Kununurra, WA

Monday, 14 May 2012

Mirima National Park, Kununurra, WA

Mirima National Park, Kununurra, WA

This morning we visited Mirima National Park, known as Happy Valley, which adjoins our caravan park. This area is sometimes referred to as the Little Bungle Bungles. Next we travelled about 13kms from Kununurra to visit the Sandalwood Factory where we learnt that in the next few years over 80,000 hectares of land will be planted with sandalwood. Sandalwood trees need a host tree to live on and they are planted with two other varieties of trees, one that grows quickly but doesn't live more than 5 to 6 years and another that will take over as host when the first host tree dies.
A little further down the road is the "Hoochery", the only remaining sugar cane growing property in the area and the sugar is used for the making of rum.
Crawf had a few samples before buying a bottle of rum liqueur.

Zebra Rock

Our next stop, with me as driver, was on the other side of town at the Zebra Rock Gallery. This area has the only known deposits of Zebra Rock in the world. The rock when cut has beautiful stripes and colours.

 

Tuesday, 15 May 2012

Zebedee Springs, El Questro, WA 

Emma Gorge, El Questro, WA

Today's excursion was to El Questro, outback playground of the rich and famous and also those who just want to have a day trip to see this lovely wilderness area. The resort is very expensive and we didn't go anywhere near it. We stopped at the Emma Gorge ranger station and purchased our permits then continued to Zebedee Springs where we found a lovely thermal pool with a small waterfall. We all enjoyed a swim before lunch then returned to Emma Gorge for a challenging walk and climb. As it was getting late most of us decided to enjoy a lovely waterhole about 2/3rds of the way along the walk. Three of the men continued to the top and took some photos but as the gorge is very deep and it gets dark very early here, we were struggling to get back to Kununurra before dark.

Wednesday, 16 May 2012

5.15am - We were picked-up by the bus at our caravan park and taken to our plane for a flight over the Bungle Bungles. As I had never flown before the pilot suggested that as one passenger had to sit up the front with him that it might be a good seat for me. It was great.

We witnessed sunrise over Lake Argyle then continued for breathtaking views of the Bungle Bungles. After several passes over the magnificent rock formations we returned to Kununurra via the Argyle Diamond Mine which is the world's largest supplier of diamonds, producing approximately 30 million carats each year.  Rare pink diamonds are found in this area. After our two hour trip we were delivered back to our park.

Sue's View, flight over Bungle Bungles

Argyle Diamond Mine, WA

 The afternoon was spent, by some, trying to catch fish at Ivanhoe Crossing just out of town but without any success. The crossing is closed at the moment to road traffic because of the huge amount of water being released from Lake Argyle into the Ord River system for irrigation.