Aug 2008

We were told to turn up at 7am to get our windscreen installed, and still hadn’t arrived. So told to return at 10:30am. Went and had coffee at our fave Boab Tree (we should be regular subscribers by now!) and arrived at 10:30am on the dot. Found out our windscreen had arrived and we had to come back at 1pm to have it installed and it would be done by 4pm. So we took off to Ivanhoe Crossing. We watched a few cars drive over up to their bonnet in water and then went to Ivanhoe Farms for a bit of lunch. They had the best fed chooks I’d ever seen. They were also not shy at coming over under the shady grassed area where the tables and chairs were to pick up the crumbs that people had dropped. Midget couldn’t believe it! She just wanted to chase these funny two legged creatures. They weren’t that fussed by her, but she had here eyes popping out of her head trying to get them. Luckily she was securely tied to the chair!

Arrived at 1pm and they started work on the windscreen. Watched the final DVD we had hired, Unravelling Florence. An interesting docu/drama about Florence Broadhurst’s incredible life and death. Produced by Gillian Armstrong (so you know its gotta be good), about a fabulous singer/entertainer and later wallpaper designer extraordinaire, while waiting for the windscreen to be finished. Finally hit the road. We were leaving by hook or by crook!

Finally, after 63 days, we’re leaving the state. Took us a while, but have enjoyed the journey immensely so far. Wonder what NT has in store for us…

Bum resting day for us today. Steve has organised to get the Triple J Tours Bus back to Lake Argyle to pick up the bus. We got a quote of $160 for a taxi out there (we worked out the fuel would cost $28 to get out there and back @ $2/L) a bloody rip off! So Triple J came to the rescue, I guess cause we’d previously taken their cruise, so only charged us $25 for Steve to visit.

Midget and I walked into town and had a coffee and read of the paper. A quite and retiring day. An early night was had by all. Even Midget was tired after sitting up unable to sleep for 11 hours (if she’d have fallen to sleep on the kayak she’d have fallen in!).

Saturday 9/8/08
Day 61
Rose early at 6:30am to try and get a good start to the kayaking. By the time we got packed, down to the lower dam, got the car back up to the caravan Park and Steve got a lift back down to the lower dam, we took off at 8:30am.

We had a fabulous spin down the levels and had my first experiences with rapids. So far, so good. There are many rapids and some areas where there are just swirls of weird current, much like we’ve seen just south of the old Mandurah Bridge when kayaking, but these swirls did actually move the kayaks sideways. A bit scary to say the least! Had a few runs through some rapids again, and finally encountered a few islands where we had to choose to go left of right of the island. The next choice was the wrong one, and I went head first into a fallen tree branch knocking me straight over into the water. Steve wasn’t far behind and managed to catch up to me, and grab on to me. We were probably doing 10kms a hour speed with my kayak upside down, me hanging onto his kayak and mine while he tried to steer us down the rapids and out into the quieter water. It was probably another 10 minutes or so that he was able to find a place to stop. After getting a few tree branches up the bum, we finally came to a stop. Steve went off to catch my paddle and I righted my kayak to discover our camera and the dogs lead and my fabulous anti-itching cream had all been lost. A shame. Luckily Midget was on Steve’s kayak and was safe and sound.

I was now cold and wet from head to toe! We scooped out the water in my kayak using the Tupperware container that previously housed my Anzac bickies I’d made for the trip. I had oats and wheatbix and bran from one end of my kayak to the other! :-( Yuk! We eventually got underway again and I slowly started to dry out.

The trip was great. We’d passed through many areas that we remembered from our boat trip, but lots of bits we didn’t remember. The scenery was superb as we appeared to have the whole river to ourselves.

We eventually got through all the rapids and stop to straighten up and try and get the blood flowing back into our bottoms. Oh the pain! We then had a better chance to check out the kayak and really empty out all the compartments. It was a shame that I didn’t properly secure all the hatches as Steve’s jeans and jumper were soaked, but luckily the doona was dry.

We quickly arrived at the Eco-nooing campsite for their first night on their three day, two night trip. We passed the first one at around 11am, so thought we’d keep going. We passed the second one around 3pm, so thought we’d keep going right the way through to Kununurra. As we didn’t have the right gear; ie sleeping bags or swags, a doona and two sheets and pillows isn’t really camping material, so I thought it might be safer to head in to Kununurra. So off we did. I didn’t realise how long the last section of the trip is. The first 50% of the run is down hill. The river drops over 10 metres on that leg, so you are pushed along quite well. The next 25 % is still down hill, but at a slower pace. The last 25 % is past the pumping station that feeds most of the farms on the top level of the dam. So the last part is harder paddling. With an aching shoulder before I began, and a bum that I haven’t felt for most of the afternoon, it was a difficult run. But I have to say paddling in the dark in the moon light; there’s nothing quite like it. We had the river to ourselves and just saw the reflections of the mountains and the riverbanks into the water. This is a really special place.

I have to say Steve really wants to stay here. Buy some land in the irrigated part on the river of course, but we’ve found two properties for sale. One with a mediocre two storey house with probably no solar efficiency at all for $1.4m and about 3 acres of land. Doesn’t seem worth it. The other was the Zebra Rock shop and horrid 70’s house on 13 acres. Under offer – asking price $3.3m. I cant see the value in that at all. You’d have to knock the house over as it was just revolting. The business came with it, and who knows what else – might have been their quarry out of town where they got their rock from… Anyway I cant see a way to affording anything up here. As much as we like it. And, more importantly, we hadn’t seen the “build up”, or as the locals called it, the suicide season, or the divorce season. When the weather starts to really get hot and the thunderstorms abound, and it looks like its raining everywhere around you except where you are, and people go mad. In Kununurra, most vacate during October and November, and if they’re lucky, December as well. They come back in January when its started raining and the relief is in the air. The wet is apparently considerably more pretty in Kununurra than the dry. For starters the Boabs are in leaf and flower. All the trees are leafed up and everything is obviously very green. All the waterfalls are flowing and there are a great many places to visit for weekend trips and outings. We’ve really had a great time in Kununurra.

We arrived back at the Caravan Park at 7:30pm. Just in time for last orders at the restaurant. We had to stand at the bar to eat dinner as we were in pain!

The staff at this place are amazing. Our kindly staff member who has taken our pay as you go payments (waiting for windscreen & deciding if we’re going to kayak down the river or not) virtually on a nightly basis (we stayed for about 10 nights in all) has been wonderful. She even found us a caravan (staff van currently vacant) for us to sleep in since it was particularly cold tonight and we still didn’t know if our doona was actually wet or not! She was so lovely. Also had hour neighbour across the way with a very entertaining cat who’d wait for each dog staying in the caravan park venturing past her front door to put their nose in the annex door, and she’d sit there just about all day long entertaining herself by taking a swipe at every nose to venture where it shouldn’t. It was fabulous to watch from our fabulous vantage point over the way. She invited us to breakfast the next morning which was just so sweet. I do have to say that Kununurra was full of the most fabulous people.

We will miss this place…

Needless to say, there wont be any pics for a few more days...

Today we decided to kayak down the Ord River. So we had a whip around town organising waterproof storage, food and stuff for the journey.

Windscreen still hasn’t arrived. Told to try again Monday. So kayak we shall!

Headed out late in the afternoon to arrive at the Lake Argyle Caravan Park just in time for dinner. Had a great dinner with the Cannonball Run crew and watched a bit of the opening of the Olympic Games.

Spent the night overlooking the jetty. Wasn’t much else to see but the 5 Rivers Lookout. This place was simply stunning. The rivers that meet at the Wyndham Harbour are; the Ord; the Pentacost; the King; the Durack and the Forrest. Quite a stunning sight. I think sunset might have been a better view than early in the morning, but the view was still stunning. There were a few fires around on some of the stations, so it spoilt the view a bit in the distance.

After taking in the view we wandered down back into town and decided we should support the town, so we popped into the bakery for lunch. It was a sad old looking building, with a sign out the front that looks like it was painted about 30 years ago and has never been touched since. It didn’t appeal at all from the street, but inside we met this lovely lady who offered us free tea and coffee and free sauce for your pies – totally unheard of in this day and age! Steve also ordered an apple turn over. It was incredible; totally stuffed with apples. It was amazing. So we can thoroughly recommend the bakery in Wyndham to anyone passing!

Having seen it all, we then headed back to Kununurra to our comfortable campsite.