Across Australia 5 Lake Argyle to the Bungle Bungles

My original plans for the day at Lake Argyle were to go on a late morning cruise down the river below the dam followed by the sunset cruise on the lake.  However the river cruise that day was cancelled and we were transferred to the following day.  Luckily we had only planned to drive 70 km to the town of Kununurra.
So that morning we boarded a smaller boat to travel down the river.  It was faster and slipped through the rapids so was great fun.  As we left from just under the dam, a party of kayakers were loading their craft for several days of travel down river to Kununurra.  Fortunately there are only freshwater crocodiles in the river as there is another small dam or barrage at Kununurra which backs up the water so it can be used for irrigation and it prevents salties from coming upstream. Saltwater crocodiles can live in freshwater but not the other way round.

We passed the kayakers very slowly, on our way back.  I think our guide was disappointed that they were still upright and dry and had not turned over in the first rapids as he expected.

The freshies had been completely uninterested in them as they went past.

We were surprised at the lack of size of Kununurra (basic pop 7,000 increasing to 10,000 in dry seasonal due to tourist activities and farm workers.)   It was Saturday afternoon and little was open.  Fortunately the supermarket was open but I had broken my thongs (jandals in NZ, Flip flops in USA?) and was lucky to find one pair my size in the smallest Target (variety) store I had ever seen.  We drove up a hill to look over the town.
The nearest town of any size is 500km east in Katherine and 1200km south west in Broome.  You would not want to live there if you were a shopaholic.

Sunday morning we passed farms growing melons and mangoes and the new crop sandalwood but visited a zebra rock gallery. These are the natural rock colours.

We both bought a small piece each for a souvenir.

Then we drove towards the coast and the town of Wyndham (pop 800).  It is 100km from Kununurra and on the coast so is  the port and the oldest town in the region.  Great views from a hill overlooking the estuary with 5 rivers and extensive mudflats but very misty (salt?) so I will not post any photos.
Instead we returned to the main Great Northern Highway and drove for another 380km to our next night's stop. There was just 1 roadhouse in all that distance. My sister drove for an hour so I took the following photos as the road went on and on .

Where we stayed for the next 2 nights was a very strange campsite. It is underwater in the wet and so is portable.  Everything is set up at the beginning of the dry season and taken down again at the end.  It is the entrance to the Bungle Bungle National Park with its beehive shape striped formations.  The proper name now is Purnulu National Park.  It was only discovered by a film team in 1983, became a national park in 1987 and was put on the world heritage list in 2003.  It is only accessible by 4WD so we had to join a bus tour which took 2 hours to drive the 52 km from the highway where we camped to the boundary of the park.  The park covers 2,500 square km.    Many tourists view it from the air but both cost and my fear of flying in anything with one engine meant we only saw it the hard way.  In the morning we walked to Cathedral Gorge (4km return) which was spectacular.

In fact still photos do not do it justice so I will try to post a movie.

Another shorter walk nearby led to a great view over the park.

Then after lunch we drove to the other end of the range and visited the Echidna Chasm. It was a shorter (2km return) walk but rather rough so my sister gave it a miss. It is a very deep narrow chasm so was better in the afternoon heat.

Then it was time to retrace our steps in the bus back over that 52km rough road to our van parked near the highway.

Across Australia 4 Katherine to Lake Argyle

After 2 nights at Kakadu National Park, we began generally heading in a south west direction.  We drove 265 km to Katherine where I had spent a few hours on the train trip north.  On the way we stopped in Pine Creek where there was a museum in the old station. The new line bypasses the town.

We were in Katherine (population 10,000) for lunch and then restocked our van.  I find the town depressing as there is a very large Aboriginal population, many sitting on the pavements especially outside the government welfare agency, and I had to get out of the way of one woman, obviously off her brain with alcohol.  In the Northern Territory your driving licence is scanned before you can buy alcohol in bottle shops.   One man told me the Aborigines call the welfare payment "sit down money" but then another said why shouldn't they sit in the shopping centre just as much as in the parks.  While some work in national parks, they do not like being guides, very few are seen working in stores. I do not know what the answer is.
We went to the Katherine Gorge but both of us had been there before, even if 30 years ago, so just took a walk around rather than a boat trip.  I climbed to one lookout and took some photos.

Then we headed west to the Victoria River 190km.  There is no town there, just a Roadhouse with camping ground.  There are no allocated sites so, having found a flat space under a tree, we decided to stay there for a lazy afternoon rather than drive a few km north for a walk up the escarpment.  I was glad I left this till the following morning as it would have been a very hot climb.  You cannot take a dip in the river unless you want to be a meal for a saltwater crocodile however the escarpments around were very spectacular especially as the sun struck them at dawn.
The next morning  I took the 3km return Escarpment walk which was quite steep and rocky in places.

My sister did about half of it. Here is the view of the river from the top

Then we drove a further 319 km to our next night stop. There was only one "town" on the way. (pop 230).  This and the Victoria River Roadhouse are the only settlements in the 519 km between Katherine and Kununurra.  We bought petrol there and fortunately saw the sign that it was cheaper at the supermarket than the hotel (20 cents per litre cheaper). No service, you put your credit card in a machine which was heavily barred and prepaid the amount required.
We did however drive up to a scenic lookout over the town and found a memorial to the Nackeroos.  In formal army language they were the North Australia Observation Unit, a rough and tumble, bush-hardened bunch of soldiers who patrolled the north of Australia during WWII.  They were also know as Curtin's Cowboys.  Curtin was Australia's wartime prime minister.

I loved this plaque as it states well my feelings about this area of Australia.

Somewhere in Australia, where the sun is a curse,
And each day is followed by another slightly
worse;
And the brick red dust blows thicker, than the
shifting desert sand;
And the men dream, and wish for, a fairer, greener
land.

Somewhere in Australia, where the mail is always late,
And a Christmas card in April, is considered up to
date;
Where we never have a payday, and we never pay the rent
But we never miss the money, cause we never get
it spent.

Somewhere in Australia, where the ants and lizards
play;
And a hundred fresh mosquitoes reinforce the ones
you slay,
So take me back to good old Sydney where I can hear the tramway bell.
For this god-forsaken place is just a substitute for hell!

Just after lunch we crossed the border into Western Australia and turned south for Lake Argyle.

Lake Argyle is Australia's largest artificial lake by volume.  It normally has a surface area of about 1,000 square kilometres and the dam was built in 1971.  The irrigation scheme has been controversial as there were many problems with tropical diseases and the native birds fed well on the rice crops.  However more successful crops have been found recently and the irrigation area is being extended.
The next morning we visited the old homestead, which has been moved from its original site now well underwater and also a went to a lookout then in the afternoon we took a sunset cruise seeing freshwater crocodiles. These are harmless to humans but I would not like to meet one in the water.