East Kimberley Region
Flying
High…. Our first day in Kununurra
was spent visiting the town and organizing ourselves for the time ahead. Kununurra is quite
a well set out town with lots of green grass, a bit different from all the red
earth around. We decided to do an early
morning sunrise Slingair flight over the surrounding
area. We were up and dressed at 5.00am
for the flight which left at 6.00 am. In
West Australia the sun sets around 5.00pm but
the sun rises at around 5.30 am so you are definitely awake with the
birds. It was a 13 seater
air conditioned plane which took us over
the Diversion Dam which will have the capacity to irrigate 76,000 ha, once
Stage 2 is completed in 2010. The farms
that are irrigated by the Ord River
Irrigation 
Scheme grow rockmelons,
bananas, mangoes, pumpkins and cucumbers.
It is like a patchwork quilt from the air with all the paddocks being
laser levelled and made ready for planting.
We continued over Lake Argyle
(left) and from the air the amount of water is massive. At the moment
Lake Argyle 
is 92 metres above sea level
or 19 times the size of Sydney
Harbour
or around 30% of its capacity. The
maximum capacity of the Lake is 116 metres above sea
level or 40 times the size of Sydney
Harbour. It was then onto the Bungle Bungle (right) and even though we had been into the Bungle Bungle by road, from the air it was fantastic. Each “bee hive” has a distinctive
tiger-striped skin and represents the individual sandstone layers ranging in
various colours.
After cruising around for around 20 minutes it was then onto the Argyle
Diamond Mine constructed in 1984/85.
This is a big open cut mine where 27.8 million carats are being
recovered. No wonder “diamonds are
a girl’s best friend”. We
then headed back to Kununurra and a smooth landing.
BBQ
Bats…. That evening we decided
on dinner on the BBQ Boat which was good fun.
As we missed the sunset cruise on Lake
Argyle, we took a cruise up the Ord
River at sunset and
enjoyed a BBQ tea along the way. The
colony of bats couldn’t be missed, mainly due to their smell but it was
interesting to see them take flight at dusk.
Again the sunset was beautiful.
We had been in touch with some friends Susie
and Murray Antony,
dairy farmers from Portland who we had met on
our Simpson Desert trip back in 2001. They were traveling a month ahead of us, but
we thought there could be a chance we could catch up with them. It happened in the shopping centre in 
Kununurra and it was really good to see them. They were making their way back to Portland. They joined us at Ivanhoe Village
Caravan Park
for our last two nights. We again said
goodbye to Bill and Liz who were traveling on towards Broome and that night
Susie, Murray and us went out to Barra Barra Farm for dinner.
This place has only been open for two years and has the nicest pizzas on
a Friday and Saturday cooked in a wood fired oven. It’s a BYO outside small restaurant
overlooking a lake, and during the day it is known for its fresh mango
smoothies and sundaes. Really yummy too.
The last few days Rob had not been too well
but by the time we left for El Questro he was
starting to come good so we said goodbye to Susie and Murray, put the caravan
into storage at Barra Barra
and headed off to El Questro camping. Along the way we saw some beautiful boab trees (left).
The trunk of the tree is shaped like a bottle up to the neck with lots
of branches sprouting from the top. They
range in all different sizes and shapes and each tree takes on its own identity
and personality with some very old ones and some much younger ones.
Clothes
Optional…. This was our second time
to El Questro, so this time we had a very 
secluded and private camp site called Parrot. There are a number of these sites available
instead of the general camp area and they are scattered all along the Pentecost River.
Our private road led into a huge area where we set up camp under some
beautiful shady trees. The Pentecost was
at our door step and you could just wander down to the banks of the river where
the purest of water rippled over the rocks and stones into a clear waterhole
and then meandered along. It was heaven
with no other person around except for a couple of cows who wandered in to see
what we were doing. We had some
refreshing dips in the river and very safe from any crocodiles which are
plentiful in the river downstream.
Natural Beauty…… After setting up camp we headed for El Questro Gorge. The
drive in was an interesting 4WD trip with a rather deep water crossing just
prior to arrival at the carpark. El Questro Gorge is
a difficult walk and we made it to the Half Way Pool for a swim, again in clear,
cool water surrounded by palms, bracken ferns and rock fig trees hugging the
cliffs. On the way out, the rocks jumped
up and tripped Liz up. She landed heavily
and became the “walking wounded” with grazes and bruises to
different parts of the body. A bit of
tender loving care and first aid from Rob and a stiff whisky saw her ready the
next day to do some more walking and exploring.
This time it was a quick trip to Zebedee
Springs (left) in the warm thermal pool.
A nice spot but being an easier walk from the carpark,
it can be quite busy as well. It was
then on to Moonshine Gorge. The road in
was definitely rougher than the others with some interesting water crossings
but it opened up into a big area of water surrounded again by palms, trees and
the steep cliff faces. We watched fascinated as a water monitor, a metre long, sunned itself on the rock and only slipped into
the water when we walked too close for his comfort.
We decided to see Chamberlain Gorge by boat and joined
about 12 people cruising up the river late in the afternoon. There was a 2 metre
freshwater crocodile on the side of the bank as we took off and as we made our
way up the gorge Duggo and Wayno
gave a running commentary on the area.
At the end of the gorge we went ashore and discovered some aboriginal
art work, but even more interesting there was some Bradshaw artwork as
well. The staff of El Questro are forbidden to point out this particular art
work, but the tourists discovered it themselves. On the way back the sun was setting and we
all enjoyed a glass or two of champagne whilst taking in the scenery.
The highlight for Rob was taking “the Prado” to the Saddleback Lookout. This track is definitely for experienced 4WD
drivers with some of the ascents quite steep. The view from the lookout at the
top was amazing. The El Questro Homestead was visible right on the Chamberlain
Gorge and so private. And so it should
be – for $890.00 per person per night, you can be absolutely waited on
hand and foot, with everything laid on.
This is to be one of our destinations before we get too old. It was then a descent which was handled
brilliantly by Rob with Liz sitting quietly beside him issuing random
instructions, and a return to our home by the river. A bit of a difference from the Homestead up the road.
On The Road Again…. We returned to Kununurra
to pick up the van and lodge our permits for Kalumburu at the Dept of Indigineous
Affairs before taking off for Warnum and our
overnight off road stop. This roadside
stop is on the Ord River
which is dry at the moment and it was here that we met a group of
backpackers. They are so interesting to
talk to and they travel so basically.
One of the guys had picked up some fire twirlers in Perth
and he gave Rob and I a demonstrated of what he had learnt whilst traveling
around Australia.
Fitzroy Crossing was our next stop where it
was time to do a bit of domestic housework, before travelling
on to Derby to meet Judy and Gary Armstrong from Ballarat
and travel the Gibb River Road and Mitchell Plateau.
Highlight of this section is El Questro. This
private, million acre wilderness park is a special place with so many natural
attractions. You could easily spend a
week here exploring all the gorges, swimming in the secluded water holes and
just relaxing.
You can email us at rljackman@netspace.net.au