Thu 31/07/14 150kms to Lake Argyle today. On the way we stopped in at the Zebra Rock Gallery in Kununurra. The striations and colour variance in tne rock are awesome. Bought a lovely vase for K's bday prezz, then headed out to the lake to feed some bread to the resident catfish. A nice skinny kelpie dog bounded along with the kids on the way to the water, then promptly jumped in, perched on his hind legs and looked at us expectantly ... as soon as the bread hit the water, the feeding frenzy began.....catfish swarming from every which way, all on top of each other and Mr Kelpie sitting right in the midst of it all. He stayed in until he was shivering with cold; hilarious! We moved to deeper water at the end of the jetty and even more fish surfaced, including a huge albino catfish...kids had a ball. Our only 'situation' was Miss A managing to drop her new thong in the water, causing Daddy and another gentlemen to perform a rescue mission with long poles. Next we lunched in town, then headed to "Artlandish' Aboriginal Gallery. Some very nice & interesting works on display, M purchased a contemporary piece by artist Tommy Crow. Eventually we headed to Lake Argyle, arriving around 3pm to amazing views, a lovely shady site and a swim in the infinity pool - just what we needed with temps hovering in the mid to high 30's by day and mid 20's by night. Enjoyed dinner and watching the footy at the parks outdoor Cobbler Bar. Kids found several geckos and a bright green tree frog on the way home...Brodie called out 'cane toad!' and Luey jumped in fright, managing to fling K's camera in to the bushes! After determining it was NOT a cane toad, camera was retrieved to take a snap of Mr Tree Frog.

Fri 01/08/14 Happy Birthday Mummy! Woken early by enthusiastic gift givers, armed with notepads and pens to take order for breakfast in bed. Received lovely homemade cards with lots of drawings and explanations, loom band anklet, foot chains, earrings, bracelet and necklace. Mummar had managed to sneakily send a card along too - they've done well to keep it hidden all this way! Next a procession of breakfast items were delivered, ready or not...eat faster! Still no internet or phone reception; had temporary Telstra phn service while in Kununurra, but other than that have been 'off the grid' since Derby! So, no birthday messages can get through until we hit the next big town. Michael and Brodie made rumballs for Mummy's bday cake - yummo! Lovely day lounging, reading and swimming. At 2pm took the sunset cruise on Lake Argyle. It is far more vast than you can possibly imagine. The lake is man made and before you board cruise, you can view a movie from 1974 of the engineering and construction of the wall built to dam the mighty Ord River. The lake was holding 18 Sydney Harbours' worth of water while we visited 'in the dry'; it gets as high as 70 S/H's worth during 'the wet'. At last count it was home to 30,000 fresh water crocs and we saw several large fat specimens sunning themselves on the banks. Kids quickly made friends with others onboard and were quickly all in deep discussion about favourite places on respective travels. Did some fish feeding, saw many islands, the largest being 9kms long and watched some resident Wallaroos hopping over the rocks. M sneakily organised a birthday cake, and whole boat sang Happy Birthday before we enjoyed evening snacks plus a swim / float with pool noodles in the lake complete with beer, champagne and jumping from roof of boat. Being K's birthday, she was offered first jump by the captain ... M photographer role, L enthusiasticly agreed to join in, while B&A declined. So off the top K&L went, to be followed by a stream of kids ... noted no other '21 agains' took up the offer. Amazing colours as the sun set over the water; lake peaceful and still, not a breath of wind, so beautiful. Back for dinner - woodoven pizzas and watching footy at the bar, still 25oC this evening; awesome day.

Sat 02/08/14 Today visited the Durack Homestead; originally located at what is now the bottom of the lake, but relocated by the historical society. Duracks, Irish immigrants, played a large role in opening up and developing the Kimberley region for cattle and later agriculture. It was Kimberley Durack, grandson of Patrick Durack, who spent many years investigating the possibilty of damming the Ord River, only to die 2 years before the project was approved and began work. Interesting display and memorial graveyard. Mary Durack, reknowned author of "Kings in Grass Castles", relates the struggles her forbears endured in developing the region and their cattle empire. Worth a read.