We had been planning to go on one of the cruises on the Ord river or Lake Argyle at some point during the trip. Once we actually arrived in Kununurra, though, we discovered that most of the tour companies had closed business for the season. We were left with just one choice - a sunset cruise on Lake Argyle on Thursday afternoon. Sounded OK...
So we elected to spend the morning visiting Mirima National Park (AKA Hidden Valley)(AKA the Mini Bungles). This National Park was located right on the edge of town and its rocky domes had been beckoning us since our arrival. It was surprisingly spectacular, although squeezed into quite a small area. We took a few walks in and around the rock formations, leading to a couple of lookout points over the town and back over the park itself. Unfortunately (although you'd think we would have been used to it by now) it was still very hot (magnified by the effect of the sun heating up the surrounding stone). Nabbed a grand total of 5 geocaches there, though :)
Although it was still pretty early (and we were still operating on NT time - an hour and a half ahead of Kununurra)(meaning we were getting up at what was 4.30 each morning local time), we decided to head on out to Lake Argyle 70km away. We were hoping to find a few more side-tracks to explore along the way, but only really ended up stopping at the bridge over the spillway, as well as a short drive into a cave in the rocks (which was covered by too many spiderwebs to consider further exploration). Close by to the lake we also drove into Dead Horse Springs - made memorable by the fact that this was where I succumbed to the temptation to drive at high speed through a big, muddy puddle. Unfortunately, it turned out to be pretty stagnant, and the distinctive odor given off by the generous coating of mud over the BT served as an ongoing reminder to steer around any subsequent puddles (I did try to float the idea of driving through a bigger puddle in an attempt to clean off some of the mess, but was vetoed by Ryan).
Anyway, we finally made it to the Lake itself, which was spectacular. The huge expanse of deep blue water stretched off into the distance, in contrast to the red rock of the surrounding hills. After enjoying the view, we spent a lazy couple of hours in the shady picnic ground waiting for our cruise.
We ended up sharing the boat with only 7 other people. Our guide and captain was very friendly and down to earth, and offered plenty of interesting information about the Lake and its history. We stopped periodically at various points along the way - our first stop to see some of the rock wallabies, which came right down close to the boat to accept a feed of horse pellets.
We also stopped in a small bay to feed a horde of catfish - these went into a frenzy when the guide shook a bread roll around in the water in their midst (he even had one attached to his finger when he brought his hand back up). Right next to us, there was a fresh water croc with a handful of babies crawling in and out of the water around her. Apart from one hiss and snap, she just sat motionless and wary in the water while we entertained ourselves with the fish.
At one point, we also cruised right down into the midst of the Lake to get a true appreciation of its size. With the water stretching beyond the horizon, it felt almost like we were heading out to sea.
The cruise ended with us mooring in a sheltered bay for a swim and to watch the sun set. The water was amazingly clear and clean, and we spent a tranquil half-an-hour or so watching the last rays of the sun disappear behind building stormclouds.
As we were heading back to Kununurra we came across a vehicle stranded on the side of the road with its occupants waving for help. A quick debate as to whether it was safe to stop or not, soon had us turning around to see what the problem was. It turned out to be a couple of members of the support crew for "Pedals for Prostate" - a bunch of fireman riding around Australia in order to raise money and awareness about prostate cancer. They had been driving with the fuel light on for the past 100km, and had finally run out of diesel only 30km from Kununurra. Unfortunately, although we were carrying two jerrycans, they were both empty. Instead, we cleared some space on our backseat and gave one of them a lift into town to seek out the rest of their group (who were all happily on their way to being drunk in the local pub by then).
After finding the remainder of the township pretty much dead by then (only about 8.00 at night), we bought some Chinese food at the only open shop and returned gladly to our campsite and beds.
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