The times they are a changing

Day 152 - Saddle Creek Rest Area (NT) to Kununurra (WA)

We wake up to a brilliantly sunny morning and the happy chatter of Zali and Lochy at their camp site. There was a lovely breeze through the night and we could hear the thudding of animal visitors outside although when Darryl got up in the wee hours he didn’t manage to spot any!

Everyone re-groups for a quick chat over breakfast and then we all head off at different times towards Kununurra. Fran and Fabian are the first to leave, closely followed by Mick, then Belinda, Nige and the kids who give us a hug before they go. We’ve swapped details and hope that we meet up again further along the road if not over the weekend at the rodeo. We would love to have been able to offer them a lift into the Bungle Bungles and would have been prepared to tow their camper trailer in but we just don’t have the room for an extra 4 people. It’s a shame but we’re sure they will find a way to get there and if we can help we will.

We spot them at the border crossing just ahead of us but we duck into the rest area to polish off the half a tomato and cucumber we still have in the fridge!

This signals the end of our 36 day journey through the Northern Territory covering some 7445 kilometres. We’ve loved our time here and the highlights include Uluru, Kings Canyon, meeting Tony & Jane, Carole & Ray, Alice Springs (walking in the McDonnell ranges was a huge hit!), Kakadu, Litchfield and Katherine National Parks. We’ve been thoroughly impressed and we very much hope to return for a wet season in future years.

There’s no queue at the crossing when we pull out from the rest area so we’re straight in under the canopy where we’re greeted by a friendly smile. The Western Australia border official, Simon, is originally from Rochdale but is hoping to obtain a residency visa here soon having just been successful in getting a full time job. He’s very thorough with his checks to make sure we have none of the banned products and then reminds us about the extra 90 minutes we’ve just gained with the change in the time!

In our blaze of glory we enter Western Australia passing Keep River National Park and also the much talked about Lake Argyle along the way. Somehow despite it’s vast size visiting the lake managed to slip through our ‘must do’ radar so we didn’t take the turn off to check it out and therefore ‘missed’ the Argyle Homestead with it’s memorabilia from times gone by. Keep River is also highly recommended so we’ve put them both on our list for when we return in years to come!

A mere 70kms after crossing the border we arrive in Kununurra and our first stop is the visitors centre. Mick, Fabian and Fran are already there so I ear wig on the information they are getting about the Bungle Bungles so the nice lady doesn’t have to repeat herself too often! We also purchase an annual Western Australia National Parks pass for $80. There is a monthly pass for $40 but there are 27 National Parks which have a charge for entry plus we hope that Mum and Dad K will make use of it when they do their trip next year. It’s about $9 per car to enter each of the parks and with us already having 9 of them on our list of things to do we hope that this way we’ll save ourselves a little bit of money in the long run.

Our next stop is the only fuel station in the vicinity offering the 4c per litre discount but it’s a Coles / Shell station rather than our favoured Woolworths / Caltex. The Coles scheme is very similar but it doesn’t have a rewards card so we must make sure we always have the docket printed on the bottom of the shopping receipt to ensure we receive our discount. You have to spend over $30 on the shopping in order to get a docket but luckily I find a receipt someone has left in our supermarket trolley so now we’ll have one extra which is useful as they have an expiry date of 30 days on them. Once we’ve done the shopping and bought a rather expensive drinking hose for the caravan we head back to get the fuel, filling up the car and the jerry can.

The only decision left to make is where to stay for a few nights! There are several options and we flick through the descriptions of each of them. Hidden Valley looks the best of paper but we decide to stick with Big 4 to get another stamp in our passport! We end up with a beautiful site over looking Lake Kununurra which is just beautiful and spend some time settling in and watching the water skiers doing their best to stay upright! We’ve got a couple of water monitors lazing around just in front of us and there’s plenty of bird life singing out over head.

Because of the time difference we’ve still got lots of today left so decide to have a wander through the Celebrity Tree Garden! It’s a lovely area and each of the trees has a plaque so you know who planted what and when, there’s a huge variety in both celebrity and tree which the very pretty backdrop of Lily Lagoon. All the while there are small scenic planes flying over head, the Kimberleys which is the area we’re now in is stunning from the air.

Back at the caravan we sit and take in the view across the lake as the sun goes down. The little pesky mosquitoes are out by this time though and it seems I’ve missed treating an area on my hand with our special repellent so land up with a single bite. Not to worry, we’re shattered and when the clock strikes 8pm we head for bed!

Dar and Sar

---

---