Day 48
Kununurra - Wyndham - Kununurra
"Feeling old, feelings this time take you
Down river, down river, down river, down
Walk these stairs, put the pieces back together....."
Today was busy but not strenuous like the last couple have been.
We only set an alarm in case we all slept in which of course was never going to happen. We were up and about just after 7 but it was a slow morning getting kids motivated!
Today's agenda was completing the things we hadn't got to do around Kununurra before we move on tomorrow.
We drove out to the Zebra Rock Gallery first up on the Ord River that we cruised by late yesterday afternoon - its a rock unique to Australia and only mined in the NT. The imaginative things that they've created with it are amazing too - wine racks, clocks, jewelry - its a beautiful layered stone but just far far too expensive - id rather buy pink argyle diamonds!!
From there we hit the highway and drove on to WA's northern most town of Wyndham. It's the main Port for KMG and their 4 trailer road trains are every second vehicle on the road ! We saw the monster croc on the main drag, the jetty and the loading port for KMG, had lunch at a great little cafe - barra and chips and drove up to The Bastion - the lookout over the 5 rivers that all run out into the Gulf. Its where the Ord, King, Penticost, Durrack and Forrest rivers all end. With the Cockburn ranges in the background it makes a great view.
Heading back towards Kununurra, we detoured down King River Road that traverses the tidal mud plains and becomes a 4wd track out to see some Aboriginal Wandjina paintings and to look at the Moochalabba Dam.
We then drove out to Marlgu Billabong (tonight's pic) past the old Telegraph Station . The billabong is a wildlife oasis. Birdlife galore and water lillies - we just missed a rather large saltwater croc swim by the viewing platform too as we turned up which was a bit dissapointing!
On our way home we stopped in at The Grotto which is a very deep ( suggested at 300m) plunge pool at the bottom of a waterfall . We regretted not getting their earlier as it looked like a great croc free place to swim !! It was too late for that though as it was almost sunset by that time. We got back to our van at last light having shooed away a number of cattle on the highway that decided the middle of the road was the best place to be.
Tomorrow we shop, wash the filthy car again and drive onto Lake Argyle to spend the night.