Kununurra to Wyndham - 12 July to 20 July

Kununurra

We survived Kununurra without incident! Now that in itself is unusual these days with the violence and crime there.  In fact a woman was murdered by another woman in the same spot where we'd parked our cars and vans the day before - in the middle of town, near the water park.

We paid a visit to the Pink Diamond shop in town and discovered a lovely deep pink diamond for $800,800.  Size was 0.39 carrot.  Not large by normal white diamond standards, but something special with the pinks.

The sites in the caravan park were a bit squeezy, but luckily for us we had good friendly neighbours that didn't mind my car encroaching onto their site!

First on the agenda, was Mornos at the Ivanhoe Cafe as you would expect

A really beautiful oasis in Kununurra

Then it was off to the Hoochery Distillery for lunch. Another great location , and a really nice special for lunch. Chuck also tried their tasting plate of Kimberley made rums and gins. Jayne and Chuck also enjoyed a Hoochery corn beer.

Raymond ‘Spike’ Dessert III started the hoochery in 1995 and it is Western Australia’s oldest continuously operating (legal) still. The distillery produces approximately 50,000 gallons of rum annually, and also produces gin, whiskey and liqueurs.

Lake Argyle

70kms west of Kununurra is the Lake Argyle Resort, which is perched on the man-made Lake Argyle. Lake Argyle is just huge, 40 odd times the size of Sydney Harbour, depending upon which tour guide you believe at that time.

It seems to go on forever

So much water. The lake has a length of 67 kms and a width of 10kms. It holds 10,763 giga litres of water and has a surface area of 703 sq kms.  So much water, and for what? Yes they use it for irrigation, and hydro electricity for Kununurra and Wyndham, but these are small towns and they can't possibly use all this water for that.

The earth-fill only dam wall at Lake Argyle is the most efficient dam in Australia in terms of the ratio of the size of the dam wall to the amount of water stored.

Many of the crops they've tried to grow up here have failed, usually because they end up being eaten by the bugs and insects that fly in and have a great feast. They've tried growing cotton in the past, which failed dismally in the 1970's, again from insects. A new genetically modified cotton which can withstand the insects up here has been developed and they have high hopes for a successful crop.  There are plenty of mangoes, chickpeas, chia and other pulses.

They need a city the size of Sydney up here! It's Australia's second largest man-made lake.  Lake Gordon in Tasmania is the largest, which is a much different dam than Lake Argyle's and way more expensive to build. Lake Gordon also has two dams vs. one at Lake Argyle.

Gordon River Dam, Tasmania

Ord River Dam, Lake Argyle

The sunset drinks are famous around here.

Of course we had to keep the tradition going

We took the hike to the top of the Ord River, and from here you can see the dam wall as well as the Ord River which flows down to Kununurra.

Spectacular scenery every way you look

Alexis flew into Kununurra to spend 3 nights with us, which was really special and great to see her looking so well and happy! Broome life is obviously suiting her.

We drove down to the picnic area below the dam for, you guessed it, yet another Mornos!

The only way you can start to appreciate the enormous size of Lake Argyle is to get on a boat, so we did the sunset cruise.

A dip for the hardy swimmers towards the end of the cruise

The cruise includes bubbles, beer and nibbles

We drove up to our secret spot to view the lake, and spied a fresh water crocodile below us just moving into the water.

The Durack family were cattle pioneers in this area, after leaving Ireland and the potato famine behind.  Before they filled the lake they moved the Durack Homestead up to higher ground. Brick by brick. The lake filled faster than expected and this was the only building they got out in time. 

It was then time for Alexis to fly back to Broome.  Well, some of us have to work! We'll be seeing her again in 8 days and it was really good to see her for these 4 days.

A highlight at the Lake Argyle Resort is their infinity swimming pool. The only trouble is that it's icy cold due to the large waterfall area of the pool. It's always cold in this pool.

What a view! This pic was taken at 6:00 am - the only time nobody was in the water.

Sue even braved the cold water for the photo shoot

A really spectacular spot

We did the walk to the Bluff, which is a rough hike of around 5.5kms return. Thankfully there was a bit of a breeze the day we did it, and we all slept like babies that night. In fact Jayne had a head start and slept for 2 hours in the afternoon!

Top of the Bluff

Wyndham

It was off to Wyndham where the 5 rivers meet and flow out into the sea. These are 5 significant rivers, Ord, King, Pentecost, Durack and Forrest. Quite an amazing lookout at sunset.

What's Chuck looking for in his hat?

Our morning walk around Wyndham turned up some interesting things. Very different to Kununurra 100 kms away, the the locals were very friendly and we always got a wave and a happy Good Morning greeting as we walked the streets.

How's this beauty in the main street!

And this one off a side street in a kids playground

Warriu Dreamtime statues with barbed wire hair on the Dad, Mum and kid

A Sobering Up Shelter is preferable to going home drunk and beating up your wife and kids

We went for a drive out to the Prison Boab tree, via a corrugated dirt road.  The "prison" was in use for around 30 years from the 1890's. The police went on hikes rounding up criminals and returned them to Wyndham. This boab prison was the last night's accommodation for the prisoners. The round trip took 30 days and the prisoners were retained in chains while walking.

Of course the Fritchley siblings had to squeeze into the tree. Dodgy knees and hips - no problem!

Plenty of room inside the tree? Not!

Moochalabra Dam on the King River is Wyndham's water supply

The Moochalabra Dam wall. Another earth-fill dam, but much smaller than its cousin up the road

You see some strange things on the roads out here. This guy is measuring the pitch of the corrugations!