The drive from Fitzroy Crossing to Halls Creek is colourful, we rise up the Ngumban Cliffs and get a view south that stretches for miles. There are lots of mesas and jump ups, red soil, cream grasses and small spindly white trunked gums. There are distant purple ranges and not a town in sight. Apart from the caravans there is a feeling of remoteness out here and now there are more vans heading south than there are heading north, Broome having been the destination of choice for so many. We’ve chosen the less popular clockwise route to WA, but more about that later. It’s a lovely morning for a drive and ironic that I’m singing along to ‘On a clear day you can see forever’ while Woody dozes. Did I say remote? An Air Asia flight crosses above us at 11,000 metres MEL to KL, an A380, its jet stream a silver stripe across the sky. Not so alone after all.

Gee those phone apps are handy.

Great Northern Highway

Ngumban Cliffs