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Homeward bound? Day 20 Alice Springs - Kununurra
Up at dawn again we had the tent down and the kettle on before any movement from the other campers and on our way towards Kununurra. We had been warned as we left Darwin about the quarantine stop at the WA border, so we hadn't got any fruit or vegies with us. In fact it was a bit strange leaving Darwin, 'cos they checked us as we left! Usually people check you when you arrive! The thing is they have just got tropical fruit fly in Darwin and they are trying to keep it out of the rest of the state so if you want to take a banana to Kakadu you have to fill a quarantine form! Much better to just buy them there - we thought the shops in Jabiru were fine.
So, at the quarantine stop at the WA border we were expecting to have to take the whole luggage out, but we had a very nice (actually a bit shy) young man who just had a look in our esky and declared himself satisfied. Rob tried to get him to talk a bit, but all he said was that he would like to get a job in Perth and that was to Hild when she had turned on the charm, so we left him in peace and after a quick toilet stop carried on back into WA - ah, home at last. Well, not quite. From up here there is still over 2,000 km back to Mill Point Road, and Max informed us that at current speeds (about 100 kph at the time) and direction it would take about 30 hours. Not that we are in rush anyway - we've got another 9-10 days to go before Rob is due back at work and we are going to make the best of them.
First stop back in WA was Lake Argyle. This inland sea (or so they call it) was formed when they dammed the Ord river in the late 1970's and covers an area of up to 2,000 square km in the wet season. It doesn't look that big 'cos the land is pretty hilly here and so there are over a thousand islands and a very wiggly coastline. It was designed to produce irrigation water for local plantations and some hydro-electric power, but it has also become a large lake for fish and freshwater crocodiles, such that there is now a growing industry in fishing here as well.
We had a quick lunch at the picnic spot just down from the dam (it doesn't look that big, I have to say, to hold back all that water - in fact as dams go it is a bit of a disappointment, but I guess it does the job) and took some photos from the various lookout points around the top end, There are some boat tours, but they are either early morning , sunset or very long trips (6 hours!) so we gave that a miss and carried on to Kununurra. In fact we were all rather tired after the stress of Darwin and the late night last night trying to find somewhere to stay so we rather fancied putting the tent up and going flop. This proved more of a trial than we had anticipated because Kununurra was pretty full as well, and the first campsite we stopped at was completely full. They suggested a couple of others, but the clincher was the one with a pool so we shot up here quickly to make sure we got in. Which we did of course 'cos it is by that very same pool I am writing this.
There are some - very tentative - plans to go for a walk into the Hidden Valley national park (which backs onto the campsite) after the swim, but by the look of them I don't think they are up to it. Wimpy humans. Tomorrow we are planning to have a look at a local plantation if we can get hold of a friend of Liz' called Paul Mock. As is usual here, we are supposed to just rock up to the tourist shop on the farm and ask for Paul, and if he is free he'll show us around. Great plans, but it suits us really 'cos if we had found something else to do then we wouldn't have had to muck anyone else around. So that's it for now and we'll let you know how the tour pans out tomorrow. Byeeeeee Lionel |
