Gibb River Road - Kununurra

We ended up travelling the northern/eastern end of the Gibb River Road in one day - a lot faster than we had expected.  We looked at the time we had, and the heat that was around, and decided not to go to Mitchell Falls.  We sort of reckoned that'd be a 3 or 4 day affair all by itself.  We'll visit them next time (and that won't be too far away either given the marvellous time we're having).

So we found ourselves in Kununurra with a few days up our sleeves.

Our largest "comfort issue" on the trip so far had been the heat at night-time.  Heat during the day was managable and not really an issue.  But the heat and calm conditions at night meant it was difficult to get a decent night's rest.  We had resorted to wafting damp cloths above us and then laying them on us for a bit of evaporative cooling.  We had also discovered if we took the mattress out of Ellie (camper trailer) for an hour or two before bedtime, it would cool down a bit in the night air and not be as uncomfortable.  But what we really needed was a bit of air movement.  Thoughts of employing a punkawallah quickly reduced to a more conventional solution (I mean carting him around would reduce the amount of wine storage space - and we can't have that).

With a bit of hunting around the hardware shops in Kununurra, we found a small 240 volt fan that could be used in the camper trailer - either off the mains supply in caravan parks, or (by a bit of makeshift wiring and the small inverter we have), from the batteries in Ellie.  We found that this bit of air movement made all the difference for a good nights sleep.  Whew! Problem solved.

As we poked around Kununurra, we started feeling very "at home".  I'm not sure what it was about the place, but I know that I really liked it.  The atmosphere was quite laid-back and relaxed and yet still with a sense of excitement and progress and opportunity.

We took the opportunity to book a "sunset cruise" on Lake Argyle.  Given that there are only 28,000 crocodiles in the lake (freshies - not salties) and the lake was to freaking huge - I took the opportunity during the cruise to have a swim in its cool fresh waters. I also reckon I'm scarier than freshwater crocodiles anyway.  Keyla could not be convinced.

Taking a quick dip in the huuuuge Lake Argyle

One of the islands in Lake Argyle

The lake is reeeeeealy big.  Seriously.

Just one of the 27 billion sunset photos I took.

A pic of Kelya NOT swimming in the lake.

The photos I took do not do the lake justice.  I suspect that if I spent any more time there I would be buying a boat quicker than you could say "rowlocks" or "gunwhales" (in the trad. accent).  I reckon I'd also get treatment for my seafood allergy and spend a serious amount of time fishing and camping at the lake.

Whilst at Lake Argyle we met up with some old acquaintances from Roxby Downs - Kym and Jane.  The pair of them have become local identities since they both "starred" in a superannuation commercial that was filmed locally and has been receiving a lot of airplay here in WA.  We spent a good hour or so at the back of their caravan catching up on old times.

Keyla has seriously fallen in love with Boab trees.  Wherever we go - if they are nearby - she hugs them.  I think she is impressed with the immense time that they live for.  We've seen quite a few that are 750 years old, some that have been dated to approx 2,000 years old (and going by that) a couple that would be 4 or 5,000 years old.  They are a hardy plant that appear to be spreading out from the Kimberley (not as fast as the Cane Toad though).

Given that we were both developing a connection with the Boab, we decided that we'd bring a specimen or two back to Perth with us.  It wasn't as easy as you might think.  It took half a day of hunting to find a nursery near Kununurra to sell us some boabs.  Keyla was keen on bringing back young trees of approx 1.5m high.  When I pointed out that they wouldn't fit in the Beast we settled on a few bare-rooted seedlings.  The seedlings were sold to us by the cheeriest nursery worker you ever did meet.  Just as well - as her boss (the owner) was probably the grumpiest person you ever did meet.  So like matter and anti-matter, the two pretty much cancelled out and they managed to run a nursery and keep people visiting it.

We bought 3 bare-rooted seedlings (from the cheery one).  We were assured that they would last 6 months with no water and in the dark and forgotten about (this was from the grumpy one).  So, shortly after leaving the nursery armed with this information, the babies (as they were named) were individually wrapped in paper towel, placed in a water bottle, kept damp with a periodical watering and were strapped safely behind Keyla's headrest.

The Babies - safely secured in the Beast

Scarcely 2 hours in the vehicle elapsed before "the babies" were tended to, rotated, and positive things were said to them to keep them cheery.  It must have worked, as over the next week or so the seedlings grew by about 50mm each.

Whilst in Kununurra we also managed to find the Zebra Rock Gallery.  We ended up having a delighful chat and an iced coffee with the owner (well he was having a mango smoothie as he had been picking mangos since 5am).  He'd only just come from Melbourne in Nov last year and looked to be having the time of his life.  He had the Zebra Rock thing happening as well as growing Mangos and other fruits.  We perused the beautiful objects carved from the Zebra Rock and then went and fed the Catfish and were squirted by the Archer Fish as we fed them crumbs of bread.  We picked up some "rough" carvings from the gallery workshop that we'll "finish off" at home.

Whilst we had been in Kununurra, we had been clocking up only a few engine-hours on the Beast.  As the fridge was running reasonably constantly due to the heat and my macho determination to not read the instructions (and pretty much freezing everything in the lower 2/3rds of the coolbox), the aux battery was getting a bit low.  We decided to get a bit of "run time" in and head out and travel the full 39km to the Northern Territory.  The last time we were in the NT was in July 2008 when we just "snuck in" at Poeppel Corner. Well, we were about to do the same thing on the diagonally opposite side of the NT this year. We armed ourselves with nothing in particular and headed out to the NT border.

Keyla having a foot in each camp (WA/NT)

Me and the Beast doing likewise

As our pre-planning for this minor jaunt was less than spectacular, we were gripped with a bit of concern that we may have to surrender all the fruit and veg that we had stored in the Beast as we crossed back through into WA at the fruit-fly inspection station at the border.  It could be a costly 150m foray into the NT.  Fortunately, the guy at the inspection station (I think) saw my WA licence plates and was less than vigorous in attempting to inspect the vehicle.  When I said that we'd just travelled out from Kununurra to visit the border, he waved us through (after chatting with us for about 5-10 mins on life in Kununarra and how good it is).  I suspect however we probably weren't the first people he's ever come across to do what we did.

After a few days in Kununurra we decided to head out back along the Gibb River Road to El Questro a day earlier than planned - as we thought (quite correctly as it turned out) there would be plenty to do there and maybe the 3 days we had set aside wouldn't be enough.

We were spot on with that one...

Next post - gorgeous gorges and the birthday girl at El Questro....