Mt Isa to Kununurra
This Can't Be The
Outback!!! It's Too Green
On The
Road Again....
It was time to move on for the long haul across the Barkly Tableland to Three Ways then up
the Stuart Highway
to Katherine. On reaching Barkly Homestead we decided not to travel to
Cape Crawford and Borroloola because of the good tail wind that was blowing -
it really makes a difference with fuel consumption and what with the price of
petrol being $1.09 at Barkly Homestead and an extra 350 kms involved, we
continued straight on. We couldn't help but notice how much greener it is
this year with most creeks and billabongs full of water. Everything looks
so much fresher.
A flying visit to the Daly Waters Pub at 10.15 am for a beer was fun.
If anyone is interested in buying the pub, it is up for sale for $1.1
million. Net return is $300,000 per annum. So far it has not
been sold.
The People You Meet....
For the leg of the trip from Mt Isa to Katherine we stayed exclusively at
roadside stops rather than caravan parks and met some fantastic people and had
some really good nights. You really do meet some interesting people at these
off road overnight stops - one night we enjoyed the antics of two English lads
who pulled in for the night driving a red Volvo sedan with a very damaged
bonnet and headlight. They had hit a cow, not a kangaroo as everyone
thought. They proceeded to build an enormous fire over 2 metres in height
to cook three sausages. It entertained everybody for the night.
A stop in Katherine for three nights meant that we could go back to Edith Falls
and the Upper Pool - a favourite spot of ours. This year the water coming
over the waterfall is about 1/3 more than last year. We also did a 4 hour
canoe trip up the Katherine Gorge. There is so much water coming down
that only the lower gorge is open for canoeing at the moment, and the 8 hour
canoe trip which we did last year will not start until the water levels drop.
Who Say's We Can't Catch Fish....
From Katherine we travelled towards Kununurra and stayed at a camp site at Big
Horse Creek, 10 kms west of Timber Creek. This camp site is right on the Victoria River
- a huge river running out to sea at Joseph
Bonaparte Gulf.
Here we met some people from Shark Bay,
WA. Jim is a fisherman of
30 years and ran his own fish and chip shop. He invited Rob to go
Barramundi fishing with him the next day. The fishing trip took them 55
kms down the Victoria
River, past some
fantastic wildlife and big, salt water crocodiles. Rob caught his first
barramundi, weighing 9 kg and measuring 90 cms in length. Jim being the
fisherman, was able to expertly cut and fillet the fish and did not leave an
ounce of meat on the carcass. We had some of it for tea that night gave
some away, and froze the rest.
Mixing With The Locals,
From Ballarat That Is .... What's
outback touring without going to the local pubs to get a bit of the atmosphere
and local culture. So off to the Timber Creek Pub we go 10
km up the road from our camp ground. Timber Creek has a population of 100
people and we think most of them were in the two pubs in town. Whilst
mixing it with the locals, yes those locals, a couple of touristy looking types
walked in. We started talking to them, you know, the usual small
talk. Where have you been, where are you going, where do you
live. Well guess what? They lived in
Ballarat. Where about's in Ballarat. Alfredton. About 500
metres from our house. Wow. What a coincidence. It is really
a very small world. So now we have some new friends, Gary &
Judy. More on them later.
An Inland Sea.....
Lake Argyle was our next stop to see the Ord
River Dam. Called Lake Argyle it is the largest volume of fresh water in Australia and
covers over 2000 sq kms. It contains the equivalent of 54 Sydney Harbours
and is 63 metres deep at its deepest point. At the moment it is 83 kms in
length and is classified as an inland sea. As the dam is over full due to
the big wet season water is flowing over the spillway at the moment at the rate
of 680 tonnes/second and water will continue to flow over the spillway until
November 2000. We stayed at the Lake Argyle
Caravan Park
where the mosquitoes were prolific. One night was enough there before we
moved onto Kununurra. The photo shows the dam wall taken from the river
side with the hydro electricity plant on the left hand side.
No Shortage Of Water
Here.... Kununurra was established in 1960 as the centre for
the Ord River Irrigation Project. The town is a picturesque modern
town with a population of 6,000 making it one of the biggest towns in the Kimberley. The
sporting facilities here are well used by the local people and the primary
school and TAFE college look exceptional. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay
at the Ivanhoe Village Caravan
Park. This was a
very old park which was totally bulldozed and rebuilt with brand new
facilities, pool and grassed sites.
At sunset we climbed Kelly's Knob which was an energetic walk to a lookout
with view of the Ord
Valley and Kununurra
surrounding area. A visit to Ivanhoe Crossing is another tourist
attraction. The crossing is usually open to 4 WD vehicles in the
"Dry" but because of the big "Wet" this year, it is a
raging river with a huge volume of water flowing over the crossing making it
extremely dangerous.
There
are lots of things to do in Kununurra. One was the Triple J Tour - a tour
by boat up the Ord
River to the Lake Argyle
Dam Wall. The boat was powered by two 225 hp outboard motors and
travelled along at 55 kph and held up to 48 people. Our tour guide Adam,
was brilliant at his job and was able to answer all questions asked. We
think he knew every bird living and his knowledge of the area was amazing.
We saw fresh water crocodiles, lots of birdlife, rock wallabies, flying
foxes towering cliffs in brilliant colours and some spectacular
scenery. We left at 10.30 am and returned at sunset and travelled
110 kilometres. It really was value for money and recommended.
Mirimar National Park was another sightseeing
spot. It is easily accessible from Kununurra and the sandstone ranges,
cliffs and valleys are similar in appearance to parts of the Bungle Bungle
Range. There are a
couple of quite interesting walks to be done.
We met up with Judy and Gary again in
Kununurra and over lunch decided to go off camping for three days into the East Kimberley. They had a very good set up with a
4 WD and off road camper trailer whilst we had our tent and other camping
equipment in our 4 WD. A full report on this little adventure
follows in our East Kimberley section.
We have now travelled 5650 km since leaving
home. Petrol prices in this section have varied from a low of $0.865 in Mount Isa
to a high of $1.09 on the Barkly
Highway at Barkly Homestead. This guy is a
rip of merchant. Don't buy petrol at Barkly Homestead if you can avoid
it. In Katherine and Kununurra it is $0.99.
The highlight of this section:
Has to be the "Triple J Tour" up the Ord River to
the Ord River
Dam and Lake Argyle. At $75 per head for
a full day including a great lunch and afternoon tea this really was excellent
value for money. Our guide was very knowledgeable on the area and
humorous to boot which made for a very interesting and fun day.
Until our next update.
Regards, Rob & Liz
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