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.

Across the Top End

Tuesday, 8 May 2012

We left Victoria River mid-morning and stopped at Timber Creek to look around and check our phone calls. Next stop was at Big Horse Campsite but after a quick walk around check we decided that there wasn't enough room for us so we continued until we found Saddle Creek Rest Area. We met some more interesting people and although we were surrounded by burning off fires in the hills and valleys in the area we settled down for another very warm night.

Wednesday, 9 May 2012

The fires burning in the area created a lot of smoke haze so we were up early and headed to the NT/WA border where we didn't have any problems with the quarantine officer as we had done all the right things.

We had a very early check-in at Lake Argyle Resort due to the fact that we had been reminded to change our clocks by one and a half hours by the quarantine officer as we crossed the border.

The Pool at Lake Argyle Resort, WA

Lake Argyle Resort is a lovely caravan park, set on the hill overlooking Lake Argyle and the Ord River. The pool appears to have no edge and is set into the side of the cliff overlooking the lake so you look like you are swimming in the lake. The view is brilliant.

Thursday, 10 May 2012

Lake Argyle, WA

We spent the morning cleaning-up, the van, the ute and the clothes. We had booked a cruise on the lake and the bus picked us up at 2.30pm and drove us to the jetty where we boarded the boat. Unfortunately there was some cloud cover but the views on the water were still very impressive. The commentary was very informative, we were told about the building of the dam and the history of the area. We saw a rock wallaby, a crocodile, a sea eagle, hawks, lots of catfish and also archer fish that spit at you when you show them some food. Our boat stopped in the middle of one of the bays just before sunset, some people had a swim, we were served drinks and nibbles but the sunset wasn't very colourful due to the cloud cover.

Friday, 11 May 2012

Today was spent very quietly, trying to catch a fish, no luck, and visiting the "Durack Homestead" Museum. The Durack family settled this area after coming over to the area from Queensland and the properties remained in the family until the leases were resumed and the dam was built and the lake area flooded in the early 1970's. The Ord River was the river that was dammed and the plan was to irrigate the area and grow an abundance of food to feed the country but many obstacles confronted the farmers including poor soil, a limited growing period and the incredible distances to import supplies and export the produce. Many cropping projects failed or were not viable and now days different types of crops are being tried. Sandalwood is one of the major crops and mangoes are grown in abundance. Chia is a new crop that is being grown in the area. The amount of water in this area is incredible.

Saturday, 12 May 2012

We moved into Kununurra this morning and as we were unable to fit into the park were our friends were planning on staying, we checked into the Hidden Valley Caravan Park.

Mirima National Park, Kununurra, WA

The park is on the edge of Mirima National Park so we have great views of the huge rocks which show beautiful colours when the sun changes direction.

Sunday, 13 May 2012

Together with three couples we went to Wyndham.
The drive firstly took us to Molly Springs, a pretty area with a small waterfall. From there we continued to the "Grotto", a huge canyon with 146 man made steps down to the waterhole, approximately 300ft deep. We then arrived at Wyndham, the top town of the west, the most northern port before Darwin. We found our way to the Five Rivers Lookout where you can see the Pentecost, King, Durack, Forrest and Ord Rivers all flow into the Cambridge Gulf before flowing into the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf and finally into the Timor Sea. We then returned to Wyndham township for lunch, then set off to visit Telegraph Hill, from where telegrams were sent to ships at sea. The telegraph station played a big part in the sinking of the "Emden", the German warship, by ''HMAS Sydney" during World War I.
Our next stop was Parry Lagoon and Marglu Billabong where there is a bird hide and we watched and listened to the many birds that live in the area. We then ventured on along the rough road which was originally the old road from Darwin to Wyndham. As the light was fading quickly, sunset is about 4.30pm, we didn't have time to stop at the last couple of waterholes.