Lake Argyle

 Sun 13^th July  Saddle Creek

The 70km odd drive from Kununurra to Lake Argyle was very interesting. The boabs were still plentiful and many of them had huge trunks. The turnoff to Argyle was the beginning of spectacular colourful ridges and cliffs, with a huge array of shapes ranging from small crumbly looking layers to huge rounded boulders and flat sided shiny stone walls. No two were exactly the same colour. You could see the layers in the rocks going in all directions. There were huge crevasses in some rock faces and other ones that had ground cover. A lot of them had trees on top and around their bottom reaches. The dammed area used to be part of Durack Station. Once there, we had to unhook our vans to do the 4½ km drive to the dam wall and to various lookouts.  The roads up to the lookouts were extremely steep. There is a huge amount of water in the dam and the old peaks of ranges are dotted throughout as islands. It is very picturesque with the deep blue of the water and the multihued walls of the edges. The power of the water coming through the one gate that was open was enormous. At the end of the drive is a lovely picnic area abundant in shady trees, many of them in flower. The fence runs parallel with the river, so the view of the spillway, the dam wall and the river below is really good.

On the way out of Argyle we suddenly realised that George wasn’t following us so we stopped and waited for a few minutes. We decided that something must be wrong so we continued along until we could find somewhere to turn around and go back. A few km back we found them on the side of the road changing a flat tyre on the caravan. The entire tyre and rim had been destroyed and there were big black marks on the road showing where George had had to go to find a safe stopping place on the quite narrow road. Not unexpectedly we left Argyle diamondless.

Once the tyre was replaced we continued out on the highway towards Timber Creek. We were stopped at some roadworks for a few minutes and chatted to the Aboriginal who was doing the traffic control. He works for Highway Traffic Kimberly and said the majority of the crew were Indigenous.  He wasn’t meant to be at work until tomorrow, but got called in because all the other workers were still drunk from the Kununurra show. We stopped at Saddle Creek rest area for the night and George spent quite a bit of time (with advice from various other people camped there) trying to hook up his satellite dish so that Jan could watch the Collingwood/Essendon game. Despite all the good advice he couldn’t get a signal, in fact he could barely find north, so he gave up and Jan listened to Peter Cardamone calling the game on radio.

We had dinner in the shelter and Mick lit a fire – not that we needed the heat. It was a hot day and very warm evening. Several people came and joined us and we had a very pleasant evening. One of the couples was from NZ and they are here doing voluntary work. They had just come from Halls Creek where they were part of a group doing maintenance on an Indigenous community. They are headed to Limbunya, a really remote area on the Tanami. They spent 7 months in Australia last year and will be here for 9 months this year before returning to their home in Nelson.

Mon 14^th July  Vince Connoly Crossing at Limestone Creek.

After about 120km we arrived in Timber Creek where we had been told we could get a shower. If you are ever there, you go to the shire office on the west end of town. On the end of it is a recreation centre with clean, free toilets and hot showers. Not only that, but there is a kitchen with a boiling urn and chilled water.

We stopped for lunch at Victoria River Crossing, near the roadhouse. There was a nice grassy spot and we watched three truckloads of horses pull up. They were taken out of the trucks and led into a paddock near the roadhouse and walked around while the trucks were mucked out. They were then given a drink and reloaded into the trucks. There were more than a dozen horses and they looked like they might have been young race horses and were perhaps headed for sale or a big meeting or something. Later when on the road we saw more truckloads of horses.

We finished our journey 50 odd km from Katherine where we found a good level spot, got organised and then sat in the shaded shelter. Another couple joined us and he and I ended up playing our ukuleles for a while. His masterpiece was Charleston, but he didn’t know much else so we sang and played a bit and talked a lot.  It was very hot and got even hotter at sunset when the breeze stopped altogether. It was more pleasant outside than in the van.

Kununurra

Thurs 10^th – Sat 12^th July 

Looking like an oasis as you come into it, the highway crosses the river at Diversion Dam, with one side held back in a large water storage with a swimming beach, boat ramp and picnic areas with neatly trimmed lawns dotted with shade trees. The other side down below, is a picturesque waterway with ridges of rock. We booked into a caravan park at Happy Valley and spent most of the day washing and shopping. Our site is surrounded by bushes and trees and the ground is covered with green grass (haven’t had that in weeks). We look out on a huge round, rocky hill in front with people the size of ants looking down at us from the lookout on top. At the back is a line of rocky cliffs with layers of coloured rock. In the morning the sun shines on the front one and in the evening it shines on the back one. The colours and shadows look magnificent. Mick at last found someone at the RACWA who could explain all the ins and outs of inverters, solar power, batteries, Anderson plugs and assorted other things we didn’t know.  

Kununurra was established in 1960 to service the Ord River Scheme which began in 1971 when the Ord River was dammed.   The Hoochery is a family run rum distillery, the oldest legal sill in WA. It is a small business with most processes done by hand. The lady said that they have to pay approximately $10,000 excise to the government every Tuesday – that’s not so much based on their sales, but on what is brought out of storage to sell. The place is built of corrugated iron that looks aged. There were barrels dotted around, and behind the sales area was a large shed with big tables and a food servery called Rum Jungle. There was a mini tank from which to get water. The place had such an inviting atmosphere that we decided to have lunch there and   really enjoyed our barra, chips and salad. The batter was so thin you could see the fish through it and we finished off with their Famous Ord River Rum Cake. The whole meal was delicious.

Our next stop was a sandalwood factory which operates from soil to oil.  The Indian Sandalwood, which is grown there is a hemi parasite that connects to the root system of four different host trees for nutrition and moisture throughout its life of 15 years.  At that age the whole tree is harvested, including the roots. At that age it is 7m tall and has a diameter of 25cm at the base. There is also an Australian sandalwood, but the oil yield isn’t as good as the Indian one. The orchard, covering more than 76 square kms looks very unusual with all of the different trees. The heartwood of the sandalwood sells for $100,000 per tonne and essential oil is obtained from steam distillation of chips cut from it. Sandalwood has anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and relaxant properties. There were lots of testers in the showroom so we came out moisturised, smelling beautiful and very relaxed.

 

 

The zebra rock factory where the brilliantly coloured rock has been shaped and polished into many objects was an interesting stop off.   Zebra Rock is a unique stone only found in the Kimberley Region.  Identified by rhythmic red/brown banding or rods geologists are yet to agree on how the patterning has been formed. It is composed mostly of small particles of quartz and fine grained white mica, but it also contains other minerals. It is a soft rock, making it easy to work with (so they say). Some of the objects in the gallery were really beautiful to look at, lovely to touch and I would have loved to buy them.

Also in the gallery were a number of paintings by local artists and some boab nuts that have been carved. The nuts vary in size from about 3 – 20cm long. When dry they can be used as maracas, or split in half and used as a drinking vessel. The pithy interior is high in vitamin C and can be eaten straight from the nut or ground into powder and mixed with water to make a milky, lemon tasting drink. Mixed with wild honey and cooked it makes a custard. The seeds can be roasted and eaten like peanuts. Large boab nuts can have up to 100 seeds in them. To carve them you first have to rub off the mossy covering.

As I type I can hear the fireworks going off at the Kununurra Show. Friday was the smoke and alcohol free day. I guess it’s on for young and old on Saturday. I read the program and it’s a real old country show with whip cracking, tug-a-war, lawn mower races, watermelon sports, three legged races and lots more. There are several singers and bands performing and it all seems to revolve around the Crackup Sisters.

Sign outside shopping centre

Wyndham

Thurs 9^th July 

Our drive into Wyndham was characterised once again by the variety of trees and bushes that covered the landscape, in particular, the boabs that ranged from very old ones with huge bulbous shaped trunks, to the young with almost straight and slender trunks, but all of them covered in a network of branches and twigs. In town we went to the local garage that also serves as information centre. As everywhere we checked the bowser for price. A young man was filling up and having a heart attack about the price – it was $700+, but he was told to look on the other side of the bowser, it was only $100+. That bowser has a 7 come up instead of a 1, however it does go to 2 next. We were told that the diesel in Wyndham is 20c per litre cheaper than in Kununurra so we decided to fill up. As there was a queue, the owner directed us to another bowser down the side. When we got our receipt we had only paid 131.9pl – the cheapest in Australia. George paid $179.9 at the other bowser. Most diesel up this way is in the range of $179.9 – 186.9 or more. We have seen it over $2 in a few places.

 

We unhooked our vans and left them in town while we drove up to a lookout. It was an extremely steep climb for a couple of km and we’d never have got the vans around some of the sharp corners. The view from the top was magnificent, looking down on Cambridge Gulf and the five rivers that feed into it – the Ord, Durack, Forrest, King and Pentecost. We could see the long pier that looped around to allow the trucks to deliver their loads of ore and live cattle to the ships. The tide was out so there were no ships in port. They would have to time it with the huge high tides, I guess. Even though it is supposedly high season and school holidays, nothing much seemed to be open – the crocodile farm that is open seven days per week according to its sign was closed, Mitchy’s Barra Bar was “Closed Full Stop”.  There was plenty of traffic at the Rehab centre with the red, black and yellow balloons at the gate and the sign that said, “No drinking, no smoking, no drugging.”  The sobering up centre in town was very quiet, although it was surrounded by shiny, new cars.

 

We enjoyed our day in Wyndham, and then hooked up and free camped at Cockburn free camp on the junction where the highway turns off to Wyndham one way or Kununurra the other. For the whole day and night huge road-trains with 4 trailers were hauling their loads past on their way into Wyndham.

 

 

Tues 8^th July

 

We are definitely slowing down at the moment. All we did today was drive north, through Turkey Creek and on to Dunham River which Is not far from the turnoff to Wyndham and Kununurra. Early in the day we passed the turnoff to the Bungle Bungles, but much as we would have liked to see them, you are not allowed to go in in a 2WD.  From what other people have told us, the prices of the tours are a bit prohibitive and would require more walking than we can manage. As it was we drove through beautiful country, mostly in the valleys between high rocky ranges. Boab trees were large and prolific in some areas and there were more flowering bushes than we have seen for a while. We arrived at our campsite before lunch and had a lazy day in the sun. Some people read and slept and I got a bit more of my embroidery done.

 

 

 

Hall's Creek

Sun 6^th July 

It was only a short drive into Hall’s Creek and we booked into the caravan park so we could get some washing done. Our bedding was full of red dust and so were most of our clothes. Camping out for three days with limited water takes its toll.  After lunch we went for a drive to see some of the nearby sites. Caroline Pool which had been talked up, was just a pool of water amongst rocks. To get to it was definitely not a job for a 2WD, nevertheless we made it, managed to turn around and get up the steep exit hill with soft sand at the bottom and water erosion holes in it. Our next stop was to be a stone hut which was the last stop to rest the horses before Old Hall’s Creek on the journey from Wyndham through Turkey Creek and Mabel Downs in the old days. There was a turn-off which was sign posted as being 14km away. Well we drove on a dirt road, then a dirt track, then a rocky track, then a very narrow rocky track; all the time getting rougher and rougher until we figured we wouldn’t get much further without completely wrecking the car. We never did see a second sign or the hut for that matter. We realised that we had been travelling on the Canning Stock Route. After negotiating the track back to the main track our next stop was Old Hall’s Creek. All that remained were the street signs, some chimneys and signage showing what was what. The old post office which was made of mud brick had some bits of wall still standing.  A roof has been constructed over it to preserve it from the elements. In 1948 an airfield was built and the town gradually moved closer to it, 15 km to the west. The old town was abandoned in 1954.

Palm Springs, 45 km out of town was described as an oasis, complete with palm trees, a fresh water spring and an abundance of wildlife, so we continued on towards that. The road wasn’t good but the view was extraordinary, with rocky walls of many different shades of red going right to the horizon. We travelled through many dry floodways and occasionally saw pools of water in some of the many creeks we drove beside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

George said, “I bet there will be two palm trees and a small pool.”  He wasn’t far wrong, there were some reeds too. A ranger was there with his kids who were swimming in the pool and it did look like fun. The trip back to Hall’s Creek was horrific. The road was rocky and corrugated as we knew from the trip out, but we didn’t count on the setting sun being right in our eyes and completely blocking any view of the road. Luckily the few cars we encountered coming the other way could see us and we mostly met them on straight stretches. The dust just hovered in the still air.

Mon 7^th July

We had a quiet day in Hall’s Creek. Mick had a swim in the salt water pool and came back nearly paralysed with cold. George took the opportunity to do a bit of minor maintenance on his van and Jan cleaned the inside from top to bottom. I did some embroidery.

Mary River Pool

Sat 5^th July 

 
 

We arrived yesterday afternoon and found an area near some trees. The entrance is off the highway and across a low single vehicle concrete causeway through the river. There was water on either side in large pools, but most of the river was dry. Many people were already set up in the large camping area that has many trees along the river bank and dotted throughout the camping area. Officially you are only allowed to stay for 24 hours. In the morning, after a number of campers had gone we selected a better and flatter site where we could get full sun on our solar panels all day. We had a lovely quiet day enjoying the sunshine. We figured that because we shifted position, that would count as a separate day.

Geike Gorge

Fri 4^th July  



This tunnel leads to a cave that the rangers are exploring.



Figs like these are completely covered in the wet season and seem to hang on until the dry again.

 We went through Fitzroy Crossing and onto Geike Gorge where we took a cruise. The ranger who took us was extremely knowledgeable and obviously enjoyed the trip as much as we did. He was in no hurry to complete the cruise on time and spent extra time at places where there were crocodiles and other interesting things to see. The scenery was phenomenal, with the gorge walls towering above us. The area was once under the sea and there is a huge barrier reef with a complex of caves behind and under it. The rangers take advantage of the dry season to get in and explore them. One time two rangers went in without torches and sat down on a log to let their eyes adjust to the dark. Suddenly the log began to move and they realised they were sitting on a huge python that is still in there somewhere. Now they never go in without torches. We saw lots of Johnson Freshwater crocodiles ranging from quite small (about 4 years old) to fairly big.  A crocodile and a turtle were sharing a log, which is unusual, given that crocodiles eat turtles. As we approached they both leapt in opposite directions into the water. 



These stalactites are on the outside of the rocks. This is extremely rare.

The Richard Nixon rock, so named because of its appearance. You know about Watergate, well this is water level - the water comes to the bottom of his chin in the wet season

 

 

Some martins’ nests were still there at the high water mark from last year, but puzzlingly, they haven’t started to build this year. The rangers believe that they know something that we don’t about future weather patterns. We spent some time looking for Merton Freshwater Monitor before we found a young one in some grass at the side of the river. The ranger said they are becoming quite rare and will probably become extinct from the area within a year. They live on a diet of frogs, and the cane toad, which poisons them when they eat them, has arrived in the west. There are posters around explaining the differences in the appearance of frogs and cane toads because many people, in their enthusiasm to kill cane toads, are killing our native frogs and also depriving our animals of a food source. Unfortunately the monitors can’t tell the difference either. In the tiniest crevices were wild freshwater fig trees. Because of their root system they are able to hang on during the wet season when they become completely submerged. In fact all of the plants that are below the white line in the photos get submerged in the floods of up to 16 metres.  The sand bars get completely washed away, but more sand is washed down to the same place by the end of the wet season. You would think that with all the cracks and crevices rock falls would be common, but we were told that there has never been a rock fall in the last 176 years.



The threatened Merton Freshwater monitor.

The river abounded in crocodiles that were out catching some warmth from the sun.

Derby

Thurs 3^rd March

 

It was only a short drive into Derby, a medium sized town which has the largest tidal range in the World. We went down to the pier and the tide was out, leaving a huge area of beach and mud flat exposed. The pier had only a little water under the end of it. Actually it was an unusual pier because both ends of it were on land and it went around in a semi-circle with the buildings in the middle on the sea side.  Derby is quite an attractive town with an avenue of boab trees down the main street.

 

We liked this sign at the entrance to the wharf.

At high tide all of this is covered. The water comes up 11 metres.

On the outskirts of town is the Prison Boab, a huge and very old boab with an enormous base with an opening on one side. In the old days the police would put people in it overnight before bringing them into town the next day. The boab trees in this area are quite prolific, but this particular strain is only found in the Broome, Derby, Fitzroy Crossing area. Jan says we should call them Boyd trees – big base and lots happening on top.  They are interesting because some had lost all of their leaves and others were still in full leaf. The older ones had huge trunks while the younger ones were quite slender. Many of them had multiple trunks that twined around each other. We drove on towards Fitzroy Crossing and found a good free camp about 80km out. We find it is better to arrive at a town early so we can have a good look around and consider the options. Most caravan parks in this area cost between $42 and $52 per night so we only use them when necessary.  Most free camps have toilets and shaded areas as well as picnic tables, and usually there are upward of 20 vans in each one. In these camps people are more inclined to talk and share experiences and tips.