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Published: September 15th 2011
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Tiger Country
There could be tigers near the river. The grass was too tall to see anything. Who wakes up in the morning and says to themselves “I know what I will do today. I will pack my cans of spray paint and drive a thousand kilometres to a famous landmark, then mark it with my name with spray paint, so that everybody will know that I was there for many years to come”? Not me, that’s for sure. But there must be a lot of people out there who do. A couple of days ago, we went out to The Devils Marbles and were disappointed to see they had been daubed with graffiti. Full points to the Rangers who had done an admirable job of trying to remove it, but it was still there.
Today, we did some sight seeing in Gregory National Park, in The Northern Territory. Today we had our first encounter with Boab trees. They are quite remarkable. Those closest to the road all bore scars of past tourists who felt it necessary to carve their names into them. It is such a problem that the National Park information leaflet requests that visitors do not deface the trees. If you can’t enjoy a place without having to destroy it for others, stay home.
Stepping
Boab Tree
The beautiful and unusual boab tree is a feature of the landscape of The Kimberley. of my soapbox now.
We had several opportunities to enjoy views of the Victoria River as we travelled through Gregory National Park. It puts our Murray River to shame. We don’t know how long it is, but it is a very wide river. Frank very thoughtfully offered to hold my towel while I went for a swim in the river. I don’t know what makes him think I didn’t see the signs warning about the saltwater crocodiles.
Yesterday in Katherine, we replenished out fruit and vegetable supply. Today at the Western Australian border, we gave them all and more, to the nice girl at the quarantine inspection point. She even took our honey, which must be about six months old. I am sure there was a reason they gave us the quarantine information book the last time. It would have helped if we had read it.
We are now in the Kimberly Region of WA. Again, the landscape has changed. There are many beautiful red rock outcrops and escarpments, but quite different to what we were seeing before. The escarpments are dotted with palms of some sort, possibly pandanas. The Kimberley boasts Lake Argyle, a huge freshwater lake. It is
Kimberley Landscape
The red and green of the Kimberley landscape is very eye-catching. also the home of Argyle diamonds. Deciding it would be our only opportunity to see the lake, we drove the thirty five kilometres from the highway only to be confronted by a sign when we were almost there stating the caravans were not go beyond that point. It would have been good if this was indicated at the highway. On the way back, we stopped at the Ord River, which feeds the lake, to take some photos. We were treated to the view of a large goanna swimming at the edge of the lake for about five minutes.
We have set up camp for a couple of days at a lakeside caravan park in Kununurra, a nice town, a bit smaller than Alice Springs. Outside, over the hum of air-conditioners, we can hear frogs and the high pitched clicking sounds of bats. We have restocked our fruit and vegies (no more quarantine inspections) and look forward to exploring the area. Perhaps we will find a diamond. I know where there is a shop that sells them.
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