Saturday 2.7.2011: 21 degrees - 30 degrees - Sunny: The fireworks last night at Victoria River Roadhouse were quite spectacular and the sausage sizzle wasn’t too bad either. Left Victoria River Roadhouse, bought fuel on the way out $1.85.9 per litre, then drove the short distance to where we walked the day before, then drove about 1 or 2 kilometers to the waters edge, where there was a short concrete launching ramp on the river edge. At the ramp we found the three guys we had seen the night before, one is paraplegic, had slept in swags beside their van, truly amazing, the two friends do everything for their paraplegic mate, he has a lying down type bike which he gets about in and a frame type apparatus to hold him upright so they can help him by changing his clothes etc., as the guy said its your attitude and determination to things that makes the difference, his friends must be special mates. Obviously they were not worried about the crocks. Back to the beautiful scenery, the river was fast running with lots of rocks scattered in a large area, probably from the recent floods, and the colours in the escarpment a beautiful rich red, well worth the time to check out the spot.
Drove on a few kilometers and saw a walk, after checking the sign out, decided we did not need to go walking up a hill in 30 degree heat, so we enjoyed the air conditioning as we drove on to a shorter walk to Joe Creek valley, still up hill, but most of the walk was on the southern side of the escarpment which meant it was shady and cool among the rich red cliff face walking through ancient rare palms, tall grasses and scrubs as well as trees, beautiful it took 90 minutes and we thought we were going well we did it in 80 minutes.
Back in the Coaster we traveled on to Timber Creek, found a van park and booked in for the sunset tour on the Victoria River at 4pm, we traveled up the river 40 kilometers, with wilderness scenery of crocodiles and birds, we even saw the boab tree where the explorer Gregory carved his initials in the 1800s and saw the amazing large Bradshaw property (4 million acres )the Defence Force now owns. After the sunset and a very humid day the temperature dropped dramatically and we all needed jackets as we traveled back to the jetty in the dark.
Sunday 3.7.2011: 21 degrees - 33 degrees - sunny and humid. Left the town of Timber Creek, called in to the old Police Museum which the guide had told us about the evening before and even saw the diary of the expolrer Gregory as well as lots of history of the area. Drove up the hill near the town and saw the Victoria River in the distance, then traveled on to Saddle Creek Rest Area, and were lucky to find a spot, made a cuppa and joined three other couples in the shelter shed which was quite comfortable sitting on concrete seats in the shade, the humidity was high, making you feel sticky.
We sat there all afternoon as the van was too hot, cooked dinner outside and ate outside, the others came over & joined us after dinner in the dark as their vans were also far too hot.
Monday 4.7.2011: 21 degrees - 33 degrees - sunny and humid. Awoke to vans leaving early, I had vertigo again, but not as bad as last time, had to go slow could not bend down or I lost my balance, hard to pack up a camper when you cannot lean forward, had morning tea outside, Bill and Jan from Sale gave us their address and phone number, we invited them to our Rally open day at Sale next March.
After Bill and Jan left another van pulled in and the couple came over and introduced themselves to us, I can remember his surname is Bryant and he is the President of Sale Bowling Club, he invited us to play bowls at Sale next year, we told him Bill and Jan had just left and were from Sale, small world.
Finally drove on to the NT / WA Border Crossing after giving away our honey and some left over vegetables to a dutch guy going in the opposite direction, our van was inspected and we drove on to the Argyle Dam Resort, lovely spot with an infinity pool, I was exhausted and had to rest all afternoon.
Tuesday 5.7.2011: 24 degrees - 35 degrees - Sunny and humid. We were so hot and woke early as our body clocks were still on Territory time as they are 1 ½ hours in front of Western Australia, so we had breakfast and went for a swim in the infinity pool, the view was spectacular, with reflections in the dam of the cliff faces and a couple of house boats, and the beautiful cool water was so refreshing and cooled our boiling blood.
As we left Argyle Resort we crossed the bridge where the water was flowing so fast it looked like massive rapids, we stopped to take a photo and found our own crocodile sunbaking on the sand a short distance away, thank goodness we were high up and could look down on the small crocodile. Travelled to Kununurra where we were told it would be hard to get into a caravan park as the Kununurra Show is on this weekend, so we tried the first van park and were given an unpowered site on the edge of the lake, the only problem is the mosquitos and sandflies like biting me, I feel sticky covered in blockout and bushman.
Put our table and chairs out with our reserved sign on, then went into the town to shop for fresh groceries and honey, I also booked a haircut for tomorrow. Went to the Tourist Information Centre and booked a days trip to El Questro Station on Friday, then went back to the Lakeside Resort to rest.
Wednesday 6.7.2011: 21 degrees - 30 degrees, sunny and humid. Woke early again and made sure we were at the office at 8.30 am to see if we could book four more days, we were in luck and have a very nice spot on a corner with uninterrupted views to the lake. Booked a flight in a sea plane over the Bungle Bungles, Argyle Dam and the Argyle diamond mine for Thursday afternoon, went into town had my hair cut, then drove out to see the Diversion Dam which flows from Lake Kununurra to provide the town water and water for irrigation, they have had so much water over the last few months, that the rushing water will keep flowing all year, we saw Zebra Rock carvings, then drove out to Ivanhoe Crossing which is a picturesque river crossing on the Ord River, but there is no way anyone would try to cross with the amount of water rushing by it is an amazing sight, the roadway is well underwater. We ran into Bill and Jan again, they are staying at the other Lakeside Caravan Park, spent time catching up on what they had been doing and sharing where we had been and where we are going.
Back to the Lakeside Resort to rest, have dinner and catch up on days of the trip diary.
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