GO WEST YOUNG MAN

Hi all, we have reached Fitzroy Crossing. Since leaving Katherine we have visited (in no particular order) Bungle Bungles, El Questsro, Wyndham, Lake Argyle and Kununurra.

The Kimberley region is truly magnificent, half way between Katherine and the WA boarder there is an instant change in the landscape. We had two pleasant nights on the road at cheap camp sites ($6.60 a night) before we hit the WA border (those pesty little fruit fly inspectors didn't get us this time). About 40 ks past the border is the town of Kununurra, the heart of the Ord River irrigation scheme. Kununurra itself would be a livable place, reasonable services and shopping. It boasts the oldest distillery in WA, we tried the rum, forget it, the white rum has the characteristics of a very bad white spirits, one of the dark rums (won second prize in San Francisco) was only marginally better. The lady behind the bar seemed to take offence when I asked what the second prize was for (I thought maybe paint stripping), third one was the coffee chocolate liqueur rum, the better of the three but needless to say they did not receive any of hard earned cash. While in Kununurra we caught up with some friends who are working in the area and spent the Sunday at Lake Argyle with them. What a place, the lake was formed when the Ord River was dammed in the early '70s, it covers about 1000 sq ks.

LAKE ARGYLE POOL

After our day trip to Lake Argyle we decided to have a few days out there after Kununurra. While we were at Kununurra we headed out onto the Gibb River Road to visit El Questro. As you have have probably seen on a variety of travel shows El Questro if pretty flash for a cattle station with some great scenery. We started our visit with a small walk to Zebedee Hot Springs, we do love our hot springs. The view from Saddle back Ridge Lookout (4WD Lo Range with water crossing - Gaila coped well after the initial "are we going up there?") was really worth the drive. We included visits to Jackaroo's Waterhole and Moonshine Gorge


ZEBEDEE HOT SPRINGS

 

MOONSHINE GORGE

 We enjoyed our visit to Kununurra and headed out to Lake Argyle for a few days. As I said before Lake Argyle is huge, I have heard that more water evaporates each day from it than is used in the irrigation system. We decided to blow the budget and take a cruise on the Kimberley Cat, a rather large sailing cat, it was a great day sailing the Lake. We visited an island in the centre of the lake that is a mining lease for Zebra Stone. Zebra Stone is a silt stone with layers that when cut and polished resembles zebra hide. So the deal was we were allowed to take one piece each, we will see how it looks when we finish our travels.


SUNSET ON LAKE ARGYLE

Lake Argyle was a great place to visit, the staff were mainly silly old buggers like us who are on the journey and have picked up a couple of months work as they go around. Lake Argyle was another place that asked you to drop the water out of your tanks and to wash your van and car, saves them having to put the sprinklers on, slowly getting used to the use of water up here, particularly after so many years of drought down south. Any way the van and car got a wash and the tanks refilled with fresh water.

The Bungle Bungles were next on the itinerary, it amazing to think that until the early '80s they remained an unknown wonder to the world. The story goes that an ABC documentary team was filming in and around Kununurra for a show on the "wonders of WA". The team met a chopper pilot in the pub at Kununurra and after some talking he said you ought to see what we have on our cattle station. Next day the pilot takes the crew to the area now known as the Bungle Bungles and the rest is history. The reason no one knew about it was that it had always been a part of private Pastoral Lease. We stayed about 1k off the Northern Highway at the Bungle Bungle Caravan Park. The park is on Mable Downs Station and has been opened for about 12 months and I found out later that they also own the Kimberly Cat at Lake Argyle. Guess what, we blew the budget again and took a 4WD bus trip into the park, well worth it. Two and a half hours on the bus into the park to the "beehives". There were a couple of walks for us to do from there, but we chose just to go into Cathedral Gorge, not a really hard walk but was very warm. Boy what an amazing piece of nature, words and pictures really do not do it justice, after a walk along a dry creek bed around a bend and you are face with a huge amphitheatre surrounded by 200mt high cliffs. After lunch we headed to the other end of the park to Echidna Chasm, a different type of rock formation to Cathedral Gorge. The walk took us along a dry creek bed of river stones for about 1k and in places the walls were not much more than shoulder width apart (yes I know with shoulders as wide as mine there would be plenty of room).


CATHEDRAL GORGE



ECHIDNA CHASM

ECHIDNA CHASM

So on to Fitzroy after 3 nights at Mary Pool, a free camp site on the Mary River. A word of warning for those planning to travel to Fitzroy Crossing - bring your own alcohol. Arrived at the caravan park and asked the manager what time the bottle shop opened. He told me that because of the licencing rules in Fitzroy Crossing that you can buy any take away you like as long as it is Hahn Light Beer, if you want a nice bottle of "Chardy" you can have Hahn Light and the pub was opened at noon. So off to the pub we go, (an interesting place) asked for the price of the takeaway beer, $57 for a slab, $34 for a dozen and $25 for a six pack - light beer I can cope with, but not at that price. Looks like we have a couple of alcohol free days until we reach Derby.