aboriginal kids and some adults also; it seems that the aboriginal children are losing their culture and need to actually have lessons to stay in touch with it. The teacher we spoke to suggested we go to Palm Springs as it always has water, is even nicer, a good place for to have lunch and is another 20km down the dirt road. We decided to have a look since we didn’t have a very long drive to Fitzroy Crossing today. We found it no problems since the countryside along the way is fairly sparsely covered with trees and bushes but Palm Springs is like an oasis in the desert. We took a walk down the path worn between the grasses surrounding the water hole and looked in and along it. There were little fish in the water and dragonflies hovering over it and lots of trees and palms along either side. We went back to the car and then had a wander up further but couldn’t see a place near the water to sit and have morning tea so we just sat on a log near the car in the shade. However, a call of nature meant I wandered into the bush further down away from the road. Before I had got very far, I put my hand on a tree trunk to steady myself and felt a sharp, sudden pain under my arm. I pulled my hand away and then felt the pain on my stomach as well. I high-tailed out of the area in pain with two bites on my stomach and one under my arm, worried about what had bit me and what other reactions I might have. I sprayed the bites with Stingose and took an antihistamine straight away then sat quietly and had morning tea and fortunately there was no reaction and the swelling went down. I still don’t know what bit me but wasn’t going back to find out! BTW, anyone who is laughing now is no longer my friend!! (Actually I can see how it might sound funny but it was very nasty, scary and unpleasant at the time as you can well imagine)
While we were there the ranger came to empty the rubbish bins and we asked him about the springs which he told us the water came from the other side of the road which we thought was private property since it had buildings there but he said that we could go over there. We walked up and into the property which had an old rusted out truck in the bushes and sheds with bits and pieces in them including an exercise bike! There was no way to get down closer to the actual spring despite trying a few vague paths. There were two windmills there, one up near the sheds and one down near the water but as I said it was all overgrown so we couldn’t’ see it properly but there were banana palms there so I guess it might have been a kind of farm at one stage, though not sure exactly what they were really farming unless they had cattle which seem to be the most common types of farm up here.
Actually, speaking of farms we saw a big semi-trailer cattle truck tipped on its side along the road to Palm Springs. It seemed to have lost control on the curve and slid down off the road down the embankment. When we stopped to take some photos there was a rather foul smell of death in the air so I guess they buried the carcasses nearby recently. Someone would have been pretty annoyed about losing their stock like that I am sure!
After this we went back along the road to the other attraction that we had missed on the way; the Wall of China. Yes, we saw the wall of China though it wasn’t the Great Wall of China of course but a natural phenomenon that has created a rock wall, actually more than one really, which you would swear is the remains of a manmade wall. Following this we grabbed something to eat in town then headed off along highway number 1 to Fitzroy Crossing. We got there by 4.45pm and were interested to pass Fitzroy River Lodge accommodation which looked rather swank and then arrive at the caravan park/motel we had booked which was much smaller and has a rather unusual motel section made up of units built on top of carports basically. The unit itself is fine but there is no phone line so we have had no internet as you have probably worked out by the lack of new posts for the last couple of days. We booked the restaurant at the other accommodation for dinner since this one doesn’t have a restaurant and said that the meal would probably be better there than the pub. Before we left, we realized the total eclipse of the moon was taking place so stopped to take some photos. We took more when we got back from having dinner but they’re not very good. Well, at least we got to see it anyway.