Day 17: Barkly Homestead Roadhouse to Banka Banka Station West

 This morning we head towards th Stuart Highway junction and turn North to Banka Banka Station, our camp for tonight. We had contemplated driving further to Renner Springs, but it didn't rate well on Wikicamps, so we opted for stopping earlier at Banka Banka, which had very positive ratings.



Before departure, we had an early morning visit from some guinea fowl, that appear to wander at will around the caravan park.


They look pretty well fed 

Once back on the road, we has 190 km of not much before we arrive at the 3 ways, The junction of the Barkly Highway with the Stuart Highway heading North/South. There is a roadhouse at the 3 ways, so we drop in for a cup of coffee. There is a caravan park out the back, and a pub inside the roadhouse.  

Again at this road house we noticed the concern operators have about customers filling with fuel and running off without paying. We first saw it yesterday at Barkly Homestead, where you had to go into the cashier and surrender your car keys before they would activate the pump. At 3 Ways, they required you to leave an ID with the cashier before the pump would be turned on.



The three ways pub


I am sure thye pub experience would be memorable, but we enjoy our coffee, and move on. We only have another 80 km to Banka Banka Station, so will set up and have lunch there.

It is a fairly rustic campsite, and our alocated site is between 2 trees.


It is roughly level and we can stat hitched up as we are only here for the night. We also have power and water.


It is a working station


Vacant space at lunch time

There is still plenty of space available when we arrive, but by late afternoon, it is gradually filling up, but there is still space available.

On arrival, we were told at reception that there was a 2.5 km walk to a waterhole, where it was safe to swim. It is a bit cold for swimming, but we decided to get a bit of exercise.


We saw a couple of donkeys along the way


The 2.5 km track was more like 3 km, each way

Everything is so green and flowering at the moment, no doubt the result of all of the rain they have had.



We walk past a couple of small creeks with a bit of water over the road


and finally reach the waterhole. A few others are already there and they were telling us they have stayed here a couple of times in the past, and have never seen the waterhole so full. As we suspected, the water temperature was quite cool and no one was lining up for a swim.





The waterhole

Before dinner we had a beer at the bar at our caravan park and talked to a few wise old travellers, getting some good information for our forward travels.


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