I volunteered myself to do the blog for the few days that we stayed at Kununurra so grab yourself a cuppa and get settled in as I'm sure to waffle on a bit to record our adventures of the past few days.

Thursday 30th July

We had a leisurely cooked breakfast this morning before leaving Palm Springs and heading back into Halls Creek. With both cars fuelled up we left town heading towards Kununurra. We were cruising along just fine when we felt a slight change in how the vista was towing. Joe slowed down and waited as a car passed and drove down onto the side of the road. We knew we had a flat but were quite surprised to see the tyre was completely shredded. Luckily there was no damage to the rim or anything else. Joe and Col got down in the heat and the dust and changed the wheel. I checked all the other tyres and noticed that the other van tyre had also worn pretty badly so Joe decided to change this one as well with Col’s help.

We continued the last 200km to Kununurra where we booked into Kimberleyland Caravan Park for a couple of nights.

Joe and I went straight to TyrePlus to organise new tyres. Lanny and his staff were extremely helpful and changed the tyres on the vista there and then and booked the cruiser in for first thing on the morning for a full set of new boots.

Back to the park where we all had a refreshing and relaxing swim in the pool.

Friday 31st July

After the cruiser had a new set of boots fitted we left town and went out to the Lower Ord River and the Ivanhoe Crossing. It’s a beautiful wide river and I’m sure the guys would have loved to have driven across but the entrance was blocked by a huge rock. That’s one way to stop the tourists!!

Back in the car and off to check out the Sandalwood Showroom. Wen and I had a great time sampling many of the lovely products and we both made quite a few purchases.

Our next stop for the day was at the Hoochery Rum Distillery (The oldest continuously operating legal still in WA). We’d timed this perfectly as it was after 11am ha ha. We had a look around and then up to the counter for a tasting or 3. For $5 each we chose 3 flavours. We shared 3 different blends of their rum and also 3 liqueurs. We didn’t mind the flavours of a couple of them but not enough to part with our cash.

On our way back to town we made a detour to the Mirima National Park to see the mini Bungle Bungles. We wandered along and up the tracks in the hot arvo sun to the lookout. Not sure that any of us were overly impressed but we’ve seen them now and have the pics too.

A late lunch was had at the park and a nice swim as well. We decided to go out again and drove to Swim Beach which is a lovely park with nice sandy access into Lake Kununurra. After reading the signs telling us how they keep the crocs out of this area we all ventured in for a swim. Joe told me to stay on the bank side of the splashing kids and I would be fine. All was good until a dog also got in to play and that was enough for me. I thought the crocs would love this so out I got………

There is plenty more to do in the area so we booked into the park for another 2 nights.

Saturday 1st August

Our itinerary today was to pop into the visitors centre to get some info on the rodeo being held that night and also to visit Lake Argyle (Australia’s largest freshwater lake).

We were a few kms out of town when the Turtle dropped down onto the side of the road. Col’s tyre dogs had alarms sounding in his ear and the left rear was getting closer to the ground. Not wanting to be left out of the action, the turtle had a flat tyre!! Again in the heat and the dust, Col and Joe changed yet another tyre. Back into town for a newbie before making tracks out to the lake.

Lake Argyle is magnificent. Such a huge expanse of water and now it’s my turn to fill your head with a couple of "did you knows" The volume is 21 times that of Sydney Harbour, the surface area is 1,000 sq km and the volume of water is 10,763 GL. We had a picnic under some shady trees over looking part of the lake and the hydro system.

We went back to the park for a couple of cold ones before walking up the street to catch the courtesy bus out to the rodeo. Col had his second blowout for the day. His favourite pair of thongs that have walked many miles over the past 3 years finally wore completely through much to Col’s disgust and Wendy’s delight. She had packed him a new pair and had been telling him to throw the old ones away for weeks.

We had a fun night, standing on the hill watching all the action. I’m certain quite of few of the riders have gone home with aches and pains that weren’t part of their night’s plan. Ouch!! I’m now able to cross rodeo off my list of must do’s. Not sure where on the list it was sitting but it’s now checked off ha ha.

Sunday 2nd August

El Questro was our destination today. We have heard so much about this place over the years from our parents and also over the past few weeks from Col and Wendy. I was quite excited to be going there. We crossed Moonshine Creek which wasn’t much more than a puddle and then Pentecost River which was a bit deeper and very pretty.

After we paid $12 each for our park pass at the station our next stop was Zebedee Springs. This is a permanent thermal spring with a water temp 28 – 32 degree Celsius all year. It is very pretty and tropical in the springs. We all enjoyed a long relaxing soak.

We drove to the Emma Gorge Resort. After a delicious lunch in the restaurant we began our 1.6km walk into Emma Gorge which is one of the Kimberley’s most well known gorges. Most of the walk was loose, rocky terrain and there were a few challenging bits to negotiate but we all did it fairly easily.

Once we got to the end we were surrounded by 65m sheer cliffs on three sides with a huge pool and droplet waterfall. It was spectacular!! Such a beautiful place. The water was quite fresh but we all enjoyed a lovely swim.

Our last stop for the day was at Wyndham so we drove the 80 odd kms to the Five Rivers Lookout to watch the sunset. We had magnificent views as far as the eye could see.

We’ve had a long and tiring day but what we’ve seen has certainly made it all worthwhile.