Sunday 27th June -Kununurra and Lake Argyle.

Our touring started today with a drive out Ivanhoe road. We took a left turn and headed out past similar plots of mixed trees that we had seen when we went out to the Hoochery the other day.

We stopped in to see the carved rock ( zebra rock primarily) and asked the lady in the gallery there about the plantations of trees. Apparently this is a sandalwood plantation. Because sandalwood is a parasitic tree it needs others, so three types of host trees are planted with it.

There were also a good number of mango trees and other ground crops ( no idea what) We laughed at the view below as we drove out from there.

We continued out on the Ivanhoe road to the famous Ivanhoe crossing. This is where the original road up to Wyndham used to cross the river and is a long water crossing, only passable when the river is at lower levels. It is passable at the moment -about 30cm high but still flowing quite rapidly. We enjoyed watching the vehicles making their way across the crossing and then doing it ourselves.

Once we were done with that we just had enough time to go to the Kimberleyland caravan park and have a look in their aviary to see some finch types that we haven’t seen before.

Then it was time to head out to Lake Argyle to catch our booked cruise. We headed out there in time to drive over the dam wall and down to a little park at the end of the road. We enjoyed picnic lunch there and then headed up to the cruise company office to meet up with our cruise group.

The cruise was really interesting. The lake is HUGE-about 850 sq km of water. ( 21 times Sydney Harbour). We were able to see short eared rock wallabies, fresh water crocs, archer fish, Orb spiders. There were also wonderful reflections. We had an opportunity to swim but Trev and I opted not to do so in the cool water as we were already pretty cool. ( Craig and Ev did swim).

Although the sun goes down early and quite quickly, we had the sun behind the hills and so the fading light across the water lasted for ages. Picture swimmers in the water at sunset with drinks. The rest of us ate and drank on the boat.

We opted to eat tea at the “lake argyle resort” where we ate outside on plastic chairs and tables while the state of origin game was on.

Then we drove back to the caravan park in the dark.

It was an interesting time at the caravan park. There was a Tawny Frogmouth in the rafters of the men’s toilets and then a crocodile in the water right on the bank. ( Ev had a bit of a close encounter with the croc as she tried to take a photo of the moon reflecting on the river)