Saturday, 17th July
With the caravan still hooked up, we were ready to roll nice and early this morning, then realised that Kununurra was in West Australia and an hour and a half behind in time. If we drove at normal speed, we would arrive half an hour after we left Timber Creek! The road west was very easy travelling – long straights, flat, good wide road and only bumpy over flood plains, and no traffic early in the day. We plodded along, struggling to keep the speed down to 80 km/h and had a couple of stops to change drivers. We decided that if we ever drove from Katherine to Kununurra again, we would do it in one hit, changing drivers every hour. Travelling west would be different, because of the time change. We were expecting the quarantine check at the border and had cleared out all our vegetables and fruit – we only had half a jar of leatherwood honey, which we asked if it was okay? No. The man was very nice and said he really appreciated Tasmanians as we were very quarantine conscious.
We still arrived at the Ivanhoe Caravan Park in Kununurra shortly after 10.00 am and were able to go straight onto our site. We were driven in a golf buggy to have a look first, and the man offered to help back us on if necessary. Professionals that we now are, we thanked him kindly and declined his offer. This is a really lovely park (wish we had booked for seven nights, not five), grass and a concrete slab, shade, palm trees (lovely feeling to look up through the shower hatch at a palm tree), good amenities, nice pool and spa, and within walking distance to the town centre.
Headed to the Visitors’ Centre first up, but discovered a market happening opposite, so did a quick veer to the left and bought our fresh fruit/vegetable supplies direct from the grower at half the shop price. David Bartlett should come and look at the food bowl in this area – it is massive! Back to the information centre for some advice on tours and eventually settled on a combined tour – an early morning flight to the Bungle Bungles (pick up 5.15 am on Tuesday) and a half day bus/cruise tour of the Ord River on Sunday. Realised when we got in the car that Shan’s concert is on Sunday afternoon, so instead of facing the information centre hordes again, decided to ring the tour company direct and change the cruise date. Big mistake! Cruise company happy to make the change but received a phone call during the afternoon from the information centre checking if the change was correct. No problems. Then the air company rang (no changes with them at all) and was very annoyed that I had changed the cruise and not told the air company.
This afternoon we checked out the local zebra rock company and learnt that this rock can only be recovered from the quarry about four weeks every year when the water level in Lake Argyle drops low enough. We watched some pieces being ground and then toured the gift shop – like all artistic gift shops, the articles were priced accordingly! Back into town for a walk through the celebrity tree park, where a large number of trees have been planted by celebrities (hence the name) including Princess Anne, Bud Tingwell (his tree died too), Ernie Dingo, John Farnham, numerous Governors General and state Governors, as well as many other artists and sportspeople. This park was right beside the Lily Lagoon, evidently home to hundreds of freshwater crocodiles (they were hiding this afternoon). Then we had a quick drive to Kelly’s Knob Lookout and a short walk to the top for a look over the leafy town and a view of the flat agricultural lands surrounding the town.
The sun goes down at 5.00 pm here and at 5.30 it is almost pitch black dark – the barbecue will be cooked under lights tonight.
With the caravan still hooked up, we were ready to roll nice and early this morning, then realised that Kununurra was in West Australia and an hour and a half behind in time. If we drove at normal speed, we would arrive half an hour after we left Timber Creek! The road west was very easy travelling – long straights, flat, good wide road and only bumpy over flood plains, and no traffic early in the day. We plodded along, struggling to keep the speed down to 80 km/h and had a couple of stops to change drivers. We decided that if we ever drove from Katherine to Kununurra again, we would do it in one hit, changing drivers every hour. Travelling west would be different, because of the time change. We were expecting the quarantine check at the border and had cleared out all our vegetables and fruit – we only had half a jar of leatherwood honey, which we asked if it was okay? No. The man was very nice and said he really appreciated Tasmanians as we were very quarantine conscious.
We still arrived at the Ivanhoe Caravan Park in Kununurra shortly after 10.00 am and were able to go straight onto our site. We were driven in a golf buggy to have a look first, and the man offered to help back us on if necessary. Professionals that we now are, we thanked him kindly and declined his offer. This is a really lovely park (wish we had booked for seven nights, not five), grass and a concrete slab, shade, palm trees (lovely feeling to look up through the shower hatch at a palm tree), good amenities, nice pool and spa, and within walking distance to the town centre.
Headed to the Visitors’ Centre first up, but discovered a market happening opposite, so did a quick veer to the left and bought our fresh fruit/vegetable supplies direct from the grower at half the shop price. David Bartlett should come and look at the food bowl in this area – it is massive! Back to the information centre for some advice on tours and eventually settled on a combined tour – an early morning flight to the Bungle Bungles (pick up 5.15 am on Tuesday) and a half day bus/cruise tour of the Ord River on Sunday. Realised when we got in the car that Shan’s concert is on Sunday afternoon, so instead of facing the information centre hordes again, decided to ring the tour company direct and change the cruise date. Big mistake! Cruise company happy to make the change but received a phone call during the afternoon from the information centre checking if the change was correct. No problems. Then the air company rang (no changes with them at all) and was very annoyed that I had changed the cruise and not told the air company.
This afternoon we checked out the local zebra rock company and learnt that this rock can only be recovered from the quarry about four weeks every year when the water level in Lake Argyle drops low enough. We watched some pieces being ground and then toured the gift shop – like all artistic gift shops, the articles were priced accordingly! Back into town for a walk through the celebrity tree park, where a large number of trees have been planted by celebrities (hence the name) including Princess Anne, Bud Tingwell (his tree died too), Ernie Dingo, John Farnham, numerous Governors General and state Governors, as well as many other artists and sportspeople. This park was right beside the Lily Lagoon, evidently home to hundreds of freshwater crocodiles (they were hiding this afternoon). Then we had a quick drive to Kelly’s Knob Lookout and a short walk to the top for a look over the leafy town and a view of the flat agricultural lands surrounding the town.
The sun goes down at 5.00 pm here and at 5.30 it is almost pitch black dark – the barbecue will be cooked under lights tonight.
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