If it hadn’t have been for Bethany leaping onto the bed and jumping about all over the top of us this morning, we may well still be asleep. I had forgotten to set the alarm, not that it mattered, as Bethany was up well and truly before we were due to be. There’s another sleep in gone begging.

Considering our early wake up call, we meandered about sluggishly, before getting on our way. We’re in for a big day of driving, to visit a hole in the ground, before having to drive all the way back to Halls Creek. It’s about 150KM drive, just to reach the Wolfe Creek Meteroite Crater, which was the setting for the 2005 movie, ‘Wolf Creek’. I remember the first and only time for that matter, that Bec and I watched the movie. By the end of it, Bec was adamant that she would never, ever come out here, while all I could think about was making my way out for a gander. For anyone who hasn’t yet seen the film, I would recommend a viewing, even if for no other reason than to make our own excursion out to the crater seem a whole lot more courageous than it really was.

On the Tanami.

Of course, we first had to get there though. Twenty kilometres out of Halls Creek, we turned off of the highway onto the wide red dirt Tanami Road. Once an epic four wheel drive track, named as such the Tanami Track, it has since undergone an upgrade of sorts as well as the name change. It is now a relatively good stretch of dirt road, the width of which is of freeway like proportions. The first 10 or 15 kilometres heading south were freshly graded and the smoothness was such that it was better than some of the tarred roads upon which we have bounced along. It gets progressively worse though, as you churn through the miles, although not for the most part bad enough to prevent us from travelling at between 100Km/h and 110Km/h. This speed seemed about right to see ‘The Beast’ skipping across the corrugations, causing little more than a steady vibration through the seats.

There were sections that needed a more sensitive control of the throttle though, especially the final 20KM, where there were some lengthy sections of corrugations that could have been on the verge of being classed as undulations. There was no good speed at which to cross these, as ‘The Beast’ bucked violently across each soul and suspension destroying crest.

Regardless of the road conditions, we made good time, covering the 150KM and arriving at the small parking area near the base of the crater in spot on 2 hours. There was already another small four wheel drive in the car park when we arrived, an older couple who looked decidedly non-threatening sitting beneath the shade of an information shelter. Very unlike the movie I decided. Emerging from ‘The Beast’ with a back relieving stretch, we peered across the spinifex covered plain to where the slopes of the crater rose up rather insignificantly.

Yee haw, we’re here.

Ho hum. If I must.

It was not until scaling the loose rocky trail that led to the crater rim could we really appreciate the grandness of the crater. A continuous almost perfectly circular ring of rock, over ¾ of a kilometre across, Wolfe Creek Meteroite Crater is the second largest such crater in the world. The floor of the crater is about 60 metres below the level of the crater rim, and is clearly split into two distinct areas. The innermost ring has a salt crust like surface due to climatic evaporation, while the outer ring of land spreads out to the inner walls and has a surface of fine, soft red dust.

Looking into the crater.

Since none of the photographs that we took can do the crater the justice it deserves, here’s an aerial shot of the crater I found on the Internet.

Leaving Bec sitting comfortably atop the crater rim, I scrambled down the steep wall to the inner sanctum of the crater. In the midday sun, with no shade to speak of, it was approaching 33^oC. On the crater floor, the heat felt like it was magnified ten fold, the air was stagnant and unmoving, while an eerie sense of quietness descended on me like I was in a vacuum. Looking back towards where Bec was perched, from the dead centre of the crater, I got a feel for the gigantic scale of the depression, and can only imagine the power with which the meteorite that created the basin hit the earth.

From the inside looking out. It was more impressive than it appears.

Having spent an hour exploring the area, it was time to saddle up in ‘The Beast’ for the rough ride back to civilisation. Given the corrugations, I half expected to be following a Hansel and Gretel like trail, made up of components fallen from ‘The Beast’, but I was happy to find that it held together rather well. A couple of missing screws from the fairing on the nudge bar and an as yet unidentified plastic cog which dropped from the vicinity of the glove box was the sum total of the injuries to ‘The Beast’.

I don’t know whether it made it better or worse, knowing what to expect, but we were soon back on the black top and heading back into town to refuel. Interestingly, we had fueled up before setting off, which made it all too easy for Bec to work out that it had cost us a grand total of $100.00 for the trip out and back. All in aid of looking at a hole in the ground that she wasn’t overly enthused about. I see it as having put nearly 300KM of dirt beneath the rubber ringed hooves of ‘The Beast’ to see a quirk of nature the likes of which we are not likely to see again any time soon.

Thus, we returned to the van, much like we finished watching the Wolf Creek movie all them years ago. Bec wondering why she had ever bothered, while I was jubilant at being able to cross the Wolfe Creek Meteroite Crater off of my must see list.

Until next time, stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to write.