RossAroundTheBlock: Kunnunurra , El Questro, Bungles then to Wyndham

Thursday 7.7.2011: 20 degrees - 32 degrees, sunny and windy. Today our plans have changed as Kimberley Air rang first thing to say they were cancelling this afternoons tour as they were having maintenance problems, and offered us a flight on Saturday morning or our money back, so we accepted the Saturday morning flight and decided to have a rest day, sitting back looking at the lake and catching up reading.

Cockburn Range

Friday 8.7.2011: 21 degrees - 33 degrees, sunny. A 7 am pick up for a trip to El Questro, a million acre cattle property and resort in the Kimberley area, we traveled on the Great Northern Highway for 58 kilometers turning onto the Gibb River Road which is red dirt with lots of red rocks and corrugations, red coloured rocks and escarpments with green trees and spinifex grass everywhere is stunning, after the big floods they have had. We drove along the base of the Cockburn Range then turned into Emma Gorge Resort and walked up the Gorge to the spring at the top, very cool pool, but very, very warm walking in 30 degree heat, a very difficult walk over lots of uneven rocks. We walked back down the gorge and had morning tea in the Resort. We were then transported in open safari trucks to Zebedee Springs going along dusty corrugated roads and through rivers, after about ½ an hours soak, we were loaded into the safari trucks again, taken to the Station Resort for lunch, then back on safari trucks again to a cruise on the Chamberlain Gorge, we saw the Homestead Resort perched on the top of a rock escarpment looking over the gorge and were told a Boab Tree was washed down the Gorge in the floods and wedged in the cliff edge which prevented the homestead being washed away, however, they did have a fair bit of damage. The cruise was lovely and relaxing, we saw lots of fish, mostly cat fish and archer fish that spit into the air to catch insects, didn’t see any crocodiles, but had a lovely afternoon tea of fruit and juice or champagne, they sang Happy Birthday to me. They then took us back to the Station Resort where we were allocated four wheel drive vehicles to take us back to Kununurra, the drive was a bit hairy as it was dusk and you need to have eyes in the back of your head to spot kangaroos and cattle before you run into them apart from bumping over corrugations in the road, feels like being in a vibrating chair, and sliding though rivers and creeks. We thoroughly enjoyed our day - a great experience.

Emma Gorge

Zebedee Hot Springs

Crossing a river

The Station Store at EL Questro

The Homestead at El Questro

Chamberlain Gorge

Click on photos for larger image

Ord River Irrigation

Spillway Creek

Lake Argyle Resort

South end of lake

Bungle Bungles

Piccaninny Gorge

Earth Waves

Argyle Diamond Mine

Argyle Diamond mine

At Pumpkin Island

Lake Argyle

Ord River Dam Wall

Kunnunurra

Saturday 9.7.2011: 20 degrees - 33 degrees - sunny, slight wind. A 7.30am pick up for our seaplane flight over the Bungle Bungles, good pilot, very calm, if he struck turbulence he went up a little higher till we were calm again, the paddocks around Kununurra were like a patchwork quilt with lots of irrigation for vegetables and fruit trees and the latest is growing Sandlewood trees. We flew south east to the Argyle Dam which is 18 times bigger than Sydney Harbour and when it was in flood it was 35 times bigger. The Bungle Bungles or Purnululu which is the aboriginal name for the formations which look like lots of red and black beehive domes, some vertical and some horizontal, other parts looked like waves in the earth where the plates have been pushed up during violent volcanic activity, the pilot pointed out gorges and one particular gorge had a meteor land in it a long time ago, it is extremely deep. We flew over the Argyle Diamond Mine then came back over the Argyle Dam and landed beside a small island where we had morning tea, the island is covered in millions of small rocks of red, yellow, grey, cream, pink and brown colours, we collected a few samples but didn’t find any diamonds. We took off on the water and headed north back to Kununurra flying over the Ord River and had a very smooth landing.

We arrived back at the Lakeside Resort, had lunch then went out to check out the Zebra Rock shop out along the Ivanhoe Road, then the Hoochery Distillery, where we sampled the rum, but decided we didn’t like the taste, so we moved on to the Sandlewood Factory which is a very new industry, the trees take 15 years to mature and they extract the oils out of the trees and use it to for perfumes, make up and incense. On the way back to the Resort we drove up Knob Hill to check out the view and take some photos of the area.

Sunday 10.7.2010: 20 degrees - 28 degrees, cold wind blowing. Went to church, great service just like St. Pauls, great singing and met a couple from Frenchs Forest who were to spend two months in Kununurra working at the Christian Radio Station. Four other grey nomads doing voluntary work for BCA had been at the church for a couple of weeks painting the inside of the church, it looked great.

I had a quiet afternoon reading while Lloyd downloaded new software on to his phone.

Monday 11.7.2010: We have an early start to be at the mechanics before 7 am to be in the queue to get our Coaster a grease and oil change. At 10 am the grease and oil change completed, we filled up our gas cylinder, bought some replacement filters for the coaster, then headed off down the road traveling over the Diversion Dam to Packsaddle Road where we called in to the farm where the Christian Broadcasting Radio Station is, so we could buy some of their bananas at $6 per kilo, which is less than half the price of Coles in Kununurra or even Woolworths at Katherine.

Drove on along the Victoria Highway past the Gibb River Road to Wyndham 100 kilometers from Kununurra, all the land on our left from the Great Northern Highway to Wyndham is owned by El Questro. Had barra burgers at the pub and checked out the river in he Coaster which is safer than walking as there are fresh and salt water crocodiles in the river, they could be anywhere in the mangrove trees. We drove up to the lookout where you can see the five rivers come together entering the Cambridge Gulf, it is an amazing sight but far too big to fit in the screen of a little camera, the rivers coming together are the Forrest, Pentecost, Durack, King and Ord Rivers. The thought of these rivers in the big wet each year is mind boggling as the land is very flat and is usually at least 3’ under water, when is dries up you can see the dried salt on the edge of each flat area we saw.

Booked into the Wyndham Town Caravan Park for the night. There is a lot of cloud about and it feels very heavy and humid, very draining and tiring.