Step 80 Dunham River – Kununurra 224 km's

Thursday 23^rd June

For the first time in quite a while it's warm right from the start of the day. In fact we can feel the heat on the side of the van when we wake up. Sorry Melbournians.

In an amazing burst of energy Steve is up early and walking down to the river. All part of my role as editor in chief. On the way in last night I spotted a photo opportunity at the river so I was keen to get back and make sure I captured the shot. Always thinking of you blogsters.

Unfortunately there seemed to be quite a few flies about this morning so it was breakfast inside MM. Not sure how people get used to the insect life but there are plenty of people in the area who ate outside last night and this morning without it worrying them. I know, just call us soft.

Amazingly we set our personal best for the trip and we are on the road by 8:57 this morning.

The Kimberley scenery continues to impress and continues to change as we clock up the kilometres. Plenty of red hills ands greenery today.

You might have noticed: I love the panorama option on my camera

Our travels today take us on a slight detour to Wyndham, a “town” at the junction of five major rivers. Our recommendations have been “it's worth driving in to see the view from the five rivers lookout, but there's nothing much else there”. We have also been told in the last couple of days that for some reason petrol and diesel are 20 cents a litre cheaper than in Kununurra, again for no apparent reason.

It turns out that the lady at the petrol station doesn't share the views of our advisors and spends 15 minutes regaling Di with the delights of “her town”. After a drive around we are leaning more towards our previous advice but we did get to see the Giant Crocodile, to add to our collection of giants (prawn, lobster, banana, guitar.....)

Sage advice on the sign: Do not climb on the crocodile

There was also apparently, a 2,000 (yep two thousand) year old boab tree, but we missed that.

Sandwich lunch in MM up at the lookout and that did not disappoint, magnificent view over the five rivers and the Cambridge Gulf.

This is either one of the (big) rivers or the Cambridge Gulf

Editors note: I know you are all dying to ask. The five rivers are: Ord; Pentecost; King; Durack and (the one I can never remember when telling this story) Forrest.

The Cambridge Gulf was named after the Duke of Cambridge. Not Prince William, the current Duke of Cambridge (who was handed the title by his nan for his performance in the recent “Wedding of the Century”).

The road back to Kununurra passes the other end of the Gibb River Road, the start of which we passed at Derby.

Editors note: The 660kilometre long Gibb River Road was initially constructed to transport cattle from surrounding stations to the ports at Wyndham and Derby. It is now very popular among the 4 wheel drive set who for some reason enjoy taking 20 hours to travel 660 km's all the while having their fillings rattle around in their head as their $100,000 Toyota Landcruiser shakes itself to bits on the corrugations. Did I mention we are soft and non-adventurous, just call me Princess.

Elke taught me how to take photo's like this.
For anybody under the age of 32 this is what 90% of photo's look like
Except that the people in the photo's are younger
And  a lot better looking
(well better looking than the bloke on the right anyway)

This is a grotto
Looks a lot like a gorge
Spectacular though
In the wet season this is a waterfall

Arriving in Kununurra Di again comes through, with the brilliant idea to check in before exploring the town. Managed to get one of the last couple of sites! Booked in for six days, at the Ivanhoe Village Caravan Resort. Ooh ah, resort NOT park, if you don't mind. Mind you the staff are extremely helpful and all very friendly. It's a real pleasure to deal with people who seem to enjoy what they are doing. Must remember that when I get back to work.

Our quick tour of the town reveals that for once we are going to have to shop at Coles. The IGA, not so salubrious.

Editors note: we later found out that the town is a bit crowded at the moment. Not only are we getting into peak grey nomad season but the Turkey Creek community have been relocated here after the floods in March, while the government rebuilds the housing down there. Neither the Turkey Creek mob nor the locals (indigenous and non-indigenous) are particularly happy about the delay in them being able to move home.

In another sign that on this part of the trip paths are always crossing Tony and Jo from Adelaide are two rows across from us in the park resort.

Spent a bit of time over wine o'clock planning out the week ahead and then settled back for a thick cut porterhouse and salad for tea washed down with the last (no really this time it was the last) of our good bottles of red.

After a couple of days without internet we skipped NCIS tonight and caught up with e-mails and internet. Unfortunately we didn't catch up with any multi million dollar Tattslotto wins. Unlike the two people who shared $20 mill on Tuesday and the one person who took out the entire $30mill jackpot on Powerball. I know I could get by with less, but for a brief while I did think I might like the problem of working out what to do with $30 mill.

Friday 24^th June – Wednesday 29^th June

Five nights left here and we are treating this as a holiday week. All this travelling is tiring, not to mention that the diesel budget is way way over this month.

While Wyndham that we visited the other day is one of the oldest towns in WA, Kununurra is one of the youngest. Founded in the 1960's when the Ord River was dammed to form Lake Argyle and to provide a year round source of water. Government researchers apparently had already worked out that the soil in the area would support commercial crops, provided there was a permanent supply of water. Lo and behold, in a miraculous and momentous event the government actually made it happen and the Ord River dam was built and even more amazingly for the relative cheap sum of $23 million. Almost certainly an anomaly, but maybe just maybe governments can get it right sometimes.

Amazing fact for the day: When they open the spillway gates they can release enough water in an hour to give everybody in Australia 100 litres each. Unfortunately there's not enough room around the spillway for everybody to collect their 100 litres so they don't do it very often.

Ooops, there goes my hundred litres

Proof readers note: Well that was very informative Steve, any chance you are going to get on with the story now.

As I mentioned previously, the town of Kununurra itself is not all that exciting but there's plenty of things to see in the area. Thanks to the aforementioned dam and the supporting irrigation channels there are plenty of farms and crops on show. 

Surprisingly the main crop is Sandalwood. I say surprisingly because up until we visited Margaret River in February I didn't know what Sandalwood was or what it is used for. Obviously we all now know that it is a key ingredient in the perfume and soap business. The bad news is it takes 15 years for the Sandalwood to mature to an oil producing level. The good news is the trees in Kununurra were planted 13 years ago, so they are starting to get a bit excited.

Editors note: For those of you saying “Hang on Steve, I heard it takes 35 years for a Sandalwood tree to mature.” I say: “You are thinking of the AUSTRALIAN sandalwood tree. The INDIAN sandalwood, as grown in Margaret River and Kununurra only takes 15 years.” But well done you, good get.

This is NOT a Sandalwood tree
It's a Boab
It takes longer than 15 years to mature

Kununurra is also famous for Zebra Rock. In fact it is the only place in the world where it can be found. Zebra Rock is so named because it is always found in horse shaped blocks and lions love to eat them.

OK, you caught me out again, Zebra Rock is so named because it's stripy. A number of galleries in the area do carvings out of the rock and sell them off to tourists, with jobs. They did have some very attractive pieces including some lovely wine racks and a truly spectacular carved eagle. The eagle would have been really nice to pick up as the sight of the eagles soaring over the road over the Kimberley has been one of our best memories. Never mind, maybe next trip.

This is not Zebra rock (they don't let you take photo's in the galllery)
This is a bougainvillea plant outside the gallery

This is a catfish feeding frenzy.
These fish are exceptionally ugly.
According to a German chef I met once, the uglier the fish, the tastier it is
I think catfish might be the exception to the rule

The weather has also picked up since we arrived here and we are regularly getting highs of over 30, for the first time since Perth, or even before. The nights and mornings are also less cool, so Melbournians can feel a little better for us at last.

On one of our day trips we visited the Ivanhoe Crossing, where the road forms a weir over the river. This time last year Herb drove across it in the new Toerag Toureg. Today the water is flowing across it 3 feet deep and at 80 km/h. Even Herb would not have tackled it!

Somewhere under there is the road Herb drove on
Ask him to show you the video

Even though we are on holiday, from our holiday, this week we did spend one day cleaning and reorganising MM. Right, this time I think we have it sorted. Much less stuff to move from end to end every time we have to go out for the day.

Given we are on holiday this week, we also managed to reinvigorate our social life. As well as a couple of evening catch ups with our new besties from Adelaide we also spent some time with our new neighbours, two couples from Sunbury, travelling in two Maui vans. Newer MMs.

I know what you are thinking, “Steve, Western suburbs people, really?”

Proof readers note: “No, I think they are thinking, Sunbury? Vicki and Herb lived in Sunbury, I wonder if these people know them?”

Oh right. Well funny you mention that because one of the guys is a high school teacher. Lo and behold, he did remember Richard. Well we think he did, but he did remember him as a “good kid” so I'm not entirely sure.

Proof readers note: Of course that was Richard!

He didn't remember Marita but that's because she went to a private school. Most of us did :-)

In a sign of relative civilisation we have phone and internet reception here for the week so we even managed to watch the Dutch Moto GP and the European Formula One GP. Although we did miss the start of the Formula One. We missed the first 37 of 70 laps actually. Turns out the European GP is held on European time, not UK time (surprisingly).

In a sign that we are not completely in civilisation, Northern Territory packaged iced coffee is no good.

In an attempt to civilise me, Di took me to an art gallery in town. Run by a lady, originally from Sydney, who has been living in and painting the Kimberley for twenty years or more. Her most famous work still hangs in the gallery, a 14 meter long, 2 metre high painting of the Bungle Bungles. She has been struggling to find someone with a lounge room wall long enough to hang it so no one has bought it.

This is a mini bungle
It is just outside of the town

Speaking of the Bungle Bungles, the highlight of the week was to be the flight over them and Lake Argyle in a light plane. I must admit the first hour was truly sensational. 

That's our pilot on the left. I think he was about 14
Di says 21

Lake Argyle from the air.
The lake is that big it is classified as an inland sea. Honestly

Some of the bungles

Shortly after this photo was taken I stopped taking photo's
and concentrated on the horizon
and keeping my breakfast down

Unfortunately after the 20 minute loop circling the Bungle Bungles I began to fell less than comfortable. Rumour has it that I did actually turn green! I am blaming Lee from Sunbury who just before we left for the flight told me the story of how he and his nephew were ill on the same flight. The power of suggestion!

The green tinge in this photo is the reflection from my face

Not to worry, the bits I saw were well worth the temporary discomfort.

Proof readers note: Not that temporary, you spent the whole afternoon in bed. Cuddling your bucket.

Editors note: Probably just as well I failed the eye test on my application to join the airforce as a pilot. Could have been a bit embarassing “Sorry lads we are going to have abort this bombing run, the pilot is feeling a bit air-sick”. Tom Cruise was Maverick, Val Kilmer was Iceman. I could have been Sicky La la

The Argyle diamond mine
One of the largest producers of diamonds in the world
Di had to take this photo

No bible quote in this latest update but this week a quote from the back of a Wicked Campervan

Lead me not into temptation

I can find my own way 

Well that's another week gone then. Heading off to Lake Argyle tomorrow for a couple of nights. Lots of people are coming in from the other direction and they are all saying it's well worth a stop, so we will give it a try.

Almost forgot. Pop quiz. How many people knew that in the 1800's there was a plan to create a superstate in the North, called Albert. It was to be formed from parts of WA and Queensland. Eventually they created the Northern Territory instead

Here's a proposed map to show I didn't make that up I seem to have a credibility problem lately.

ps It was to be named Albert, after Queen Victoria's husband. Not Namatjira the aboriginal artist.