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| I called them Warnum (white) and Tunnel (black) |
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| Approaching Kununurra over the River Ord |
Truckies stopped here to fill up, shower if they needed to freshen up between their distant journeys, a stopover for backpackers wanting to earn money in the Restaruant, selling from behind the counter for takeaways to the weary traveller, providing clean amenities for the stopover nighters, maintaing the grounds. This was an eclectic mix of culture to be seen first hand. To our amazement before we'd left for the Bungles trip we noted the number of stray dogs at the roadhouse. We were very amicably greeted by at least half a dozen although I might add that some didn't look too be in too good shape. However, van parked we'd acquired a couple of visitors and having kept provisions low purposely before we hit a larger town to do more appropriate shopping I really didn't have much to offer the couple of dogs that decided that our van would be all right. I couldn't bear to think that they looked hungry so cooked up some eggs and toast that they were more than happy to receive. Our place was guarded for the day!
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| Sheer force,volume and the noise of water rushing |
Needless to say that when we returned they were still parked under our van.
That night we had for dinner some rice with fish and salad. Knowing that I didn't have anything else for the 2 outside I had just enough salad to keep me happy. My rice and fish was put together and given to the boys. On the day of departure handing in the key, I turned back to the lass behind the counter I asked inquisitively about all the dogs at the roadhouse. She informed me that the local community had abandoned them at the time of the floods in March at the roadhouse and had not returned to collect them. Some had been runover by passing traffic, some had been destroyed, some ran away, some had starved. No one cared for them. As we left I felt so greatful that we'd shared something with them but it was very sad to leave the two behind.
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| Look closely enough in the van in front's rear window....that's us! |
Once over the tears, we stopped mid morning at a freecamp for a coffee meeting with some happy campers who were more than delighted in stepping out of their vans to join us for some new company and an exchange of worthy information on our further journey north once entering
the Northern Territory. With caffeine in the bloodstream, alertness levels perked we set off for the Junction to Kununurra and Wyndham. Once at the junction we stopped, deciding that we were tired to head to Wyndham another 100ks (which meant that we missed the 5 rivers running into one.....what we'll have to do again then!)so we turned right into Victoria Hwy to Kununurra.
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| View of Lake Argyle spillway into the Ord River |
Arriving around 2 in the afternoon on a Sunday with not much open we did some shopping before deciding that we would go another 70ks further to make our stopover for the next 2 nights at Lake Arglye. Well are we so glad we did. This was an oasis in the middle of nowhere. Lake Arglye, Australia's second artificial lake, man-made and dammed in the early 70's. We knew that it was only a 2 night stopover but this was an amazing place of some great history, especially of the Durack family, the sheep farming, the damming of the Lake. We wasted no time on exploring with our bikes the dam, before my gears packed up leaving me to walk all the way back up the hill we'd ridden down. Red can be a nice colour when I wear it but scarlett looks like I'm about to suffer a stroke NOW! not a pretty sight. Let's just say that Daniel, did make it back all the way up the hill back to the park on the bike......show off!
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| Time to rest after a nice wash for the van |
I'd have to say it was probably the first time that we were able to was the car and van since Albany! only because there was the availability of water. We wasted no time in attending to both. Washing the van, the car both inside and out. How great to see how clean and white it looked after only being red for the last 3 months. Righto! chores done, we're heading for THE POOL....let me tell you that this has to be the most photographed pool in Australia! It's called the "Infinity Pool" set right upon the edge of the escarpment with the view flowing over the edge into Lake Argyle (only an aperition). A vision to be treasured, but not only that, the size of Lake Argyle was unbelievable. It is said to be 9 times bigger than Sydney Harbour.
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| There's always work to be done...even when on holiday |
It can only be said that any visitor here, whatever the weather (not that it really gets that cold here) gets into this pool at some stage of their stay and no wonder! We really used this pool, read, chatted with the other swimmers about their travels, where they were heading, some couples from Australia touring for shorter periods, some from Overseas and some with small families deciding to do the big trip taking kids out of school for 12 months.
We were now almost halfway through our trip according to our time frame and only about 37 kilometres from the Western Australian/ Northern Territory border. We would be in Darwin soon............
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Our newest travelling member....welcome to Ca "RA" mel!                  |
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