We’re experiencing perfect weather in Kununurra, warm but with low humidity, and we’re making the most of the beautiful days to just relax and take it easy on the shores of Lake Kununurra. One day we took the drive north to Wyndham, where the first thing we saw was a 20m crocodile in the town park! We took the hairpin bend drive up to the top of the Bastion Ranges for views over The Gut, a natural gap in the Cambridge Gulf that narrows to about 150m, on which the town and port are built, and the five rivers – King, Ord, Durack, Forrest and Pentecost – flow into the Gut. Back in town we viewed what is billed as the biggest boab tree in captivity, within a caravan park, reputed to be 2000 years old with a girth of 25m.
Another day we drove back almost to the NT border then turned south-west towards Lake Argyle, where we took a three-hour cruise across a tiny portion of the massive body of water, which has a surface area of over 1000 square kilometres and a shoreline stretching over 900 kilometres. We stopped at one of the hundreds of islands for a delicious barbecue lunch and swimming off the back of the boat. After disembarking we drove across the dam wall for views of the Ord River which runs down to Kununurra, where it is dammed and diverted for irrigation, then on to the sea at Wyndham. Nearby is the former Argyle Downs homestead, home of the Durack family, which was dismantled before the station was flooded and rebuilt as a museum.
Last Sunday we visited Reach Beyond, formerly HCJB, which broadcasts the Christian message via shortwave radio into Asia and India. We knew they operated out of Kununurra and were fortunate enough to meet a couple from Switzerland working there as volunteers, who took us on a tour of the facility. As those of you who know Rod can imagine, he was really interested in the transmitters and the antenna farm. And the stories of the twenty miracles which occurred to get the place up and running were just amazing! It costs $1,000,000 a year to run the station, and they have a power bill of a mind-boggling $30,000 a month!
We spent three days tenting at El Questro, west of Kununurra along the Gibb River Road. After deflating the tyres we traversed a very good gravel road in from the highway, and successfully negotiated two rocky water crossings. We checked in at The Station before pitching our tent in the Cockatoo campground, on a lovely shady spot right on the edge of the river.
One day we visited Emma Gorge to do the grade 4, 2-hour return walk. The reward at the end was well worth the effort; a magnificent circular swimming hole, half surrounded by a vine-covered sheer rock wall, with water dripping into the pool from above. We declined to swim as the water was very cold, but sat and enjoyed watching others take the plunge.
Another day we visited Zebedee Springs, a chain of thermal spring-fed pools cascading down a hillside which were dotted with palms, but the pools were crowded enough with flabby flesh without us getting in too!
We enjoyed the tenting but really, there’s no place like our home away from home! There were many more gorges and 4WD tracks we could have attempted, but the walks were all long and quite difficult, and the tracks were harder than Rod was confident to attempt. In hindsight we should have just done a day trip to Emma Gorge from Kununurra, but nevertheless it’s another experience we can tick off our bucket list! And we’re not done with tenting yet; on Sunday we’re off to camp another couple of nights at the Bungle Bungles.
Rod and Julie on the road 