DARWIN TO KUNUNURRA IN WA

This part of our trip has been so incredibly scenic and we've taken literally hundreds of photos.  It was really hard deciding which photos to put on the blog, as we've had a scenic overload.  I just had to include all of the following - I know it's loads more than in previous blogs, but I'm sure you'll agree with me when you see them just how stunning each place was. 

FRIDAY 4TH JULY   -  We left Darwin and headed 114 kilometres south.  Our first stop was at Adelaide River. It was an historic township that was once a popular stopover for travellers and prospectors travelling to Pine Creek, when gold was discovered there in 1871 by workers on the Overland Telegraph Line.

THE SPEED LIMIT IN NORTHERN TERRITORY  - IT USED TO BE UNLIMITED!!!

The town played a major role as a large military base during WWII, with many service personnel stationed there.  Following the bombing of Darwin in 1942, the Australian and American military headquarters were relocated there. 

Adelaide River is the site of the third largest war cemetery in Australia and has 434 service personnel from Australia, Britain and Canada laid to rest there.  The War Memorial is a much visited spot, with many of those laid to rest only 19 years old and under.  It was a beautifully maintained and serene place, despite being a very sad place and was next to the civil cemetery where 63 soles were laid to rest.

Our next stop was at Pine Creek – the Top End’s only remaining original mining town from the 1870’s gold rush era.  We had lunch in the local water gardens and walked through the town looking at the remains of some of the original historical buildings still standing.

We pulled up at our overnight free stop Mathieson Rest Area, 392 kilometres from Darwin.  It was a big rest area and pretty crowded by the time we got there.  We parked next to an interesting Pommy couple and had a long chat with them as well as other people camped there overnight.

SATURDAY 5TH JULY   -   We left our overnight stop and headed towards Victoria River with some absolutely stunning scenery along the way with lots of boab trees and scenic gorges with vivid reds and browns ingrained in the hills.  Some of them looked like their grooves had been purposely sculpted. Victoria River is a popular barramundi fishing area, with a caravan park and helicopter rides available over nearby Gregory and Keep River National Parks.

 

We carried on through the beautiful landscape towards Timber Creek.  We were particularly taken by the amount of boab trees and the different sizes and shapes.  They are only found in the Western Australia Kimberly region.  Each tree is unique with a smooth brown trunk full of stored water from the wet season.  Some have very fat trunks and long spindly branches resembling gnarled arms and hands.   Others are very skinny with yellow flowers and fruit like ‘nuts’ on them. Some of them are 1,500 years old and were used by the aboriginal people for food, shelter and medicine.  The boab is a slow growing tree and can reach up to 15 metres.  They flower and grow fruit in the wet season.  Most parts of the tree are edible. The nuts can be ground down to use for flour for damper. Many of the tourist shops sell carved and/or hand painted boab shells done by the aboriginal people.  They’re quite magnificent and unusual.

DANCING TWIN BOABS

After 300 kilometres, we reached our overnight stop at Saddle Creek Rest Area, the last rest stop before the Western Australian border.  Saddle Creek had a beautiful backdrop of tall rocky colourful hills with ever-changing colours of reds, browns and oranges, with the sun wafting over them late in the afternoon and towards sunset. It felt magical and surreal being camped underneath such a stunning backdrop.  The rest area was quite small and practically full up by the time we arrived there.  We went for a walk along the road by the camping area admiring both the landscape and the different characteristics of each boab tree.

OUR FREE CAMP AT SADDLE CREEK - PRETTY SPECTACULAR

CALLED SADDLE CREEK AS THIS RANGE RESEMBLES A HORSE SADDLE

SUNDAY 6TH JULY   -   We left our overnight stop and got to the Western Australia border an hour later, with a 1 ½ hour time difference from the Northern Territory.  40 minutes later we reached our destination Kununurra at the top end of Western Australia.  We stayed at the 5 star Ivanhoe Caravan Village Resort close to town and opposite the Showground, where you can usually camp, but it was closed for a week as they were having the annual Agricultural Show. 

Kununurra means “Meeting of the Big Waters” in the aboriginal language.  It has a population of 8,000 and is located amongst the scenic hills and ranges of the far North-East Kimberly Region.  The area grows melons, mangoes and Indian sandalwood and has an abundant water supply from the Ord River Diversion Dam.  In fact, here and Darwin are the only places we’ve been to that actively encouraged their guests to water the grass.   There’s no problem washing cars or caravans either which is totally opposite to what we usually find everywhere else.

Later that night, we went to see Peter Brandy a local aboriginal entertainer singing and playing his guitar in the pool area.  He was a good guitar player and had lots of stories to tell us. We enjoyed listening to him.

MONDAY 7TH JULY   -   We visited the Celebrity Tree Park on the riverfront in town.  It was a big park with a variety of trees and plaques with the name of the famous people that had planted them.   We saw plaques from Peter Brock, John Farnham, Richard Clapton, HRH Princess Anne, Jimmy Edwards and Kate Ceberano.  It was a beautiful park with lots of boabs amongst the celebrity trees. 

TUESDAY 8TH JULY   -   We went for a drive to Zebra Rock an hour’s drive from the caravan park.  It was on a 10 kilometres dirt road off the Victoria Highway.  There was a caravan park with a café in a beautifully peaceful garden setting.  The park and the gallery were run by the owners of the mining lease Kim and Ruth Duncan.  It is the only operating mine in the World.  Zebra rock is mined in the area and is a light brown colour with white stripes through it.  It was a very unusual looking stone and looked beautiful when it was shaped and polished into pendants, jewellery and ornaments. 

Next we drove to Lake Argyle and were mesmerised with the stunning scenery on the drive up to the lake, with huge colourful rocky ranges.  It is the largest man-made lake in the southern hemisphere, covering 1,000 square kilometres and was opened in 1972.  We drove up to the lookout with beautiful views over the bays, inlets and islands of Lake Argyle.  There were lots of boats out on the lake taking in the scenery.   We drove over the dam wall and down to the lush green picnic area by the water and saw the water gushing out of large pipes into the lake.  There was a resort and caravan park by the lake with an on-site restaurant, bar and beer garden.  

THE STUNNING DRIVE UP TO LAKE ARGYLE

WEDNESDAY 9TH JULY   -    We went to Mirima National Park (Hidden Valley) – called the mini Bungle Bungles as it looks similar to the bigger Bungle Bungle National Park near Halls Creek further into Western Australia.

We took the 30 minute moderate hike up to the top of the Range with stunning views down the valleys of the sandstone ranges in the Ord Valley.  They had a black coating and the cliffs looked like honeycombs and were astonishing.

THURSDAY 10TH JULY  -  We went to Wyndham to see where The Five Rivers meet, an hour from Kununurra, along the Great Northern Highway.  We went past “Cheese Tin Creek”, “Dead Horse Creek” and “Wine Glass Creek" passing by picturesque tall pointed pyramid peaks, some with flat tops and small trees and shrubs growing out of them at right angles to the hillsides.  Wyndham is the oldest and most northernmost town in the Kimberley Region with a population of 700.

THE BIG CROCODILE IN WYNDHAM

AN ABORIGINAL SCULPTURE AT WYNDHAM

Wyndham is where The King, Pentecost, Durack, Ord and The Forest Rivers are all joined by the Cambridge Gulf.  The views from the upper and lower lookouts were spectacular.

In 1933 Charles Kingsford Smith flew from England to Wyndham.

SATURDAY 12TH JULY  -  We went to the Kununurra Agricultural Show. It was a 2 day event with lots of activities, rides, cattle, singers, bands and machinery.  We got there at 10am for the Dog Show, which was a great event and the dogs and owners had a fantastic time.  There was a prize for the waggliest tail, the dog with the biggest smile, the dog that most looked like its owner as well as the usual best of small, medium and large breeds.  It finished off with novelty races.  All the winning dogs proudly displayed their blue satin sashes around the showground.

We saw the tug of war, lawnmower race, show jumping display and came back later in the evening for the firework display and band that played until the show finished.  It was a great day out.

We’re very glad we made the trip over to Kununurra and it was well worth all the driving for the scenery alone which was just spectacular.

NEXT WEEK:  We will be leaving Kununurra and travelling back into Northern Territory and heading for Mataranka a popular town with thermal springs.  We will be staying in a caravan park there for a few days, then heading towards Alice Springs and Uluru.  Lots more driving over the next 2 weeks before we reach Alice.