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Published: October 1st 2009
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Day 154 - Kununurra
We woke early again this morning after a much cooler night so we’re both quite refreshed at last! Today was going to be the day that we headed towards the Bungle Bungles but we’ve not really prepared ourselves so talked last night about staying put for another day. We were up real late what with the Rodeo and catching up with Mum and Dad Howells on Skype. Well done both for sorting out your first bit of un-aided Skype and it was fabulous to talk to you both and catch up with all the family news!!
The day starts with a bit of washing, a few updates on the blog and a check on Eurodragster to see how things are going in the last event of the drag racing calendar back home which will decide the series winners. We’re revved right up to see that Ed has secured the #1 qualifier spot in Ramraider, he left it til the last run of the day which makes us think there might have been problems earlier on following the flat tyre at the Euro Finals. We’ll find out later no doubt.
It seems that Kununurra is
a bit of a dark horse as there’s more around the place than is immediately obvious! From our discussions in the pool yesterday with various people we realise that we missed a trick with our journey back from Wyndham yesterday as there’s an alternative route avoiding the highway to bring you back via Ivanhoe Crossing, the original crossing over the mighty Ord River on the Darwin to Wyndham road. It’s only a short journey out of town so we head out there just for a watch! When we get there we find plenty of 4WD’s making the journey across and although the current looks really strong a chap is stood in the middle of it fishing so it can’t be too powerful! The water is pretty high once the bow wave starts and it does look a bit full on but we’re assured by those who have done it that you can’t feel the water pushing the vehicle at all. Shame we didn’t find this road back from Wyndham and then we would have done it too! PIE needs a bit of an under-belly wash!!
On the journey back into town we take more notice of the crops using
the irrigation system with water provided by the dam. There are many different crops being grown here from, Mango farms being one of them but there are plenty of farm shops with cafes for you to try the produce.
Something else which Kununurra is reasonably well known for is the large Kimberley Diamonds outlet it has within the town. I’m very excited to be going here today because we missed it for the last two but Darryl has said that he’ll definitely take me there today so I can have a good look at the beautiful pink diamonds. Little did I know that they don’t open Sundays!!! Darryl!! Pushing my nose up against the locked and barricaded door was as close as I was going to get but too be fair it wouldn’t have made much of a difference had it been open!
We popped into the Hidden Valley tourist park where Belinda & Nige are staying with the kids. We’ve copied a CD for them so wanted to drop that off but they weren’t there so we pegged it to their washing line with a note!!
We went back to Lily Lagoon and ate lunch under
a huge Boab tree, they are very strange! Legend has it that the Boab was a strong, tall tree but grew too close to heaven which displeased the gods so they pulled them out and thrust them back into the ground the wrong way up! So the branches you see are really the roots! As strange a story as they are looking! When we were walking back to the car, who should we see cycling past but Nulkie, the chap we met yesterday in the National Park. It didn’t look like he was hanging around too much though so maybe he’ll be heading further west soon.
Back at camp we start the preparations for the trip into the Bungle Bunlges tomorrow but with plenty of the afternoon still ahead of us we thought it would be nice to have dinner out somewhere so decided to pack a BBQ and headed off to the Zebra Rock Gallery where it says there are BBQs in their grounds which you’re welcome to use. It’s in a beautiful setting right on the river where you can feed the crazy and huge catfish, archer fish and bream! We sat on the end of the
boardwalk throwing in bits of bread for quite a while, there were even turtles in the watergrass too. The gallery itself is gorgeous and the rock artwork is astounding, very delicate and using rock only found in this region. There’s a workshop out the back where we find a lovely chap working away. None of the articles on the workshop tables have been polished and glazed yet but you can do that yourself should you wish. We find a rather lovely but very slender ‘crocodile’ in the $20 section and we’re keen to buy him but the chap thinks he’s too skinny and will easily snap. He holds ‘our’ croc at each end and gently bends him in the middle - snap! Now we’re got two! The chap says he’s going to ‘put a tail’ on the head piece tomorrow and then he’ll put him back out for sale so I ask how long it would take him to do it now! Within minutes it’s done and croc is re-born! Beautiful! We end up with both bits for $10 and wander back to the gallery for the finishing off instructions! Whilst there another family are purchasing some artwork, a $900
polished piece for their garden plus a couple of un-polished large crocodiles and a couple of un-polished book ends! Grand total of $1150 which put our $10 to shame a bit!
We decided to boost our spend with a coffee plus a mango smoothie then sat enjoying the talkative birds and the beautiful peacocks in the garden! Just as we were leaving we spotted Belinda and Nigel’s car out front so went and found them in the gallery browsing away! We stopped and chatted and re-fed the fish with the kids then watched them playing in the park for a while. Belinda has kindly lent us a couple of poetry CDs and is also going to drop of their WWOOFing book (will explain later!) so we can have a look through that and find some prospective WWOOF hosts! They are off for pizza and we need to find somewhere to cook our BBQ now that the gallery is shutting for the evening!
The most sensible option seemed to be the campsite as we couldn’t find anywhere else that wasn’t going to be next to the river with ravaging mozzies! Dinner was of course great and we chatted to
a nice family who are tenting it over the next month or so.
Back at camp we did a bit more blog work and caught up with the going’s on at the National Finals. With updates from Emma we learn that Crazy Chris, Claire & Mark of Backdraft Racing will be this year’s Wild Bunch #1 having got through the first round of competition and being on a bye run into the final. Congratulations to them, it’s been a long time coming and much deserved.
Off to bed we go looking forward to a big milestone in our plans tomorrow - The Bungle Bungles.
Dar and Sar
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Jan Kettle
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Zebra Rock
We too have a very small piece of Zebra Rock but it's very special as some effort has to be made to get it!! We watched the 4WDs going across the Ivanhoe Crossing but daren't risk it ourselves in our little old van! xxx Mum K