It’s a long, long and very straight road with flat savannah as far as the eye can see; in this landscape bend in the road is something to be commented on. A long day of driving – we are seven hours on the road making our way towards Broome. The monotony of the landscape is broken for a short while by some fla-topped hills, green and lush, rising out of the dry grasses of the savannah. And by some remarkable wetland which seems completely incongruous in the midst of what from the dryness all around. Mid-afternoon we see rain clouds gathering ahead of us and as we approach we can see them dissolving into rain miles way. Then we can smell the rain. Then comes the buffetting winds and finally the deluge. The torrential rain is quickly flooding the gullies along the road side and we can barely see ahead. What are we driving into? We’ve hit a very localised tropical storm and within two or three kilometres we are out the other side and back into glorious sunshine again.
We have picked a campsite on station land at Langley Crossing, about12 km off the highway along an unsealed road. At first the road is reasonable if a bit corrugated and we have to keep weaving back and forth across the road to avoid being shaken to pieces. But we are forced to turn back after about 9km; the road is just too rutted for our two-wheel drive and there is a real danger that we could get stuck here, particularly should it rain again, which judging by the clouds and distant rainbows is a distinct possiblity. Instead we have to settle for the rather barren rest area at Nillibubbica on the side of the highway.
Another astounding sunset rounds off the day; the clouds across the sky all pinks, blues and purples whilst a deep orange glow surrounds the setting sun. The colours changing subtlety as sun slips down below the horizon. These are the best times of the day – late afternoon and early morning the light is soft and the shadows long in comparison the the harsh, unrelenting blaze of the daytime sun.