Day 37 Monday 14th Aug
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Matilda & Olivia throughly "Investigated a dead turtle on the lakes edge, it had red cheeks, it stank and it looks like a short neck turtle. It looks like it smiled at a crocodile! You should NEVER Smile at a crocodile!"
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While we were at the waters edge.
Matilda strikes up a conversation with a lady. She had a granddaughter called Matilda and her daughter was Olivia.
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Where do we all live?
Us- "Tassie"
Them- "Lewisham"
Us- "Oh we know people who live there
Angela and Chris Wood"
Them- "Oh how funny we are their neighbours and they are looking after our house!"
Small world
All- "How funny! "
They continued to tell us how they were once in the Whitsundays and we met a man on a catermaran who offered to take them on a day sailing around the islands. They had a magical day and asked him where'd he learn to sail, he replied his brother in-law Chris Wood!
I replied
"That would be my Dad- Peter Headlam!"
Laughter all round!
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Spent the morning relaxing doing a few jobs, washing etc. and working out our itinerary for the next couple of weeks.
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Healthy fresh lunch at Cornerside cafe.
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Exploring Kunanurra and surroundings. Interesting little town, plenty of locals sitting round. All but two of the streets are named after Australian plants.
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First stop the Hoochery Rum Distillery
The oldest continuously operating legal distillery in Weston Australia. A bit of diversification from the owner, Spike, who actually started out as a seed farmer.
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Margot the chief distiller gave us our own special tour of the distillery, she explained how they turn molasas into rum, distilled, store it and after two years at least they can bottle the rum from the charcoal stained oak casks into bottles. It was all very interesting, despite the fact JD and I don't like rum. We bought some of their premium Ord river rum for our future hosts who love the stuff!
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Next stop the Sandalwood factory. Sandalwood is a parasitic tree it needs to grow on three host trees. Taking 15 years for the tree to mature the sandalwood industry in Kunanurra is taking the world by storm, producing essential oil for cosmetics and medicinal products, every part of the tree is used including the roots and returns expected around $2million dollars a hectare!
JD pulled the pin early so the girls couldn't spend anymore money! But in our short visit we had covered ourselves in tester samples and came out smelling like a sandalwood forest.
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Molly Springs was a short drive out of town over the Diversion dam. Diversion dam was the first stage in the construction of the Ord river irrigation scheme. It has 20 radial gates that are raised and lowered to regulate the level of Lake Kunanurra, not only to maintain water flow for irrigation but also to manage wet season flood levels. JD was fascinated by this and we crossed it several times during our Kunanurra visit.
Further along the Victoria highway we turn off to Molly Springs onto a 3 km 4WD recommended track. Whoops! Was a wee bit rough and we had to get out and check the clearance at the back of the van on a couple of dried up river crossings but we made it unscathed into the Springs. This natural Spring runs all year is a great swimming hole, which we had entirely to ourselves. Lovely little spot and not a croc in site! We did our usual thing and sent Grace in fist to check! Lots of large frogs or are they came toads?!
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Back to camp just on dark and we all went down to the lagoon edge to listen to some live entertainment by Steve Case. Matilda and I had a dance to some "Old time Rock and Roll" and quite fittingly his last song was "On the road Again".
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Kimberleyland park is a great spot if anyone looking for a place to stay in Kunanurra. Book early and ask for waterfront, or close as. Just beautiful!
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Back to the van to do some star gazing and astrology lessons.