We left Katherine via the Victoria Highway, once again in a westerly direction - homeward bound.
The scenery was fairly barren until we hit the Victoria River Region and then from out of the blue, the landscape changed and there were table top hills and gorges in all directions, it was picturesque.
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| The landscape changes |
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| The Victoria River Region |
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| The rig amongst the gorges |
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| Richard still trying for a Barra |
The area was so pretty with the River surrounded by gorges, we were tempted to camp there for the night but in 40 + degrees with no air con, it would have been uncomfortable.
The girls voted to continue on... Yay for the minority vote!
As we continued on the beauty continued. Richard drove along dreaming of owning a station in the area...beware the daydreaming driver!
By around 2:30 we reached Timber Creek. There wasn't a lot there other than a Service Station attached to a pub along with quite a few local folk who were milling around.
We stopped to get the kids an ice cream before hitting the road again.
About 20 minutes out of Timber Creek we saw our first Boab Tree. It was huge and stood tall and proud.
Our driver didn't stop for a photo but after that we continued to see the odd one and it wasn't long before the Boabs were taking over where the termite mounds had left off.
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| A beautiful Boab Tree |
A good sign we were not far from the WA border and the Kimberley region.
It was sad to see that so many Boabs by the roadside had been defaced by mindless hoons who thought it would be funny to leave their mark.
By 4:30 which was soon to become 3 o'clock, we were on the NT/WA border. We watched on the GPS as we approached the black line....
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| The black line is WA |
A quarantine check....
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| WA quarantine check |
...and we'd made it back to our home state.
There were loud cheers and the odd silent tear that the trip may sometime soon be drawing to an end but that all changed when we put Harvey in the GPS and it told us we were still 3400 kilometers from home.
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| Helloooo WA |
There were loud cheers and the odd silent tear that the trip may sometime soon be drawing to an end but that all changed when we put Harvey in the GPS and it told us we were still 3400 kilometers from home.
30 kilometers in and we had reached Kununurra. We drove straight to a caravan park that Uncle Barry and Aunty Jacqui had been caretakers at a couple of years ago, called Lakeside resort.
It is literally Lakeside, overlooking a beautiful Lagoon which looks across to the town of Kununurra.
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| Our set up on the lake |
Hot and bothered after setting up camp we headed across to the pool area to cool down and have a cold drink in the bar. We had thrown out all of our fruit and veg earlier so we asked the lady in the resort kitchen to make up a big salad for us. By 7:30 which was 9 o'clock on our body clocks, we sat down to have dinner before calling it a night.
Friday the 16th of November, there was something beautiful about waking up in WA for the first time in 9 months. Our body clocks still in NT time, we were awake early. At around 6, Richard and I went for a walk into Kununurra.
It was already in the late 30's and we were grateful to get back to the air conditioned caravan.
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| Me in front of a beautiful Boab in the middle of Kununurra |
After cold showers and some brekky we hit the streets of Kununurra. Our first stop was the post office where I had to pick up my drivers licence which had expired a little while ago.
That done, a coffee and a swerve to miss the odd local who was stumbling home and we headed to the tourist information bureau where we picked up some brochures and local knowledge on the region.
We passed through the Argyle Diamond Centre, where now it was my turn to daydream....
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| Nina outside the home of Argyle Diamonds |
and headed out of town over the famous Ord River, bound for the northern most town in WA - Wyndham.
We stopped along the way at a place called The Grotto, a gorge with a waterhole at the base of 140 steps. Being the end of the dry season there was only a little bit of water in the hole but during the wet season rains it has a beautiful waterfall.
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| Crossing over The Ord |
We stopped along the way at a place called The Grotto, a gorge with a waterhole at the base of 140 steps. Being the end of the dry season there was only a little bit of water in the hole but during the wet season rains it has a beautiful waterfall.
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| The kids at the top of The Grotto |
Wyndham is an interesting place... And the five rivers lookout gave us a great view of the area from above...
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| Wyndham from above |
The town also boasts a big 20metre croc in the middle of town...
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| The only friendly croc around |
And a park with aboriginal dreamtime statues....
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| Dreamtime statues, Wyndham |
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| Two little picaninnies |
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| Sonia and a statue |
We called in to the Wyndham pub for lunch. At first we thought it was closed but on closer inspection it was open for business. We got chatting to the owners who are originally from the south west of WA, so they knew Harvey well. They brought the pub 22 years ago and have it up for sale (Dad don't get any ideas:-)....
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| The busy streets of Wyndham, outside the pub |
On the way out we stopped to see what Wyndham claims is the largest Boab tree in captivity (which must mean it has the potential to escape haha). It was huge and we were left in awe when we read the sign saying its thought to be around two-thousand years old. (if only it could speak)....
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| A 2000 year old Boab Tree |
Our last port of call on our Wyndham day trip was the Afghan cemetery.... A strange place to visit, maybe - but it was an interesting spot housing the graves of Afghan settlers and cameleers in the 1890s. The graves are so large because the lead camel was often buried with its master. We all enjoyed the story behind the cemetary...
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| The cemetery story |
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| The big graves |
Too easy to drive back along the Great Eastern Highway back to Kununurra we took the Parry Creek Road which took us on a bush bashing trip through stations, along creeks, muddy tracks, through Boab forests and at one stage running along The Ord. A wrong turn had us at the famous Ivanhoe Crossing.
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| Where to from here? |
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| The boys in front of the Ivanhoe Crossing |
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| The Ivanhoe Crossing |
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| Time for a wash, maybe? |
The concrete causeway was part of the original road from Wyndham to Katherine in the NT. The road is closed during the wet season but it's where a lot of aborigines go fishing and two picaninnies (aboriginal children) have died there in the past month after being taken by crocs.
We turned around and took the right road this time back to Kununurra, via a Mango/Paw Paw farm where we brought a box of mangoes for around $15. The owner of the farm grew up in Benger, just south of Harvey and knew Rob Italiano, who manages our farm. It is such a small world.
After a long day we headed back to the caravan Park via the grocery shop. I was pleased to find that all of our clothes were still on the clothesline, I had wondered a few times during the day whether they would grow legs.
It was an early dinner and an early night, ahead of an early morning of more Kimberley explorations.
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