Kununurra 24th-27th July 2014

Wyndham. Population 1000 hardy soles. Temperatures min, 12-27 and max 31-45 degrees. looking around Wyndham and from the lookout we could see the five rivers running into the bay they are the Ord,Forest,King,Durack and Pentecost. Also of interest on the way out of Wyndham we went into the Grotto gorge where we traversed 140 steps down a natural rock face into a deep rock pool. The pool is allegedly 300 feet deep and according to the other three was very cool and refreshing to swim in. We also visited the prison boab tree where in the 1800 the whites used to keep the young male aboriginals locked in the tree as a lever to be able to move the rest of the tribal family out of the way of the white settlers. The prison tree is still standing strong a defiant today and it is allegedly 2000 years old.

Kununurra

   Population 6000. Temperatures min,15-25 and max 30-45. 

We arrived in Kununurra and booked into the lakeside caravan park and set up camp right next to the lake where apparently a rogue salt water crocodile had somehow got into the the dam and the rangers were trying to catch it while we were there. A really nice spot which gave us a chance to stock up on groceries and other supplies before heading into lake Argyle and then heading further east to Katherine.

Kununurra was established in 1960 to service the ord river scheme. The ord river was dammed in 1971 for a storage reservoir supplying water to one of Australia's largest and most ambitious irrigation schems "Argyle Downs", a one million acre cattle station, was flooded to create a vast and beautiful lake, the biggest man-made lake in Australia. Prospecting and mining have been important to the development of the region and in 1979 diamonds were discovered near Lake Argyle.Andy,Shelley,Warren ans I went and check out the Hoochery, family owned and operated distillery, the oldest legal still in Western Australia located 15km from Kununurra producing a variety of products such as Ord River rum,cane Royale Liqueur and Aquardiente (an Australia Ouze) plus more, Andy,  Shelley & myself payed $5 for 3 sample taste glasses, did I like the rum, I would say give me Bundy any day. On our way back to camp, called into the sandalwood factory, love the smell of sandalwood. Next stop Lake Argyle