LAKE ARGYLE TO KUNUNURRA

Remember those days when you used to be able to wash the car with a hose?  Great slave labour, though!!

At Ivanhoe Crossing

The Kununurra Hoochery - rum not as good as Bundy!

Sunset at Kelly's Knob overlooking Kununurra

Sunset at Kelly's Knob

The Girls

The Boys

DAY 40 – LAKE ARGYLE – KUNUNURRA                                 Thursday, 11^th August

As our body clocks are still adjusting, everyone is still up well before 5:30am at the moment (except for Tess, of course!)  So we showered, dressed, had breakfast and washed the car, all before 7:30 in the morning!!  We farewelled Peter and Kath, from Perth, who had kindly shared their wine (since we were all out and don’t have a fridge to keep it cold even if we did have some!) and their knowledge of WA with us the previous evening.  Off to Kununurra ….

We arrived very early – too early to check in – so did some shopping and spoke with a lovely lady in the Information Centre about what we are going to do in Kununurra.  After checking in, getting a ride around the park in a golf buggy picking out our site (kids were very funny when they saw us and all raced to catch up and get in too – seven people in a golf buggy must be a record!), we then set off to explore Kununurra.

We went first to Ivanhoe Crossing which is passable sometimes in the dry season but the wet season has been so prolific this year that it is still not passable and they only have two months until the start of the next wet season.  They just have SOOO much water here, they have no idea what to do with it all.  And the water is beautiful.  We have been filling up our caravan tank because we have been told the water down the west coast is all bore water and very brackish.

Went to one of the stonemason’s here who cuts the famous Zebra Rock, driving through all the amazing crop growing here.  75,000 hectares under crop, thanks to the damming of the Ord River and the Diversion Dam at Lake Kununurra.  Just amazing.  Then out to the Hoochery for a taste of their rum which, is the oldest surviving legal distillery in WA.  The Sandalwood Factory is out there too and it was interesting to watch the video on the production of Sandalwood here and how it is grown.  We couldn’t work out why it seemed to be planted in amongst other plants in what seemed like a very ad hoc manner, but it is a parasitic tree which needs host trees to feed off.

We went up to Kelly’s Knob at sunset for a great view of Kununurra.

David was given some great advice when he talked to people about fishing and whether there were crocodiles in the water.  He was told not to worry too much and if he wanted he could get a dog from the pound and make sure the croc gets that before it gets you!  Sorry Dee, I know that it appalling but apparently that is what the locals do!!