Rick and Rae's Travels: Sun, 3rd to Tues, 5th July

After a terribly disturbed night of sleep we were up at 6am and packed up by 7:30am. Rick picked up all the empty beer cans and beer boxes left by the rowdy lot the night before and generally tidied up the area.

We drove about 30kms into Kunnunurra and checked into a park on Lily Creek Lagoon where we were only a very short distance from the waters edge. Early mornings and late afternoons we could see small freshwater crocs swimming in the Lagoon. We spent the morning catching up on washing again before driving out to Apex Park adjacent to the Diversion Dam on the Ord River. There are crocodile warnings everywhere and definitely no swimming allowed. The dam was the first stage of the construction of the Ord Irrigation Scheme and was completed in 1963. It comprises 20 gates that are raised or lowered to regulate the water level of Lake Kununurra. Due to all the wet weather they have had up here, there was a huge amount of water being allowed through the diversion dam even to the point of flooding parts of the park. There were aboriginal people everywhere throwing handlines and nets into the rushing water in the hope of catching a Barramundi. We didn't see anything caught here although there was a carcass of a cooked on on the grass that would have been a metre long. You are only allowed to have one Barramundi in your possession and it has to be at least 55cm long.

We left the diversion dam and drove out to a Zebra Stone gallery. Zebra Stone has been placed at 600 million years and the only deposits in the world have been discovered in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. It has beautiful random patterns of red through a cream coloured background. The stone in the gallery was carved into all shapes and sizes for ornaments and jewellery. Another offering at the Zebra Stone Gallery is fish feeding. Included in your entry 'donation' is one slice of bread to feed the fish. We walked a short distance from the gallery to a small jetty and threw some bread in ... all of a sudden thousands of catfish came from nowhere. In among the catfish were a few Barramundi, but they had to be quick to get in and get some bread.

We left there and went out to Ivanhoe Crossing which is a causeway constructed as part of the original road from Wyndham to Katherine in the NT. Due to consistently high water levels the crossing is closed during the wet season and it was well and truly under water while we were there. We saw several people catch Barramundi in the churning waters but swimming is prohibited due to the presence of crocodiles. There was a small shallow area of water in front of the crossing and as a 4x4 drove through it, a young Aboriginal girl of about 10 years of age grabbed hold of the bumper bar and allowed herself to be pulled through the water. I heard later that when the crossing is open the youngsters go from one side to the other in this way all the time. There was another cute little guy of about 5 years of age who was just playing in the swirling rock pools.

On the Monday we went into two diamond shops with the idea of buying something for me as a reward for quitting smoking. As I've put on some weight, I couldn't get any of my rings off to trying something on, so we left without purchasing anything. Oh well, maybe later.

Tuesday saw us have a clean up during the morning and then we drove out to the Romance Sandalwood factory. Western Australia is home to over 161-million hectares of the native Sandalwood species Santalum spicatum, making this the largest natural Sandalwood resource in the world. The shop was full of beautiful soaps, fragrances, cosmetics and Chia seed. Chia is another relatively new crop in the area (Bakers Delight now sell Chia seed bread). We bought some to put into our home made bread. From humble trials a few years ago the Ord Valley in Western Australia's far north has now become the largest producer of Chia in the world. The crop originates from Mexico, looks like lavender and produces an oil seed which is rich in omega 3. The Hoochery Distillery was just down the road, but they wanted $2 for a taste and their bottles of Rum sold for around $60 so we didn't spend much time there.

We telephoned the caravan park at Lake Argyle (our next destination) and were advised that they wouldn't take a phone booking for the next night. We just had to drive out there and they said they would find us a place somewhere. Lake Argyle isn't far from Kunnunurra so we knew we would be able to get there fairly early in the morning. After 5pm we drove to the pub to purchase supplies ... we could only buy one carton of beer and two bottles of wine between us.