Rick and Rae's Travels: Wed, 6th to Fri, 8th July

We drove the 80kms from Kunnunurra to Lake Argyle arriving at around 9:30am. We needed to get there early to make sure that we could get a site. As it happened, we ended up being on the best site in the park with views across the gully to some beautiful red cliffs. Steve and Linda and Faye and Kevin managed to secure sites here too. There is only one caravan park at Lake Argyle which was originally set up as accommodation for the workers on the Order River Dam.

Lake Argyle is Australia's second largest (Lake Gordon/Lake Pedder, Tasmania is the largest) artificial lake by area and there are over 70 islands throughout the lake. At normal full supply level the area of the lake formed by the Ord Dam is 980 square kilometres and impounds 10.7 million mega litres (8.6 million acre feet) of water, over 18 times the volume of water contained in Sydney Harbour. If the lake ever did flood to its maximum capacity then the volume would more than triple – Sydney Harbour could be filled more than 54 times.

We set up camp and went for a swim in the infinity pool with beautiful views overlooking the lake. We then drove out to the Spillway to have a closer look at the rushing water we had crossed on our way out to the caravan park. When we returned to the park, we booked a sunset cruise on the lake for the following evening. All through the northern part of WA, water has been scarce and we have purchased water many times. At Lake Argyle we were told we could use as much as we liked and were encouraged to wash our car and van on grassed areas, and even asked to water our sites.

On Thursday we drove out to the Spillway again and then called in to the Durack homestead Museum. The Durack homestead was in the path of the water when the dam was flooded so it was dismantled and moved piece by piece to higher ground. It is now a museum displaying the history of the Durack family and the Ord Dam. While we were in the museum,the caretakers had to remove a Cane Toad from one of the rooms and dispose of him.

At 2.30pm we were picked up and transported by coach to our boat for the sunset cruise. The cruise gave us some idea of just how big this 'inland sea' really is and was thoroughly enjoyable. We saw some crocodiles and Euros (a type of wallaby) and many Whistling Kites. 100kms south of the Lake is the famous Argyle Diamond Mine.