Thursday 11th July

We arrived at Big Horse Creek National Park Rest Area at about 3.30pm to find it was already full! There was however an area just away from the main camp that seemed okay. There was a sign across from us that said NO Parking and a sign down by the boat ramp that said No Camping but we weren't near either. We still paid our $3.30 each just to keep the ranger happy and hoped everything would be okay. The cruise tour on the Victoria River left from a side boat ramp near a big house boat that could be hired. We didn't see the need to do the boat cruise as we had already done 2 and would probably do the Geikie Gorge tour on the Fitzroy River.

There were some big boab trees in the area and I took some photo, I find them fascinating to look at. Chris said someone told her they were often referred to as an "upside down tree" because their branches look like their root system.

We took a sunset walk down to the boat ramp where a young local couple were fishing. He works for the local shire and she is a cook at the caravan park. Apparently the Barramundi have been pretty quiet this season so they weren't expecting to get much of a feed. I suggested the crocodiles might get a feed instead if the young guy insisted on standing ankle deep in the water while he cast out!! Upstream there is a bridge over the river where an American Air Force base is being setup. You can't drive over it but from a local lookout you can see the airstrip.

We had a cookup to get rid of the excess vegetables. I peeled, chopped and parcooked some carrots, broccoli and cauliflower and frozen all these to get then across the border.

Crossed border at 10.15amWST Friday 12th July and was happy the inspector allowed my cucumber and onion in vinegar this time, although he did take my ½ lemon that was in the door of the fridge, I'd forgotten about that one.

We decided to call into Lake Argyle and Ord River Dam on our way to Kununarra as it was a 78km trip back if we didn't do it then. The Caravan Park was huge and we agreed to spend the night there even though we were on non powered sites. We were positioned on the edge of the escarpment which a photo didn't do justice to. When Glenn pulled out the awning we realised that we had a stowaway, a little frog that had obviously been on the awning from the night before. He didn't seem distressed at all so I found him a nice tree to cling to and contemplate how he was going to get home!

We headed down to the park café for lunch. While we were waiting under the trees for our order Chris and I wandered up to have a look at the pool area. OMG it was beautiful. It was one of the horizon pools that flow over the side making it look like it is a part of the scenery, made a note to check it out later. We went for a drive to see the lake and dam and this was all very spectacular. I took lots of photos and could even see a crocodile that I spied while looking down from the lookout in the Ord River. Apparently there are 15,000 crocodiles in Lake Argyle itself and probably even more in the Ord River. We also called into a replica Homestead where Mary Durack had lived. I read Kings in Grass Castles when I was in year 11 or 12 so knew a bit about Mary's life. The lady who was taking the entrance fee was very impressed that the book was part of the school reading curriculum in Perth some 35 years ago. She said it was the first time anyone from Perth had told her that. We were despair to hear about the cricket so asked a tour bus driver and he filled us in on Ashton Agar's innings. What a great knock!

We all headed down for a swim about 4 o'clock as it had been a warm day, 35'. I struck up a conversation with a fellow traveller who has spent the last couple of years working in caravan parks with his wife. He spent 6 months at the Peppermint Grove Park in Busselton. He gave me an insight to the Bungle Bungles and we also talked about travelling around Tasmania. This has given us a few new ideas for our next big trip away.

Glenn discovered his server at home had gone down on Friday night. He spoke to Dale at length about how to possibly fix it. Glenn was mostly worried about the footy tipping program knowing that it would cause some problems when people tried to login and leave their tips.

Signing off for now, Virginia and Glenn