Final Days at Kununurra and back to Victoria River - 2nd-4th August 2011

Tonight, 4th August, we are at Victoria River on the way to Katherine.  How nice for us to be able to meet up with Mary and Howard who are on their way for do voluntary work at HCJB, so we will have to enclose a photo which was taken tonight on the old road bridge at Victoria River.

Meeting up with Mary & Howard (right) at Victoria River

Yesterday, 3rd August, we took a 4WD bus into El Questro.   It was a most enjoyable day and we were delighted to be in somebody else’s vehicle instead of our own on the Gibb River Road.   Graeme bravely strode up the gorge to visit Emma Gorge.  A few of us chickened out for one reason or another.  It was quite a climb. 

Emma Gorge

Emma Gorge

We saw one lady who apparently broke her arm trying to do the climb, but she was not in our group, poor soul.  We had fun at Zebedee Falls.  The ridge in the red, rocky mountains contained a very interesting surprise, with tall Livistonia  Palms sheltering a warm spring and everyone had to find their own little pool to take a dip in the springs.   The dressing sheds were non existent, so we were trying to change out on the trail without much cover.    

Then we had a lovely lunch at the café and a cruise on the Chamberlain Gorge in the afternoon and fed the “spitting fish”.  It was quite lovely.  El Questro staff served champagne juice and fresh fruit on the boat.  

At El Questro

  

Chamberlain Gorge in the afternoon

Chamberlain Gorge

Chamerlain Gorge

In the big wet, the water in the Pentecost River where the homestead sits, rose 21 metres and they were fortunate that when the foundations were being washed away, a huge Boab tree got wedged between the ground and the floor of the $2,000 per night suite and saved the day.  Now, I’d like to know the chances that a huge Boab tree could wedge itself in that position and save the homestead from washing away.    I reckon someone who was caretaking there at the time, was praying like mad for some divine help.

Friday we head for Mataranka for the weekend, then we begin travelling south on the way home.  We will be taking in a few of the National Parks as we travel.

Lake Argyle, Bungle Bungles, Jacana, Grotto 1st August 2011

Latest pictures, show there is plenty to do in the North of the country.  Hire a little or large motor home from Darwin and take yourself to some of these wonderful places.

We have now been on the road two months. 

We discovered The Grotto while driving to Wyndham on The Cambridge Gulf.  Situation:  Sixty kms from Kununurra.  On the surface of the land it just looks like a big hole in the ground.  If you walk down 140 un-railed steps and climb over some rocks, you will find this cool gorge.  Some people were swimming in it.  In the wet, there are magnificent waterfalls falling into this underground chasm from the surrounding hills and the water would be many metres deep.  

The Grotto

The Grotto 2

The Grotto 3

Yesterday we called in to HCJB, a non denominational Christian company sending the gospel message and other helpful information into SE Asia, India and the South Pacific.  Everything is done by volunteers from building the towers to managing the stations and the program dispersal to the right country at the right time.  God has provided many miracles to set up this station.  It is received on short-wave radio on  small radios. Friends, Mary and Howard Jones have spent part of the last 3 years helping in this work and will arrive later this week for a further period. They also grow bananas and mangos at HCJB and would love some volunteers to help do all kinds of jobs.

Look carefully and you will see the tall HCJB antennae

Another view of HCJB

The Jacana bird is also known as “The Jesus Bird”, because it seems to walk on water.  Its finely spread toes allow its weight to be distributed so gently on lily pads and sea grasses, that it appears to walk on the water.  They are busy little birds, and Graeme captured this one as it was about to fly.  We have only seen them fly very low over the water and not very far.  So I call this one “the dancing Jacana”.

Jacana about to fly

Jacana reflection

Finally, a flight to the Bungle Bungles.  This also included The Argyle Diamond Mine - the richest diamond mine in the World.  The workers work for 3 weeks on site then go home for one week.  Half the people employed are Aboriginal, or this is at least a goal of the company.  One lady told me she had bought 5 houses in 2 years since her husband has been working on that mine.  She plants Chinese Sandalwood trees, which is a major industry in Kununurra.  These trees are parasites, so they have to be grown with other trees.  It takes 15 years from planting to harvest.  In the pictures you will also see Lake Argyle that we flew over today, the land forms, the dam wall of Lake Argyle, produce grown on the Ord River Scheme, and the Lake Argyle caravan park where we spent two days enjoying the dam. 

Bungle Bungles

The plane we flew in

Crops around Kununurra

Bungle Bungles

Mt Diamond Open Cut Mine

Lake Argyle

Crops around Kununurra

Spillway from Lake Kununurra

Lake Argyle and Kununurra 26-30th July 2011

Lake Argyle is on the site of the old Durak homestead and was the brain child of Kim Durak, who also gave the region its name – “Kimberley”.  Lake Argyle is formed by the damming of the Ord River.  There is a giant spillway, which can fill Sydney Harbour in just 4 hours in a wet year like this one.  They had 3 metres of rain in the most recent wet season.  

Sunset cruise on Lake Argyle

Sunset cruise on Lake Argyle

Sunset on Lake Argyle

Underneath Lake Argyle is a mountain range and only the tallest mountains can be seen jutting up out of the water.  We saw 16 foot crocs on Lake Argyle.   It is a huge dam, for the purpose of irrigation water and electricity generation.   The surrounding rocky walls to the dam are really red and extremely interesting and dramatic.  We cruised Lake Argyle and also the Upper Ord River. 

Kununurra is quite an interesting place with a population of about 7,000 it is also the site of HCJB, a Christian Broadcasting Station, broadcasting into SE Asia.  Our friends, Mary and Howard Jones have been coming up for three years to help erect the towers and assist in getting the programs into the right countries.  We will go over and visit the station tomorrow for “open” Sunday. 

Entrance to HCJB

They also grow bananas and sell banana jam or spread, very delicious.    Many of the wonderful things to do near here are on The Gibb Road, which can be a difficult place to negotiate, so Graeme does not want to drive to these places, instead, we will come back and do them from Perth, on another trip, where the road is better.

Sunst on Lake Kununurra

Ord River - cruising Lake Kununurra

Spillway from Lake Kununurra

Yesterday we went to Wyndham. An Aboriginal town with a great historical past.  It is a port and has seen many kinds of goods shipped out of Australia.  The Cambridge Gulf cuts a huge swag out of the Australian Continent right here, take a look on a map.  We are in the NE corner of WA.  The cutting is so wide it is mind blowing and it is surrounded with massive miles of mud flats on both sides.  It is hard to get your head around the size of the gulf.  Five of our rivers empty into the gulf: King, Ord, Durack, Forrest and Pentecost and you can see them emptying their contents there.  It was a bit of a hazy day for us to see well.  Just think Very Big.  We also did some 4 W-Driving to see some falls, springs, creeks and watery landmarks, as well as Parry’s Wetlands and Bird Hide, where we had a wonderful time photographing the birds.  The Highlight was visiting Parry’s Resort, in the middle of nowhere, where we had lunch and a very funny waitress to serve us.   Her husband was the chef there.  They use all the food in season from their garden and even had food that Graeme could eat.  What a joy.  I also picked up a new Christmas dessert recipe.

Birds at Kununurra

Jacana - 'walking on water' on Lake Kununurra

On Monday we have opted for flying over the Bungle Bungles.   Soon we hope to be in the Keep National Park on the state border between NT and WA. 

Darwin - Berry Springs and Fogg Dam 22nd July 2011

Friday:  We decided to go and have another swim at Berry Springs on behalf of all of you who loved the look of that place.  We tried to get some different pictures, so you can imagine it.  We commenced in the water at the entrance of the waterfall and then we swam and floated all the way down through a series of pools until we went as far as we dared.  At that point it had opened out into a huge fresh water river and we have not seen anybody going on further.    The small joins in the waterways turned out to be about ten feet wide or more, and about three or four feet deep.  With my goggles on I could see all the rocks and pebbles in those little joining places and I also saw a big black and yellow tropical flat fish and he looked beautiful.  Lots of little tropical fish as well.  I can assure you it is the most peaceful place, most of the time, just heavenly.

After a good swim we did some exploring and found the Blackmore River, which was a surprise, then we drove to Fogg Dam to view the wetlands and birds.  Included are a few photos for you.  Graeme is testing out his new camera and took some movies with it, which turned out fairly good but may be too many megs to send through.

Thank you to all who write, acknowledge our photos and comment on them, (those snakes were not well liked apparently), but Berry Springs was.  Others also have been phoning and others still, sending important information for us as we negotiate our way around the country.  We greatly appreciate it all and it is so nice to stay in touch with our friends

Darwin - Berry Springs, Territory Wildlife Park, 20th July 2011

Our days at Darwin are drawing to a close.  I think we are ready to move on, though, of necessity, we must leave a few things to see another time.  People drive straight up from Melbourne and Adelaide and just stay here for winter.   There seems to be plenty of things to do at night, so they try to keep the locals happy.   Our temperatures are 20 to 32 each day.  The 20 actually feels quite cool though I’m sure some of you would love to see 20 right now.    We know some are experiencing some pretty wet and windy weather.

Last night I learnt how to choose a gum tree with a termite nest up high, where the termites are eating out a branch.  The right branch can be stripped of its bark, the termites removed, smooth it over, add some bees wax mouth piece, put a coat of bondcrete down the middle of the wood to seal it and there you have your didgerie-doo.  They made one in front of our eyes in 30 minutes and my, it sounded great.  Now I’m always looking for possible didgerie-doo timber up in the trees.

Burning off - to avoid bushfires in summer

Yesterday we went to Berry Springs to find a Wildlife Park.  We turned in a bit soon and found ourselves at the Berry Springs reserve, where the refreshing cool springs simply spring forth from the ground and turn into a series of very large pools of fresh water, joined together by several narrow and shallow waterways.  The pools were as large as regular swimming pools and there was plenty of room for everybody to swim in any pool they chose.   The proprietor of the Kiosk told us the water was 16 metres deep in its deepest part.  I was wearing my goggles and could see the beautiful sun’s rays reaching down deep into the pool.  It was totally refreshing and made me think of the water flowing out from the throne of God, what a fountain that one must be.       I asked the Kiosk man where the springs went to after they left the reserve (he was a historian) and he told me how they join the Darwin River and head out to the coast, mingling the salt and fresh.    We have been told that due to the 3 metres of rain Darwin received in the wet this year, that the massive rivers are mostly fresh water and not salt, even though they are coming in from the coast.

Berry Springs

Berry Springs

The history he shared was tantalizing, I’ll have to look into it further.   Darwin used to be called Palmerston when it was just a dot on the map and had a wharf where ships could off-load cargo for the gold fields.  The gold field towns were huge in those days and the materials needed by the gold seekers were floated down these huge rivers from Palmerston, way inland to where the bigger gold towns were.  There are quite a few fantastic books on all the history.

After our swim, we went next door to the Territory Wildlife Park which was beautifully done and served wonderful fresh food.  The hosts were well trained and very helpful.  Little “trains” take you around to all the different “stations”.   There was so much to see, birds, aquarium and coral, wetlands, ponds with fish, native wildlife hopping around, nocturnal houses and a wonderful indoor aviary that went on and on forever.  We had a great day.   We hope you enjoy our photos. 

Dingo

Birds of Prey demonstration

Feed time after the games



Pygmy Geese



Forest Kingfisher

White breasted Woodswallow

Golden Tree Snake - safely in its cage!

Graeme picked up a new compact camera today (Canon G12 to use until the lens is fixed) after he got the car serviced and then we had a swim and did some shopping.  We are getting ready to hand all our fresh food over as we come in to Kunnunnara in WA in the next couple of days.