Four days in Kununurra had Stuart fixing or modifying just about everything!!! The main repair was the water tank, which is now sealed and has a proper vent/overflow pipe installed. By the time we get home, I reckon the car and camper will be very different from when they left!
Our second night was spent with a celebratory dinner at the beautiful Pump House Restaurant on Lake Kununurra, to toast our completion of the Gibb River Road! The restaurant is in the disused pumping station on the lake, with a very funky feel similar to Little Creatures in Fremantle. The food was amazing including an entree of whiskey cured smoked Barramundi, followed with grilled barra and sautéed scallops as mains! We later found out that the restaurant has been nominated for a Gold Plate Award! And if this wasn’t great enough, looking over the balcony from our table, the water was lit up and teeming with huge catfish as well as a freshwater croc lazily floating amongst them.
Then next evening we headed out to Ivanhoe Crossing to check out potential fishing spots. After having a look around, Stuart decided he had to drive over the crossing, even though there was quite a strong current running over it! (Admittedly, he watched a couple of other ute’s cross it first!). He had a pretty big grin after it!
The other tourist delight we made a beeline for was the ‘Hoochery’ which is WA’s only legal rum distillery. We tasted just about every Rum they produced, including the Ord River Rum, the Premium Ord River Rum, Single Barrel Rum, Royale Liqueur (chocolate) and Aguardiente (aniseed), followed by an impromptu decision that we had better stay for lunch!
We have also met another young couple travelling around Australia with a similar setup to ourselves (4WD, camper and kayaks)! Nicko and Em are from Victoria although they have been in working in Darwin for the last year. We spent a great night sharing travel stories over a few beers, exchanging numerous places to visit and kayak on our respective travels.
Purnululu National Park (The Bungle Bungles)
It was a long and bumpy road into the Bungles. The last 50km from the highway into the park was full of short, steep, windy hills, reminding me of a cartoon Dr Suess landscape! The surrounding scenery, however, was nothing short of amazing. We drove in at late afternoon, and were staggered at the intense red colours of sunset the whole way in. It was absolutely beautiful, along with our little campsite at the Walardi campground.
The next morning we set the alarm for 5am and drove out to the ‘domes’ to watch the sunrise. The sunrise was just as spectacular as sunset the evening before. A quick hot chocolate and cake for breakfast in the carpark and we were off exploring the domes, lookouts and Cathedral Gorge. We even found some Aboriginal stencils of hands and boomerangs.
I have been totally blown away by the Bungle Bungles. I have wanted to see it for years and it was better than I ever imagined!
The afternoon was spent exploring Echidna Chasm which was also amazing, being so different from the domes. Echidna Chasm has steep pebbled walls, and progressively narrows down to shoulder width the further you walk in. Its so easy to see why Purnululu is World Heritage Listed! Driving back to camp, we stopped off in one of the lookouts and sat back with a cold beer and watched the sunset and changing colours on the massif.
Driving back into camp, we bumped into Nicko and Em again, so Stuart invited them over for a lamb roast he was planning to cook up that night. Another great night was had kicking back, and both Stuart and I found it really refreshing to meet people so like-minded and easy to talk to. We’re hoping to catch up with them later on in the year when we get down to Victoria.
We're now just back in Kununurra preparing to leave the state and head into the Territory! Hope everyone's well given the cold weather your all having down in the south!
0 comments:
Post a Comment