The Duncan Road

We were now heading towards Broome, but having already driven south from Kununurra along the Great Northern Highway in 1996 on our way to Purnululu National Park (Bungle Bungles), we are again taking the road less traveled. We were off to complete the section of the Duncan Road that runs south from the Victoria Highway as far as Nicholson Station.

After visiting the Bungle Bungles in 1996, we drove south to Halls Creek then joined the Duncan Road as far as Nicholson Station before taking the Buntine Highway towards Kalkarindji (Wave Hill) then passing through Top Springs on our way to Katherine.

Now we were completing the remainder of the Duncan that we missed out on all those years ago. We left Kunuurra at 8:30. I was successful in finding a cache 41 km later at the WA border and one 14 km later as we turned off onto the Duncan Road. Here we deflated our 4wd tyres down to 30 psi and the vans down to 25 psi.

 Our camp tonight is the Negri River 140 km south along the Duncan Road. The road is unsealed for its entire 441 km and was originally built to service the cattle stations within the area. 

After 46 km we passed by Rosewood Station that was established in 1885 and was part of the Durack Empire. 

Another 7 km later we passed back across the border into Western Australia. At the 131 km mark we had again crossed the border and were now back in the Northern Territory.
I'm glad we reduced the vans tyres down 25 psi, because the 140 km took us five hours to complete. The condition of the road consisted of lots of corrugations with long sections of stony ground with some of the stones much larger than a mans clenched fist.

When entering the dips and flood-ways, and there were too many to count, we were down to walking pace below 7 kph. We rarely achieved 30 kph until at the 121 km mark we passed the sign that welcomed us to the Halls Creek Shire. From here to our campsite we sat on a comfortable 50 kph with the only minor problem being long stretches of bull dust.

Our campsite was on the south western side of the Negri River, overlooking a stretch of water. Best of all we had the place to ourselves. Tonight we christened our new folding BBQ plate that we purchased at the most amazing camping shop in Kununurra. We built a fire and once the wood had burnt down to coals, we cooked our fillet steak accompanied with coleslaw and tomatoes. The night was finished off with coffee by the fire with the most magnificent array of stars.

 

We also purchased a new camp oven and fry-pan with a removable handle. This oven is much smaller and far lighter than the one we have been using for the past thirty years. There was no need for the larger oven because we are now only catering for ourselves. The new fry-pan replaced two other heavier pans we have been carrying. All the items were left at the camp kitchen at the van park in Kununurra and were all gone when we checked the following morning.

What a difference in this mornings temperatures compared to Kununurra. Just ten degrees inside the van at 5:30 soon had the diesel heater purring away and the hot water service cranked up for a nice hot shower before breakfast. We left at 8:30 heading south towards Nicholson Station at the intersection of the Buntine Highway and the Duncan Road. 
We crossed back into Western Australia 40 km later for the remainder of our trip.

We stopped several times to take photos of the Bungle Bungle Ranges off to the west. Our Hema maps on our Ipad indicated that's what we were photographing.

Today's road conditions were an improvement on yesterday. 
Once past the intersection with the Duncan Road and Buntine Highway we came across two different road crews working on putting down new road base, and we were able for the first time in two days to get up to 60 kph. 

We had intended  to camp at Marella Gorge but I miscalculated the turnoff into the gorge and didn't realise my mistake until we were 20 km past the turnoff so we just continued heading towards Halls Creek.

Country as we passed through Flora Valley Station:

We would have preferred to be able to get right off the road for this B-triple cattle road train but it just wasn't possible.

Our plan then was to continue on towards another free camp on the Elvire River at Caroline Pool, but when we reached Palm Springs another free camp we decided that would do for the night. The campsite is close to the Duncan Road but we didn't expect there would be much traffic during the night. There were two other groups camped here when we arrived.  

Palm Springs is a natural spring that was once used as a local water supply and supported a market garden supplying vegetables to the surrounding district. The water was very clean so we used the water to do several loads of washing.

We had a peaceful nights sleep with just one vehicle passing during the night. We left our campsite at 7:30 heading towards Halls Creek and to the bitumen after completing 441 km of dirt. The last 40 km was through winding hilly country with the road conditions quite rocky that kept our speeds down well below 30 kph.