Day 15 Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater

It  was a lazy morning wake up and breakfast, before getting ourselves sorted to travel to Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater.  This is the first of 2 free camping nights in a row, so it was with some trepidation that we leave the sanctuary of our caravan for the cold harsh reality of tenting again.  With the car loaded to the roof, we set out of Halls Creek for the Tanami Track.

 My last memory of this road was ungraded slop with large boulders protruding from the deep corrugations.  Jeremy and I only made 7km of this track with the big red truck, so I was already scared...how wrong I was.  Firstly, there is something to be said for the expensive upgrade to the Prado's suspension prior to leaving Perth...I love you Old Man Emu!  This was a fairly simple drive, at fairly good speed.  There were corrugations, although they were not so much felt as heard...just a bassy rumbly louder than the highway.  There were moments of sandy drifts, and deep corrugation, and the occasional boulder or rut in the road, but we made great time and arrived at the Crater around lunch time.

 All the years of camping with a tent had served us will, and Lisa and I had the tent up in a flash with the beds made, and we settled into lunch before making the trek across to the crater itself…

 WOW!  Some things on this planet make you consider your own mortality and insignificance, and this site is one of them.  To say that the crater is huge is an understatement.  Although it is only 20m deep now, the notice boards said that the initial impact site would have been a further 100 meters deeper 300,000 years ago when the 50,000+ ton rock smashed into the earth.  We walked the rim in a Westerly direction for 5-600 metres before turning back because Rowan was getting tired.  We convinced him to make the steep descent into the crater though.  The grass was taller than me, and there were a lot of spiky spinifex on the floor.  The water from the rains pools in the middle, and heavy evaporation leaves the ground arid and saline.  Only salt resistant flora grow near the centre of the site. 

 

We saw geckos and lots of bird life whilst at the crater site, as well as many birds of prey including a couple of Wedge Tail Eagles on the drive in.  We scaled the wall of the crater again, and made our descent back to the camp ground.

I returned to the crater at sunset to take photographs whilst Lisa stayed with the kids and cooked dinner at the camp ground.  I took and Eastward path from the top of the crater, and hiked about 1.5km around the rim to a point on the

Eastern side to get good shots of the sunset.  This was the reason I wanted to come to this site, and I wasn't disappointed.  The view was breathtaking, and it was worth the blood that I lost on the trip back to the car from the spinifex prickles.  What I missed whilst the sun was setting was the full moon rising behind me.  This day kept getting better and better.  I took a few quick photographs before packing my things, and hiking back to the entry point.

Upon returning to camp I found a stressed wife, hot food and unruly kids...everything in balance.  Lisa calmed down when I got back and stopped stressing about me falling into the crater.  I lit a campfire for the kids, and we had a marshmallow roasting session when Emma pointed out that the moon had gone away again.  For the next 2 hours we were treated to  a 50% partial lunar eclipse.  The campground was bathed in moonlight, and the whole experience was beyond spectacular….

 
I guess it has to be hard to beat a day like today...We shall see  what tomorrow brings.