Wyndham

Busted the bikes out today, got out early... well pretty early and rode the first 40k to Wyndham. Rose came by at exactly the right time with a cold towel, hot lemon drink, cold water, clean clothes... do I get looked after or what.

Finally, back by the Sea. This place has some history. It's one of the few places where 5 rivers actually meet, it was where several great aviators based themselves. The WA government had a large meat works there until the 60's. It now exists on revenue from tourism, mining and livestock exports.

We found this little gem of a Cafe in the town. Clean, modern and in stark contrast to the rest of the place. Rose had the local Barra and chips and I had a Greek salad. Arguably the best feed we'd had in the area.

El Questro

El Questro came to prominence as a very up market remote travel destination a number of years ago. The station itself is on the other side of the Pentacost River about 80km's of sealed road, 16km's of unsealed from Kununurra. It's now owned by the yanks and from a travellers point of view offers little more than can be found cheaper elsewhere in the Kimberley's.

We visited Emma Gorge and Zebedee Springs, as well as the Station.... Yes the VW got it's feet wet crossing the Pentacost.

Kununurra - Ord River

The Ord River irrigation setup is amazing.

Some stats:

The Dam wall is 335m long, was built commencing in 1969 and cost $22m. It's all that holds back a body of water equal to 19 Sydney Harbours (it used to be 21 but Sydney did some remeasuring and they discovered it to be slightly bigger). It is about 1000km2. In 2011 it reached 9m above it's usual level and spanned 1600km2. It contained 38 Sydney Harbours at that time. It is not an irrigation dam but rather keeps a steady supply of water to Lake Kununurra as well as generating some power. Lake Kununurra is the irrigation dam and services about 10000 hectares. Indian Sandelwood, Rice and etc are the main crops.  

It's 55km by river from the Dam wall back to Kununurra town. We travelled down it in a boat powered by 3, 250hp V8 outboard Yamahas. It was a nice ride.

Lake Argyle

This place needs to be seen to be believed.... positively awesome!

We pulled in about midday. Seems to happen a lot... pulling in around midday I mean. Someone recommended we stay at the resort. It's the only place to stay. It's not cheap but neither is it expensive. The grass is green and washing cars and vans is actively encouraged.
We took up their offer and spent the day getting some of the dust out of the gear inside and out, and then went and lazed around the pool for the rest of the day... well someones gotta do it!

One of the guys pointed us in the direction of a lookout, a perfect place to watch the sunset. We did just that. Took a couple of chairs, some cheese and bikkies and drove the k or so through the dust, over fallen logs, rocks and rivers to get to this spot..

Victoria River

We're on our way West. We stopped in Katherine for a day to top up on a few things. Our first gas bottle had finally run out. Holiday traffic has thinned a little so we're confident of finding a place at most camps or parks.

The Victoria Highway is a great road. We once again have the wind behind us and we're drafting a motorhome in front... what a ride!

We stayed at the Victoria River Homestead. The Homestead at first glance is a really dusty place to be, but get down by the river and there's shade and it's a really nice place. The Homestead is part of a working station and there's lots to see and do. We took a walk out to one of the escarpments. The scenery from on top was stunning. Throw in a rock Wallaby or two and Boab trees which are starting to appear

We met a great old couple, Ron and Helen. Ron used to drive trucks in the area, is about 70, no teeth, crook hips, a defined limp, and a keen sense of humour. We got to talking one evening about how Rose doesn't do dirt. "Neither did Helen", he said. "Then when we were driving North out of Alice Springs a couple of months ago, I said to helen, there's a rest area up ahead, let's stop there for a cuppa. We turned left and kept driving for a while looking for some shade. Turns out it was the start of the Tanami Track so we just kept going... 1000k's later we hit the bitumen again. I wasn't popular for the first 10k or so but she was right after that".

The wind was very gusty the morning we left the Homestead. It was blowing in our direction so we decided to try it for at least 5k's or so, and if it's too strong return and stay another night. As it turned out we got blown all the way to Lake Argyle. The fuel consumption was down in the 13's. We had a great run.

I said to Ron on the way out of the park, "you're going to be burning some fuel today". Mate he said" I'm not budging in inch". It was about 8:30am and he was feeling pretty happy about staying.

Edith Falls - Revisited.

We liked Edith Falls so much we came back for another look. No, that's not entirely true. We ran out of cash the first time in, and promised to come back and pay them for the free night they gave us.

We hiked up to Sweetwater Pool the following day, a distance of 4.8k with full packs. We're in training for our Cradle Mountain walk in Tasmania next year so we walked out, overnighted at Sweetwater pool and walked back the next morning. We actually walked past Sweetwater pool and about 5k further along the "Jatbula Trail, then back to Sweetwater. We probably covered about 15k on the way out, and 5k on the way back

Key learnings:

We camped in the shade of some trees. The trees were fruiting. They were full of birds. We had bird piss all over the tent, our backs, in our hair, just about everywhere. Don't camp under shade that is fruiting.

I dozed off at the pool itself, I woke to find that I had company. A water monitor had ben watching and moved to within a metre me. His head was out of the water, and no doubt working out his strategy! I don't know who got the bigger fright, both of us exited in different directions. Don't sleep by the pool.








We arrived back at the campground the following day to find the track had been closed earlier. There was a fire in the area. We didn't smell, see, hear any smoke or flame. We were east of the main fire. It was travelling West, but it was back burning to the east as well. We discovered the following day that the fire had come to within 100m of the campground and no one knew it. Be aware of your environment.

Pine Creek

A nice place, cheap diesel, a railway museum and an old mud brick pub. Like many small rural towns, they are struggling to survive. They are about to lose another mine in the area. It's being "paused" like many others.

We happened to arrive the same day as a vintage rally arrived. They were driving/riding from Adelaide to Darwin. Some were in trailers but many were being driven. This 1911 Triumph was ridden all the way. Note the seat padding.