After The Grotto, came in to the King River Rd from the Wyndham end. Huge salt flats. Past Moocharalbra dam, a bit of rock art, spillway, large prison boab. Found a lovely clearing for the night, and whilst I set up our "penthouse suite" chauffeur tried to land our dinner. The banks of the King River were very steep muddy banks, so hoping it was safe from crocs. There were fishing jumping up everywhere (quite noisily) but none of them were interested in our lures.
Day 1
Wednesday, 20 June 2012Day 2 - King River to Wyndham
Thursday, 21 June 2012Morning started with chauffeur on the banks of the river. Again, fish just not interested. Quite interesting to see the tide come in. We must be 100km inland! And it is as if someone has turned the taps on full blast. Within half an hour the muddy banks are under water and it no longer feels as if we have a 'safe' barrier between us and those killer monsters that lurk in the rivers up here:) by the time we left the banks had appeared again. Had a nice easy morning as it is Michael's birthday and he had a couple of presents to open. A lovely underwater camera from Marion and a traveling companion from us - Connie the. Camel! She is so cute I had quite a hard time letting her go. Eventually we packed up and went passed the Diggers Rest. A lovely station, nestled in close to the Cockburn Ranges. Lovely friendly people. Found out the gossip on why the Kuranjie Rd is closed, a bit controversial and they aren't happy about it as a lot of the traffic through there ended up stopping at the Diggers Rest. Will voice our complaints at the Kununnarra shire when we get there. It is part of the El Questro lease, but the tourist side of it is not interested in the cattle side any more so they leased the land to farmers from SA. They don't want people driving through! Their sign said closed until Juy 1st because of mustering. But Diggers Rest said they finished mustering 10 days ago! I'm u happy to learn that El Questro is leased by an American mob. We brought our lunch into Diggers Rest and spent an hour or so chatting to the very friendly crew there.
Then on into Wyndham. Very characterful little town, cheapest fuel as well, $1.67. Had a chat to some locals on the jetty, then up to the Five Rivers Lookout. Quite an amazing view. Forrest, Durrack, King, Ord and Pentecost rivers flow into the Gulf of Cambridge. Lots of local fires so it is a bit hazy, but a very pleasant sundowner experience. Headed down again to the Wyndham Town Hotel for Michael's birthday tea. The Manger, Sue, is a true character, and entertained us well. Her seafood basket of threadfin salmon and barra was a feast.
Day 3 - Wyndham
Friday, 22 June 2012Croc farm tour very entertaining. The guy who runs it had us amused for 1 1/2 hrs with all the tales (tails:) of his babies. Each croc has a story, and they have all been trouble makers In their youths. Some of them are nearly 100 years old. Used for breeding now to supply an order of 1000 crocs a year. The belly skins sent to Paris for the haute couture, but everything is used, even the eyes - for novelty key chains! Won't be volunteering for any jobs there.
Called in to the fish place, where we found barra, Jew fish, threadfin salmon and croc tail steaks for $22 a kilo. All nicely filleted, caught locally 2 days ago. Filled the freezer, yum! Also filled the fuel tank, and gas bottle and headed out of town to the Marlgu Billabong. Thousands of birds. It is a wetlands nature reserve along the Parry Creek Road. We must have spent a good hour there, spotting the feathery things, and along it's it's Michael's bird book we identified some as well.
A little further along at Buttons campsite, we pulled up for the night, and enjoyed some threadfin. The river 'popped', gurgled and splashed all night. Don't know if it is fish or crocs, certainly not going down to check it out. Chauffeur has bought himself a hand line and threw in a couple of times with a frozen mullet, but they were gone before he knew it!
Day 4 - Kununnarra
Saturday, 23 June 2012A nice drive down Parry Creek Rd into Kununnarra. Ivanhoe Crossing closed as there is work being done on the other bridge and so they are releasing water from the dam, but we still went to look at it, made a good picture even if we couldn't drive over. However, the first thing we did was drive over the other bridge and back out to the other side of Ivanhoe crossing. The first thing that hits you is the greeness, truly verdant! Irrigated farmland everywhere. Reminds me of Mareebra north of Atherton. Gives you a bit of a buzz feeling. Makes me feel hungry looking at all these veges.
Must stop was the Hoochery. Oldest producing Rum Distiller in WA. Very characterful tracker shed converted into the 'tourist' shop but extremely well done. Got all the spiel and the tasting before we decided which variety to buy (it will certainly warm the cockles of our heart on a cold desert night).
Then on to the Sandlewood factory. Same deal there, but more to sample. Came out smelling like the ladies in the Middle East. Very nice, but I had lathered every part of arms and legs with variety of creams and potions and within the hour I felt quite sick and had a sore throat! They were also selling Chia Seeds, which I was thrilled about as we ran out a week ago.
Up to Kelly's Knob which looks out over the town of Kununnarra. This is a very attractive town. The rocky outcrops make a lovely backdrop to the green town. Very different to the Gibb River and the flatness/salt pans of Wyndham.
On to Lake Argyle, another one of my must sees, even if it did mean staying in another caravan park. The drive out is lovely. The rocks so different. CP heaving with people and vans, but we squeezed in and booked a boat cruise as they were being offered half price!
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