Aug 2008

View from out our van back door, across waterway with view of Kelly's Knob in the background. Just beautiful!

A black necked stork, wandering around the Caravan Park without a care in the world! It even put its knee up and posed for photos. Just beautiful creatures!

Today we thought we’d kill some time waiting for our windscreen and head up to Wyndham for a couple of nights. It was a sad forlorn type of town. Had some nice artworks etc, but looked like a town that was hanging on by the skin of its teeth. There only seemed to be one or two newer buildings in town and all the shops and houses were old.

About 30kms before arriving in Wyndham, we turned off to a place called The Grotto. It didnt even have a name. It was the most beautiful spot. I guess a lot of locals go there for a swim and stuff as it has water all year round. We climbed down the 140 odd stairs to the bottom and the water, we were told, was 300m deep! It was just stunning.

view looking back towards the carpark, just before desending the stairs to the bottom.

view of the water hole complete with swing!

The Port Wyndham township (5kms further down the road) was even more run down. Although they had a huge plaque installed for their new floating jetty for the public to use. I have a great couple of pictures of it at low and high tide. The tides are bigger than Broome but I think slightly smaller than Derby.

Low Tide

High Tide

We drove around the whole town and decided to have dinner at the Wyndham pub. It was covered in old pictures, faded and dusty just like the town. We were saddened to read that the Swan Brewery purchased the stunning two storeyed Victorian with wrap around verandah, and then knocked it over and built a brand new asbestos modern hotel and about a dozen rooms. It’s a sad demise to a stunning hotel. The current owners have owned the hotel for 18 years and have had it on the market, for what the locals appear to have said for years. The guy who bought El Questro offered them $1mill for it and she turned it down. I believe its on the market at $3m! It’s a total knock over job. Its not even worth wasting money on paint. Sad. I couldn’t say they’d have the turn over to even justify the price, but there you go.

It appears that since the government meatworks were closed down in 1985, the town hasn’t really recovered. Although the mining companies; Argyle and Sarah Downs or something like that, appear to bus in workers to and from the town, so that; coupled with their exporting their ore etc out of the harbour account for some industry for the town, but really there isn’t much. It’s a shame, as it’s a fabulous place.

Today we had a leisurely coffee and muffin at Boab Tree Café and did a trip out to the Ord River produce store. I have to say its sad there isn’t a single organic producer up here at all. They pay just $3/mega litre (1,000,000 litres!) so I guess no one really cares about trying to do it efficiently, as they just see the as good as free water, but then again, the cost of chemicals and phosphates are now reaching the price of gold, so maybe someone might start looking at organic production up here soon!

We also visited the Hoochery. It’s the oldest running legal distillery in WA – opened in 2000. Amazing, as there are just heaps of them now in the Swan Valley, but these guys were first. He’s an old American guy who likes his rum. Thankfully it doesn’t taste a bit like the sickly sweet Bundaburg Rum. Its actually tastes quite like scotch more than rum.

Today we decided to take the Tripple J Boat Trip. Their reputation preceded them. They picked us up at 11:30am and bused us up to the Durack Homestead. It was removed from the now 25m below the current water level and brick by brick was reinstalled on the current site. I don’t think the concrete floor was part of that, but there were lots of great photos and cheap copies of all the Durak publications. We then were taken to the Lake Argyle settlement. It was originally supposed to be the temporary housing for the workers when they built the dam and then removed. Its now 40 years old and tourist accommodation. It looks a little tired and worn, but well used. We then went to the observation deck to check out the dams before heading down to the boat.

What you can see in this picture (and into the distance), is just 1% of the total water held in Lake Argyle. Its amazing to try and put it in perspective. Apparently it holds 60 Sydney Harbours at capacity so its absolutely enormous. Talk has been made during the trip about the running of the pipeline to Perth, or even the East coast, but the cost is the prohibitive part of the process. Its really interesting. It really evokes a lot of discussions. I guess the election will be interesting. I think the costs far outweigh the benefits...

The boat trip was amazing. We happened to get on the boat run by the owner himself – Jeff. He was amazing. What he didn’t know about the water, dam, birds, bats and wildlife in general, Kununurra’s economy, water use in the area etc, just wasn’t worth knowing! We spent the next 5 hours being entertained by Jeff and his encyclopaedic knowledge, as well as enjoying a fabulous Ord River sunset. We explored lots of different creeks and crevices and some without even names that had the most incredible water flow during the wet season. The place was alive with all manner of plant and animal life. We had a blast. Thoroughly recommend this trip to anyone heading this way!

Steve went out for an all day paddle and fishing expedition, leaving Midget and I to walk into town. We were surprised when we walked just 100m from our campsite past a Cane Toad Trap. It looks like from all predictions, despite from a roundup in September/October this year, they all predict that they will arrive in the Ord by next wet. Sad. It seams a fate-a-complies as they are so prolific a breeders, coupled with such in accessible territory as is found in these parts. The ponds that surround us, are perfect breading grounds for Cane Toads. Better enjoy it while it lasts!

Had a fabulous paddle up through the water creeks to the Ord River this morning. Left early and smothered in sun cream, still managed to get burned! The area is alive with bird lift, fish, amazing plants and the dredded bats. I’ve never seen anything like it. The smell, the sounds, and where we’re parked at the camp ground, at about 4pm each day they start leaving their nests about 1km from us and flying over ready for their nights activities. It takes about 15 minutes for the hundreds and hundreds of bats to fly over. Its just such an amazing sight.

Another glorious day. We headed into town, returned one of our great Art House DVDs we borrowed from the local library. It’s a shame, as the one DVD store in Kununurra has more “quality” films than all the DVD stores in Mandurah put together!

Had dinner at the Barra Shak. Fish was fresh, but service left a lot to be desired. Not on my list of places to return to.

Still cant believe the bird life here in Kununurra. As we are surrounded on 3 sides by wetlands, we are privileged to watch the many water birds at work. Day and night we have ducks, larks, ibis, jacana’s (cute little birds with long legs and skinny long toes that allow them to walk on the water lilies and pond scum as steve calls it. I must admit its hard to paddle through it all, but its such a rich and diverse alive area of Australia. I guess there are the downsides of the Ord River Scheme, but it’s a really picturesque part of WA.

Midget had a bone for dinner, and had a willie wagtail hanging around for ages trying to get a bit. She kept scaring it off, but it wasnt taking no for an answer. The picture shows just how close it got. It hung around for over half an hour trying to scare her away from her bone!

Our neighbour tonight was an amazing girl who's gorgeous boarder collie who was just 16 months old and came in seconds on a whistle and was the most obediant dog I'd ever seen. He was gorgeous and enjoyed playing with Midget. Anyway his owner was a young girl from QLD who was off to get a job mustering along the Gibb River Road and then head home to QLD to get a job on a station. She was just lovely. A true blue dinkie di aussie!