Tyhjennä haku
Kat and SilvieKat and Silvie
SatelliittiMuokkaa reittiä
Asuu: Western Australia, Australia Lue lisää Western Australia, Australia
  • MatkaajaKimberley 2023
    1
    Päivä 18

    Bungle Bungles - Southern Part

    17. toukokuuta 2023, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    After another good night sleep we got up early to explore the Southern Walks. The drive there was only 12km and the road was pretty good.
    Even before reaching the starting point of the walks we were wowed by the scenery unfolding in front of us. The domes were popping up as well as endless fields of flowering wattle trees with bright yellow flowers.
    To our happiness, we were the first ones to arrived to the carpark - yes we had it all to ourselves! To warm up, we started with the 700m short loop around the Domes - it was breathtaking - better than we have ever imagined. From The Domes we visited Cathedral Gorge, it was getting quite warm and thankfully this gorge offered quite a bit of shade and breeze to cool down. We were surprised with the amount of the toads 🐸 everywhere, some completely dried lying in various positions on their backs looking like they have been poisoned. Some parts were quite stinky as they were decaying- pretty gross so it was the best to lift our heads and admire the beauty of the surrounds rather than looking on the ground. Cathedral Gorge was spectacular and Kat tried the acoustic producing some superb singing. Yes, the acoustics were fantastic, the rest has a room for improvement 😂. We continued walking through the Piccaninny Creek that was mostly dried out with some sections having still heaps of water and fish in. Some section of the creek floor already resembled mini Bungle Bungles in the
    making… lets give it another 360 million years and pop they will be there… we found a shady spot to enjoy coffee and breakfast while also feeding our eyes on the natural show in front of us.
    We proceeded to walk to Whip Snake Gorge and got lost on the way despite quite clear instructions and signage… lets blame the heat for that 😉… the gorge was very nice and did not have that many toads 🐸 there. We heard some interesting sounds there, like someone is trying to pop a balloon…. So I went to investigate… holly guacamole I did not expect what I saw… a crow got himself one of the big toads 🐸, with the beak grabbed it by its leg and turn it over on its back. Then stood up on the frog legs and started to peck into the blown up frog belly… it went on and on until it popped and the crow managed to open the belly, ate a bit of insides and left it there… So at least we know now that none of the toads we saw earlier were poisoned but pecked to death. It is fascinating how nature learns to deal with the intruders and tries to eliminate the invasive introduced species.
    Besides to that disturbing view, the rest was simply magical. Being surrounded by all this beauty! How lucky we are! We may not have a lot of historical buildings/recorded history in Australia but we have much more…
    On the way back we also stopped at the Piccaninny Creek Lookout that yet again provided an amazing view over the differently shaped domes from every angle. It also had some very much needed shade and a good breeze so we sat down to enjoy the beauty and also our lunch. We arrived to the carpark that was rather full and sat down under the shaded area, in no time we were joined by group of tourists that looked exhausted, turned out they just walked 2km… the good thing was that the tour organiser was handing out some cold wet towels to freshen up and they even gave us some! It was fantastic, cooled us from outside while our (still) cold beer did the job from inside 😂. All together we walked about 15km today and loved it.
    I am quite amazed by the double-barred finch birds, they look like miniature owls and are everywhere! We have seen a lot of different birds today including a beautifully coloured kingfisher.
    We got to our home late afternoon, Kat had a shower in our improvised tree shower and I was just reading my book enjoying the ‘noise’ all the birds make. We will make some dinner now and get ready for tomorrow’s adventure.
    Today, was a fantastic day, definitely one of the best on this trip……..we are in love with the Bungles!!!!    Lue lisää

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  • MatkaajaKimberley 2023
    1211
    Päivä 17

    Warmun (Turkey Creek) to Bungle Bungles

    16. toukokuuta 2023, Australia ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    It was a night full of anticipation - is the battery going to be charged or not?
    I don’t even know how many dreams I had about exploding batteries and at some point I even woke Kat up as I smelled something burning. Thankfully she reminded me of the bush burning that was happening around Warmun as we were arriving.
    Anyway, the battery was charged, we only had to wait for the last phase to complete and it was ready to be re-installed. Kat hooked it up as I am scared that I will get zapped despite being reassured that it is not gonna happen… We packed up and headed to the Warmun Art Centre were we treated ourselves to a small painting to remember this beautiful part of the world.
    The drive to the Bungle Bungles (BBs) was not long but once we left the main road and got onto the road leading to BBs the fun started. We were told yesterday that the road has just been graded, well we cannot even imagine how it has to be like in the middle of the season then. We did the 56km in just under two hours! We stopped counting how many river/water crossings we did, the road was challenging and definitely not boring. The country side just simply spectacular. We crossed a big bull that looked like he would like to have a counter match with our car and also a very skinny doggo that looked a bit sad. I was driving and Kat was holding onto the handle for her life….hahaha… even though we took it pretty slowly we were quite shaken when we arrived to the tourist centre. It opened just a few weeks ago and looks great. Modern, functional and blends in.
    We checked in and went to find out spot, the site we chose is quite large and shaded, very nice. After setting ourselves up and having a bit of a beer break we headed to a nearby spot to to see the sunset. It was magic, the sunlight reflecting on the rocks created spectacular colours. It was so peaceful… until the bus with tourist arrived. The group of older tourists got out of the bus, and started buzzing around the place. Their crew pulled out the chairs and alcohol for the ‘sunset party’ to start. It was quite entertaining. We left them there and went back to our home. Happy to say, battery is still in green - it definitely did not charge while we were driving but maybe it will get some boost from the solar that we hooked up to the camper trailer just in case it decides to work - fingers crossed 🤞🏻
    We had a lovely dinner and managed to drink another bottle of sparkling. We are sitting outside, it is a balmy night with a slight breeze and a beautiful sky full of stars.
    We are surrounded by toads 🐸 some of them are rather big… let’s hope they will leave us alone….
    Just a few facts about BBs. - they are located in the Purnululu National Park that is part of UNESCO World Heritage List since 2003 for exceptional natural beauty and geological importance. The Bungle Bungle Range includes extraordinary array of banded sandstone domes and is divided into the northern and southern parts. The orange banded domes are the most exceptional examples of cone karst formations in the world. The grey banding is a coating of Cyanobacteria, which has grown on moist areas. The orange bands are due to the colour of oxidised iron compounds which have dried up too quickly for the bacteria to grow. The domes are made of sandstone deposited 360 million years ago. Erosion by creeks, rivers and weathering in the past 20 million years has carved the beehive domes shapes and formations. The BBs have more then 140 bird species, 85 reptiles, 32 native mammals, 12 frog species and even fresh water crabs.    Lue lisää

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  • MatkaajaKimberley 2023
    1
    Päivä 16

    El Questro to Kununurra and Turkey Creek

    15. toukokuuta 2023, Australia ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    Had a really nice afternoon yesterday after the walk. We just sat in shade and read our books and relaxed. We were also contemplating the morning plan consisting of illegal charging of the camper in the main camp…
    I finally managed to Kat’s dislike to change the Canasta score. It will not last long as Kat is pretty determined to change that soon again!!
    We got up early to execute our plan, packed up the camper which was a bit harder than usual as the canvas was pretty damp. We parked it at the main camp in one of the empty powered sites and hooked our camper trailer to power to see what happens. We were charging the camper trailer for more than an hour and to our disappointment the battery did not charge at all. So we decided to execute plan B - call all repair services or auto electricians in Kununurra. Unfortunately, they were all booked out weeks ahead and some just simply advised that they only service locals and not tourists.
    The El Questro staff advised to contact the Auto Pro service which we did and I spoke with a guy who sounded like he could help us out although I must admit he sounded a bit different. Anyway, beggars cannot be choosers so we headed back to Kununurra.
    Well, that was a bit of waste of time although we went back to the ice cream shop because ice cream solves everything 😂.
    The guy in the shop confirmed that there is power output from the solar panels, power output from our car but supposedly the batteries are so depleted that the little voltage coming from either the solar or car will not make a sufficient charge. He also said that the voltage thingie mounted in the camper trailer is maybe faulty but he was not sure… in the end we don’t think he was sure of anything so we decided to pack up the camper trailer and continue with the trip. We took the battery in the car and since I have also packed the battery charger for this trip, we decided to charge the battery over night at the caravan site in Turkey Creek. We also got a back up cool box and ice so we survive our 4 days in the Bungle Bungles without any power.
    We stocked up on more bread and water and headed to Turkey Creek also known as Warmun.
    We are lucky, there is only another caravan and that is all. We parked on the site where we have access to a power pole that we completely hogged. We plugged in our fridge/freezer that we have put on the lowest temperature possible so it lasts a bit longer when we leave tomorrow. We also plugged in the buttery that is getting bulk charge and hopefully will be ok for tomorrow’s re-installation to the camper trailer and we also hogged a third power pole that we use to charge our personal items e.g. watch and phones 😂😇
    We had a nice diner and will be heading to bed soon as we both feel a little tired today.
    We got some great news today - the road to Bungle Bungle has just been graded so fingers crossed the drive will not be as painful as we thought.
    Alfi also got a house sitters changeover today and we are sure he will miss Kathleen heaps.    Lue lisää

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  • MatkaajaKimberley 2023
    11
    Päivä 15

    El Questro Day 4 - Amalia Gorge

    14. toukokuuta 2023, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Well well well…. I am afraid the boat cruise was a bit of false advertising! It should be called party boat/booze float…. OMG my recollection of yesterday’s afternoon is somewhat limited. We boarded the boat at 3pm and so did other retirees. Off we went down the Chamberlain Gorge that is 150km. We only did probably 300 m 🙈… the nature was stunning, but could not see any animals including any crocodiles instead after cruising the 300m for about 25min we stopped and were handed some pellets that strongly resembled pellets we feed our alpacas with… the instructions were clear - stick your finger out and the small fish will collect water in their mouth and spit it to the finger - target. For that we were supposed to reward them. There was also a second activity going on which I totally engaged in… the bottles of sparkling wine were opened and the refreshing drink was offered… I think I must have been quite thirsty after all day so in the ‘activity time’ I manage to have maybe three glasses 😇… the cruise became much more interesting. I even saw a bird and when showing it to Kat I completely forgot about the spitting fish and foolishly I have pointed with my finger over the water towards the bird…. I got a full on spit into my open eye…. Perfect aim…. Left me blind and speechless for a second…
    Anyhow we have completed the cruise and Kat drove me home where I whipped up risotto for dinner and sandwiches for today’s walk.
    To our disappointment the solar panels were not charging the batteries so we were not using any lights or anything except of the fridge. But we are still loving our new campsite !👍🏻The batteries were not charged for last 5 days except for the short drive from Kununurra to El Questro.
    We played canasta last night - 3 games as usual and in some luck I managed to turn the score. Kat did not seem to digest this and requested a 4th game and she whipped my ass again… oh well there is always tomorrow 😉
    I finally set up my camera for some night photography so did a little bit of shooting only to discover that Kat’s phone takes better night photos with minimal effort… hmm 🤔

    We got up really early today to discover that the batteries are not capable to run the fridge anymore. Thankfully we have some frozen bottles of water in so if we don’t keep opening it it will last for tomorrow. I will also try to charge it a little with the car when we get back.
    We were at the Amalia Gorge walk just after 7am, we were the first ones. The track was not great - pretty much a walk on the bottom of the river bed that had no water. The trail was only stones, sand paths were minimal. We had to do some - in our eyes - challenging rock climbs. In one section they had chains but the other sections were just unsupported and we had to engaged all limbs and bums…
    Although the track was not that foot friendly, the scenery was amazing. White paperbark trees, palms, running clear water and pools, red rock, sun and light breeze… just wowsie!
    Amalia Gorge was impressive, the waterfall was quite high. The water was freezing cold and we only braved it in up to the knees.
    While we were there we munched on our breakfast and also lunch to help with the nervous breakdown experience of climbing the rocks and the vision of doing it again on the way back.
    We left Amalia Gorge and headed for a swim at the pool just below - Ochre Pool. The descent was challenging and at some point onlookers even gave a Kat an applause when she did make it.
    We were amazed to bumped to a mother and daughter duo who were shoeless and had a baby `~5 months old….that they carried just freely on their hip. When we saw them crossing the part with the chain and the kid literally hanging in the air we had to look away… Cannot even imagine how they walked bare feet on the rocks that were stinky hot! Crazy.
    We made it back to the base where we are refreshing with another cold ginger beer, using the wifi and downloading info how to connect solar panels to the batterie to see if the dude in the workshop did it correctly.    Lue lisää

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  • MatkaajaKimberley 2023
    11
    Päivä 14

    ELQ Day 3 - Zebedee Springs

    13. toukokuuta 2023, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    We had a little exciting afternoon yesterday as we discovered that our site was so shady that it did not let any sun through to charge our camper battery… there was no way we would wing it for another 3 days. So we drove back to the station to ask if they have any other more sunnier site available. Luckily for us they had two sites, so off we went to check them out, the first one was just open space with no shade what so ever and the second one was just perfect with he right ration of shade and sun. So we drove back to the station again to let them know we picked site #17 Brolga.
    Unfortunately it was already after 5pm so there was no way we could have made the move in day light as the sunset here is at 5.03 pm and last light at 5.32 pm.
    We decided to have dinner instead, play canasta and get up early to do the move.
    Kat has again, completely trashed me in cards…. I cannot catch up with her score…. Fingers crossed for tonight. We went to bed reasonably early and after reading we drifted to lalaland.
    Got up at 5.45 am ready to for the move. Packed up everything and drove to site #17 where all the drama unfolded. One would think it will be a smooth operation but reality proved different. I could not reverse the trailer to a good position and quickly lost my cool and when it was in kinda a good spot, not too close to the grass, not too close to the tree etc. we unhooked it, only to witness the front trailer jockey wheel slightly collapsing lowering the front significantly 😱 my worse nightmare was unfolding in front of my eyes…. Thankfully, we had the hydraulic jack that we quickly put under and lifted the trailer up again, hooked it to the car so I could breath again. I think I need to take more of the vitamin Bs these days….
    Kat got behind the wheel and put the camper in a good spot. The trailer jockey wheel seems a little wonky or we are now just paranoid that it will give it away, so it is supported by the hydraulic jack as well as the red stabiliser stand we have. It would be great to have a supportive leg on the trailer……..
    After this rather time consuming exercise, we were too late to start the Amelia Gorge walk so we changed the plans for today and decided to head to the thermal pools at Zebedee Springs instead. But before we left our station, Kat whipped up an amazing breakfast - scrambled eggs with vegetables in a wrap. Yummy 🤤
    Kat was the driver for today and did the Pentecost River crossing like an absolute pro.
    The walk to the Zebedee Springs was short, there were quite a bit of people there but we managed to find a private pool where we pruned our bodies in the water of about 28 degrees Celsius. That was a rather pleasant experience after the chilly Emma Gorge….
    On arrival to the main camp, Kat organised our boat river cruise to happen today rather than yesterday. So at 3pm we will be heading to Chamberlain Gorge and tomorrow we will do the Amelia Gorge day trip. So all worked out well in the end. We are just enjoying a cold ginger beer, waiting for our delicates to wash so we are somewhat presentable while using the local wi-fi.    Lue lisää

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  • MatkaajaKimberley 2023
    Päivä 13

    Emma Gorge

    12. toukokuuta 2023, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    An early morning following another sleepathon…. Good 10 hours!!!! Gosh how will we even function back in ‘normality’ without our extensive beauty sleeps!!!
    Finally slept like a log, it was nice a quiet and the bed is also levelled so we are not rolling anywhere. I was even cold during the night, I guess there is some coldness/dampness coming from the near by river.
    Today’s program was a trip to Emma Gorge. We left the main camp through the dreaded water crossing - managed to stall the car twice while crossing the water!
    It took about 45 min to get to the Emma Gorge Resort where the walk started from. The carpark was rather deserted - it guess it was too early….
    There were only two couples ahead of us. The walk started rather eventfully. In the first 500 metres I almost step on a snake 🐍, black, skinny and long thing that I did not even see next to my left foot. That was lucky phew, my closest encounter so far… this only to be followed by a rolled ankle, twisted knee and not so soft landing on the rocks…. Anyhoo, after that all was going smoothly 😉
    The walk was very ‘wobbly’ and took a lot of coordination and mountain goat skills, it took us forever, and we were just imaging Sally Ma. or Rusty going through it in no time 🐐 🐐…
    We reached the Emma Gorge while the second couple was just leaving. Believe it or not, we had it to ourselves! I braved it in the water and ‘freezing’ does not describe the feeling I had when I submerged…. Even my internal fat did not manage to block the coldness… it was beyond refreshing and perfect for my injured ankle and knee, I headed towards right side as supposedly there was meant to be some warm water coming in… sadly, I did not find it…..🤪 I have braved it to the water twice and then we just sat around and enjoyed the peaceful and beautiful scenery. In about an hour a small group of elderly man arrived so we left and headed down to Turquoise Pool - which was beautiful and somehow seemed a bit more inviting than Emma Gorge. The sun was shining through the clear water so I hopped in again - this was a completely different experience. The water was not very warm but at least I could feel my limbs…the fish were swimming everywhere around and I managed to hype up the experience so much that even Kat got it!
    We have enjoyed the pool for a good hour before people started arriving. We left when a small but very loud group of First Nation youngsters arrived. They started feeding the fish with their beef jerky and where just shouting and being ridiculous - yes, our tolerance level for non-sense is really low… 😇😇😇
    On the way back to the carpark we encountered heaps of groups, some even with speakers playing music… no comment….
    We had a refreshing ice coffee at the local establishment - absolute bargain - $9 for both!!! May have to go back…hehehe… kidding.
    We arrived back to El Questro, passed the water crossing with no hiccups this time and attended our domestic duties - clothes washing… the use of pretty new washing machines is free of charge. Kat opted for a shower while I parked it in the pub, enjoying a cold Matso’s Ginger Beer, writing this diary entry and observing helicopters landing and taking off. The main camp is the only place we have signal so as we are heading back to our ‘home’ now, good bye until next time    Lue lisää

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  • MatkaajaKimberley 2023
    22
    Päivä 12

    El Questro, site #20 Willy Wagtail

    11. toukokuuta 2023, Australia ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

    We got up early this morning as we decided last night to be on top of Kelly’s knob for the sunrise. The walk to the top and the view was very nice - a great way to start the day.
    We packed up our camper and headed back to Kununurra town to explore another aboriginal art gallery - Waringarri Aboriginal Art located under Kelly’s knob. They had some cool art, including some paintings with Wandjinas.
    That was a very nice stop, just what we needed before we made our way into Coles to replenish our food supplies to last us for El Questro as well as Bungle Bungles. It was so freaking cold in Coles so we were happy to get out back in the sun. Got ourselves a coffee and chips for lunch and as a desert we went back to the ice cream shop. Kat was very happy again… the portions were massive, even the kiddy scoop was enormous. To my disbelief, Kat has declared that even though she loves ice cream, the scoop she got was difficult to finish…. But she did….hehehehe….
    At 12pm the bottle shop opened, the drive through cue was impressive…. We walked in, got ourselves some beverages and headed towards El Questro. It took less than an hour to turn into Gibbs River Road and another maybe 40 minutes to arrive to our final destination. The road was very damaged and at times we had to drive through deep water - thankfully we had a car ahead of us who was our Guinea pig so we at least knew how deep the water was before we crossed. Unfortunately, on the way we could see that a number of the gorges are closed and the access roads washed out. On arrival to El Questro we, especially Kat, were welcomed by the wondering donkey. Kat gave her an ear scratch and the donkey even brayed to her! We were later informed not to touch her or go near to her as she is known to bite and run into people….. Kat - The donkey whisperer….
    We parked at our site which is very private and about 5 km from the main camp. We are close to the river, can hear it but cannot see it. We have a sign here about the crocodiles and not to swim in the river - that will not be a problem hehehe…
    After dinner we headed back to the main camp to book ourselves in for a river cruise on Sunday that should take us to Chamberlain Gorge that is otherwise unaccessible.
    Tomorrow we will head to Emma Gorge, - an all day trip.    Lue lisää

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  • MatkaajaKimberley 2023
    1
    Päivä 11

    Kununurra and surrounds

    10. toukokuuta 2023, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    An early morning for me while Kat was snoring away. A beautiful sunrise over the Lake Kununurra. I poked Kat awake around 6ish as I could not lie in the bed anymore. Made us some breakfast - scrambled eggs, coffee and we headed to Mirima National Park which is located only a few kilometres out of town. We walked all the available walks in these mini bungle bungles and enjoyed the views and some Aboriginal art. Yet again, we were amazed by the true blue Australians conquering level 5 walks in thongs… the temperature today was very pleasant hovering around 28 degrees with breeze. We were done with the walks before lunch time when Kat gave me a homework to find an ice cream shop. Luckily for me, Dr Google suggested the only ice cream shop in town that definitely exceeded expectation of my ice cream head Kat. The choice was impressive, they were selling Simmos Ice Cream and had about 20 to choose from. Kat was in the heaven.
    We also went to the local Aboriginal Art centre and got us a small carved boab nut.
    After the refreshing break we went to see some Zebra stone products on someone’s property 5km out of town. They had some cool stuff and we splashed out on some Astronomite jewellery. In the near by farm they were selling some papaya so we got ourselves one and I’m looking forward trying this fruit tomorrow.
    We checked out another zebra stone shop in town and it was equally impressive. What a unique stone!
    In the afternoon, we drove 25km out of town to check out Galgiba - Molly Spring - it was 6km from the main road accessed by dirt road. It was really pretty, like a little oasis with running waterfall and little but quite deep lagoon. The water was nice and warm and we could not see any 🐊…. We were the only people there, it was very peaceful.
    Following the Molly Spring we headed via another off road tract to Valentine’s spring that was also very pretty and had a sign to be aware of 🐊 🐊 🐊 , so we threaded lightly around and thankfully did not see any.
    We then headed back ‘home’ and checked out Gummy who is just on the side of the lake. Poor thing, people feed him with bread! That cannot be good for him…
    We took a few beers and some very ‘healthy’ snacks to go with it to a bench where we just sat and overlooked the lake while the sun was going down putting on a beautiful light display.
    We had a really nice day, more relaxed, taking it easy…. Just what the doctor ordered. Tomorrow we will be relocating to El Questro.
    Oh and we just was the International Space Station passing by….    Lue lisää

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  • MatkaajaKimberley 2023
    1
    1
    Päivä 10

    Lake Argyle to Kununurra

    9. toukokuuta 2023, Australia ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    Another very windy night and morning…. Gosh we were so lucky with the weather for the swim. By the way the results are in and the Moirskateers Team ended up in an amazing 6th position in the 20km quad swim (out of 27 teams) with the final time of 5 hours, 33 min, 20 seconds. Overall, in 65th position from a total of 122 teams.

    We packed up at Lake Argyle and headed to Kununurra, having a short stop at the Hootchery again to buy something something for someone 🤫. We have arrived to the KimberleyLand caravan park just before lunch time. We left the trailer there and headed to Wyndham, the most northerly located town in Western Australia. The drive there took a good hours and was another display of a beautiful scenery. Wyndham was interesting, quite run down but had some good history. Established in 1884 when gold was discovered in Halls Creek. The original town is now called Wyndham Port Town with only a handful of people there (although there was rather large police station…), the town moved more inland to Wyndham 3 mile. They moved the town as the daily tides risen and fell by 8.3 meters and because of that the original town was not able to be expanded. Wyndham is one of the hottest places in Western Australia with the average daily maximum temperature reaching 36 degrees. Luckily for us, it was balmy 28 degrees today - almost jumper time…hahaha.
    We visited the small museum in the original Wyndham that had quite interesting stuff there. They even had a ‘Czechoslovakian’ gun made in Brno on display. Heaps of old photos and some old cigaret commercials with totally unacceptable slogan’s if judged by today’s standards. We also saw Kim and Chris’s boat parked in the harbour waiting for the passengers to arrive.
    On the way from the original Wyndham we stopped by in a cool caravan park to have a look at the biggest boab tree… it was big indeed!
    Oh and I almost forgot to mention the unforgettable lunch at the local bakery… Kat had a barramundi pie and I tried the crocodile pie….it was… different, unusual… ok…. Not to be repeated any time soon,
    Before leaving the ‘newer Wyndham’ we drove up to the 5 river look out. Pretty steep drive up the hill with fantastic views across the land. Pretty spectacular and would be interesting to see that when it is flooded.
    We then headed back to Kununurra but felt tempted by the Parry Lagoon Park so we turned off on dirt road and travelled to Marlgu Billabong. It was a 6km one way dirt road in the middle of nowhere. The first lookout was at the Old Telegraph Line and we were quite stunned by the view. Heaps of boabs and wetland in front of us. We saw another car in the distance and decided to continue on the dirt road until it finished. We arrived at the billabong and it was absolutely beautiful. So many different birds were flying around, the wetland had a variety of lotus flowers, it was so peaceful with sun going down throwing a orange light on the dried grasses and water. It very much reminded us of Kakadu National Park. We met two local ladies there who confirmed that to their knowledge there are 5 salt water crocodiles living there. Did not see any so we think there were fibbing….hahaha….
    Kat drove us back home and again we very much enjoyed the sunset light reflecting on the red rocky boulders. We arrived to Kununurra in dark, assembled our ‘chamber’ and made ourselves a dinner including frozen garlic bread made on a pan…. That was a first and it kinda worked.
    We are based next to the lake so mosquitoes are going crazy here, we have lathered ourselves in anti mosquito stuff head to toe, have citronella candles going like there is no tomorrow and also have the mosquito repellent on….. fingers crossed we will survive with no bites. We were also told by the caravan staff there they have 3 fresh weather crocodiles here, one supposedly lives next to our spot… and has no teeth so they call him gummy - poor thing. Hopefully we can see him tomorrow. May prepare some purée snack for him 😉    Lue lisää

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  • MatkaajaKimberley 2023
    12
    Päivä 9

    4th day on Lake Argyle

    8. toukokuuta 2023, Australia ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

    It looked like we will take off last night, the wind gusts were incredible and we were just waiting for the camper to collapse on us.
    Got woken up by the rising sun so decided to head to the infinity pool to do some nut butter photo shoot, only to discover that we were too early (that’s a first) and the pool was still closed. The photo shoot progressed regardless with some improvisation…
    Instead of the pool dip, we grabbed our yoga mats and exercised under the boab tree which was very nice.
    After breakfast we headed a few kilometres down the road to the Durack’s homestead to get some facts about this rather interesting Lake Argyle. The homestead was 80% made from the original homestead built by the Durack family and was actually flooded in the lake. Every single stone was removed and transported to Kununurra where it was stored before relocated closer to Lake Argyle and rebuilt. Patrick Durack, Irish man, bought the land in late 1800 and decided to move his stock from Queensland over to the Kimberley. They planed the move will take about six months but in the end it took 2.5 years. They lost most of the stock on the way and although he was a rich man in Queensland, due to some poor decisions made by his brother, he lost everything and had to start from scratch again. Lucky he put the land in Kimberley in his son’s name so he did not lose this too. Anyhow, they were a rather big family and in the end they sold the land to the government. Gosh what a hard life they had, working their guts out in terrible conditions.
    The homestead also had a video playing about the actual built of the Lake Argyle dam wall. How very interesting. We just cannot imagine how it could flood so quickly that people had to move in a hurry and animals had to be rescued (operation Noah). Lake Argyle is classified as open sea and we have been told the waves can be 2-3 m high and winds can be incredibly strong.
    After the homestead we headed to Kununurra to meet up with our friends Kim and Chris. They rescued us during our last road trip to Karijini when they appeared from nowhere and helped us to sort out our punctured tyre situation. They are from Melbourne and have stayed with us on the farm about a month ago when they took an extra detour on their travel to come and see us. They have flown into Kununurra from Broome today and will hop on a week long cruise going around the top end of Northern Western Australia. We picked them up from their hotel and headed for the lunch at the Hootchery, the oldest continuously operating legal still in Western Australia. The time with them was great and I feel very lucky we bumped into them and remained friends. Hopefully we will see them again sometime.
    We arrived back to the camp ground to find it deserted! Yey people are gone! I used the opportunity to fly the drone quickly as I knew the helicopter flights were not in the air as the pilot took a day off today…
    We now just sit outside, drink some beer to deter any MVE infected mosquitoes and watch the sky full of stars. It is a first night when its dark enough for the stars to make their full appearance. The cards are on the table, waiting for the score to be turned…hehehehe….    Lue lisää

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