Jul 2008

Camped at the Lions Park at the top of the hill (as the lower waterfront area had the dreaded NO CAMPING sign posted at the end). Came back down in the morning and parked right on the grassy waters edge. The dog had a ball looking for fish and watching the swiftly passing current. Still no sightings of crocs, but as we’re in the lower dam, in the salties area, I’m quite happy of that!

Ventured into town when we could drag ourselves away from the lovely waterside location. The banks are covered in large pandanus trees, paperbarks and lovely acacias currently in flower and smelling so beautifully sweet. The birds are prolific. We’ve seen the largest eagles, cockies and shags we’ve ever seen.

The town is manicured and clean and it has a good range of shops for the size of the town. We’ve been spending most of our time at the Boab Tree Book Cafe. They sell the most amazing muffins and have many books in the café section that they invite you to come each day and read while you’re having lunch etc.

Wednesday 30/7/08
Day 51
Palm Lake – Kununurra
Arrived in Kununurra late in the day after travelling through Warmun. Its really hot and dry. Roads are atrocious as we found out after getting hit by a rock by a 4WD and caravan going the other direction, resulting in a broken windscreen. The edges are missing and all the bridges are single lanes (and there are many of them).

You may have seen or heard about the Boab Tree that was a gift from the traditional owners of Warmun to the people of Perth that recently arrived in Perth after a 6 day trip on the back of a truck. This was removed from part of the road works in order to make way for the upgraded roads.

The government is just starting the $92 million upgrade of hopefully all the roads, and a couple of the worst creek bed crossings (low dips into the creek that have been concreted, but bits wash away every year during the wet season, leaving them pitted and falling apart.

We were listening to a great story about it on the radio as we were driving through it. The contractor is paying mining company comparable rates, and has built brand new dongas at Mabel Downs Station and is offering foxtel and high speed internet as further incentives’ to get workers out to this remote location to work.

See pics etc and the whole story at http://www.abc.net.au/rural/content/2008/s2316400.htm

Today was a long and hot drive. Its dry and dusty on the roads. Arrived in Halls Creek and were really surprised at how many new buildings have gone up, how clean it was, and how much of a different memory of the place we had on our last visit. The alcohol restrictions seem to be working quite well.

Tried to drive out to Old Halls Creek. They had corrugations on their corrugations and it was impossible. Got as far as China Wall and gave it a miss. Were going to stay a few days and do the tour that Pete was going to organise for us of Argyle Diamond Mine, but couldn’t face another corrugated road. Have discovered that our Transit Van seals don’t work. They seem to suck the dust in at every opportunity. The dust comes in through the back doors. The seals aren’t damaged in anyway, they just don’t work. The other place the dust gets in is through the airconditioning when its on recirculate. This seems to also blow lots of red dust throughout the van. So no more dirt roads for us!

Drove off into the sunset and parked about 20kms out of Halls Creek, just past Palm Lake on the side of the road.

Hot Hot Hot!

The weather is getting the better of us (and we’re no where near the Territory) OMG! The dog is dying. I am dying and Steve wont admit he’s dying!

The birds at Mary Pool are fabulous. Herrons, Shags, Cockies, Kites, Eagles, Ibis’, Cranes, just about every bird we’ve ever seen. Given we’re now a long way inland, the changes of water being seen are few and far between, so where there’s water… there is a hell of a lot of birds!

Today we have a collection of all our really bad bird photos. Sorry but my camera doesn’t have a good zoom, but we really did enjoy the fabulous walk!

Crocodile lessons: Freshies are shy, timid, eat frogs and insects and avoid humans, growing up to 3m in length. Unfortunately Salties look similar but eat nothing but people. But you cant tell them apart till one comes to eat you.

Got a late start to a paddle after dropping by the Crossing Inn Markets for their Sunday trade. Enjoyed a lovely hotdog and checked out the local arts and crafts and also some great aboriginal painters travelling around Australia who were currently running the Crossing Inn Art Exhibition. They do cold lunches with tea and coffee, Monday – Friday for $17, if you’re passing…

Arrived at Geike Gorge at 12:30pm to find that public boat (and kayak) access through the “tourist zone” is only till 1pm, and then you’re not allowed back in till after 4pm, but as the park shut at 6:30pm and its dark by 5:30pm, we would have only had 1.5 hours of kayaking, we spent 15 minutes trying to find the ranger to ask further questions, but to no avail, so decided to make a break for it.

We got back at 4pm after several hours out on the water, with Steve having to explore every bat cave and crevice between here and the end of the gorges! It was 2 hours before we saw our first boat, and we managed to sneak past before they returned from a walk. The second boat we spied must have dobbed us in with the ranger who gave us a polite but firm talking to on our arrival back at the boat ramp.

We spotted an Azure Kingfisher, see not so good pic – look closely and see its huge beak. Completely out of proportion to its squat little body but its just so bright and cute. We also saw schools of Longtoms. The batcave was absolutely disgusting, and I’m sure the smell permiated our nostrils for the rest of the afternoon. Midget would have wet herself had she got a whiff of that!

So short pathetic history in Geike Gorge. Its part of a previously submerged Devonian reef. 2km thick and 350 million years old! It extends from Fitzroy Crossing out to the ocean above Kulumbaru and back down to Kununurra. Most is still submerged except for a few parts like Geiki and Kununurra.

I think this last picture sums up the size of the place most impressively. You can see how Steve is just dwafed by the sheer size of the rock wall. Bear in mind our kayaks are quite long at just under 5.5m long!

our end of the river, just outside of the National Park boundary. We had the park all to ourselves and had a lovely quiet and peaceful night.

This place is magic! :-)