20150527 WA Kununurra to Wyndham

20150527 At Kununurra and finally we can top up on our grocery so we collects our bags and of we go in search of Cole's, when a guy smoking said, you looking for Cole's, ye mate, just go in through that door I work their he said and he seamed very proud, or maybe he was proud to at least have a job.  We walked around waiting for the pub to open at 12 pm as are all the locals, we were aloud two cartons of beer each or wine and beer but as I still have about 5 cartons of wine we opted for the 4 cartons of beer.  Des booked me a flight over the Bungle Bungle for my birthday so we stayed in a caravan park.

The lake at the caravan park on sunset where fresh water crocks are often sighted.

20150528 Happy Birthday Lee said Des then I received a call from my daughter with my darling little grandsons singing Happy Birthday then Ash said to his Mum, I can't remember any more, it was so cute and Des and I cracked up laughing.
I was picked up at 8.45am where we were briefed then the pilot said one person can sit up front and immediately my arm went up before he could finish his sentence,YES!

It was a two hour flight in an Cessna Grand Caravan with a set capacity of 10-13 and I was surprised how smooth she was.

Although it was cool setting up front I had difficulty hearing the pilot commentary and missed most of it but I had a 360 deg view which I much preferred.

 The Ord River is an 230 kl long river and between 1935 and 1942 drought affected the Pastoral Industry of the Kimberley reducing the Org River from a fast flowing river to series of water holes.  A grant was approved and a Dam across the Org was completed in 1963, this would capture 2500 gigilitres of water that flowed into the ocean in the wet season, enough water to supply Perth for 10 years.

Air view of Lake Argyle which was the second stage of the Org River Dam costing a mere $22 million and was opened in 1972.

An air view of the caravan park we stayed in at Lake Argyle.

There are between 70-90 island within the lake depending on the time of the year.

Stations like this one turns over 7500 head annually to the live export market in South East Asia. Another important role of the station is to breed and supply Australian Stock Horses for the other pastures company's.

Formed around 360 million years ago the beehive Bungle Bungle are comprise of layers of sandstone which have slowly eroded away by wind and rain over the last 20 million years.

These ski jump mountains act as landmarks between stations and from the air are quite impressive.

The Bungle Bungle comprises of 45,000 ha and in 1987 the area was declared a National Park and added to the World Heritage List in 2003.

The Argyle mine deposit contains a large proportion of the world's economic diamond resources and has some of the highest diamond grade in the world and produces nearly twice the diamond output of any other country. The diamonds have been dated to about 1.58 billion years ago. My girlfriend Karen has such a diamond brought by her dearly departed husband, lucky girl.

Arial view of the Diversion Dam near Kununurra where the highway runs across the dam wall.

A birds eye view of the landing strip as we come into land at the end of our journey.

I had a choose to do a flight over the Bungle Bungle or do we do a day trip tour and as unsure as I was I thought the flight would be different but when asked what I thought of the flight I gotta tell it didn't give me that wow factor. Although you do get to see more but I felt being up close would have been more impressive, but that's just me.

Even so thank you Des for a different birthday gift.

Wyndham, Scotty's old Stomping Grounds

The scenery on our way to Wyndham which we decided to do at the last minute.

The first explorer sailed into the gulf in 1819 and named the Gulf after the Duke of Cambridge. He sailed up one of the rivers, now known as King River but didn't like what he saw, mangrove swamps, mudflats and Crocodile, in fact his report about the area was so pessimistic it took another 60 years before someone else ventured into the region. It was Alexandra Forrest who visited and named the Kimberly in 1879 and saw the potential for grazing land. Wyndham is the oldest and northern most town in the Kimberley and has the highest year round average temperature. Established in 1886 as a result of a gold rush in Halls Creek.

We spotted this big mother and stop to check it out. The aborigines here seem to be more friendly up here than in Katherine at least they say hello to you.

It was about 1988/99 in Wyndham where our dear friend Scotty worked removing asbestos from the police station, and this is the Hotel where he spent all his hard earned money, well some of it, ha Scotty, but then what else is there to do. 

There not wrong about the temperature it is bloody hot alright so off to the Pub were I can have a beer and Des a pink lemonade, ha, ha.

Why would there be large piles of wood here?  Then we read a Chinese developers is set to ship its first load of mahogany out of Wyndham with almost 6000 tonnes stockpiled ready to ship to China as part of passion for forestry and woodwork.

Ge, that's an expensive hobby.

As we step out of our van to take in the view we looked down at this and my immediate thought was, these guys are board but it did make for an interesting conversation with all the other tourist at the look out.

Five Rivers Lookout offers a unique view of the mouth of the Gulf; Durack, Kink, Pentecost, Forrest and Ord River and the lookout is located on a summit 335 metres above sea level.

Sunset on the summit, just breath taken, tourist bring their wine and watch the sun go down.

With everyone gone we have a few more drinks while sitting outside in the cool breeze and yes we stayed along with another traveller even though it say's no camping, we don't care.