Day 65

Day 65 Kununurra

We decided to spend the day in Kununurra to see the sights and catch up a bit on the things we

My sort of tasting

Mmmm Overproof or Chocolate?

needed to do such as getting on the internet to do the posts and do some sightseeing. Our first port of call was the tourist information centre. We wanted to find out about booking a flight over the Bungle Bungles. One option we had was to drive back to Warmun to get a flight from there but that was nearly 300kms away, not impossible but a long drive. We would save money but spend on petrol and time. The

Getting ready to drive on rum cake

Kelly's Knob

centre gave us a local option where we fly out of here on a fixed wing to go over Lake Argyle then down to Bungle Bungles where we swap to a helicopter and fly around them then swap back to our fixed wing and fly back via the Argyle Diamond mine, an expensive option but one we decided on. The lady rang Slingair the company and they said they would put one on for us on Friday as long as we did not mind going early to miss the heat 5:15am at the Centre. We booked that and went off for breakfast.

Kelly's Knob Kununurra

Kelly's Knob Kununurra

We had intended to go next door to the café that was open on Sunday when we had arrived but as per our luck with planning stuff, it was closed. The lady suggested 2 others but again, one was closed but the last one Kimberly Café was open. The place is full of memorabilia from the pastoral history and was worth a visit just for that. We set up shop in there café and got out the technology – hot spot, laptop and tablet and started uploading and checking facebook and mail and stuff ( glad it is only the kids who are addicted to it) and as per usual with our planning luck, we had felt sure there was an ANZ

View near Kununurra

Intake Tower Diversion Dam

bank in town – well there is every other bank except the ANZ in town! So a little on-line funds transfers and bill paying and we were done. One thing we had decided to buy was a small esky. We were wanting to get some ice to have with our rums and wine at night but it was proving a pain to find freezer space in the camp kitchens and we had to go back and forth etc. We looked at a few and selected a lovely little one that takes a bag of ice and has room left without being big, so we purchased one. Another thing that happened as we setup shop in the café was we got phone reception and Maureen’s phone went

Diversion dam outlets

Water hole at Kimberly Cafe

off, we thought it was the tourist centre ringing to say it was cancelled as would be our luck, but it was Darwin Post Office to say that I was the proud owner of a very large box – my ice maker had arrived! What timing, now I have an esky to keep it in.

On we went, we had heard about Ivanhoe Crossing and it sounded impressive so we thought we would see that and then go out into the irrigation area and see what we could see of all crops and food and stuff. Well to say Ivanhoe Crossing was disappointing is an understatement, it was just a road

Maureen with her fresh Paw PAw

Sunset Lake Argyle Road

crossing over the irrigation channel. I have seen better in Harvey, but anyway we had seen it, time for all the different crops – well sandalwood any way. Miles and miles of sandalwood. Then sugar cane, that was it, boring as bat poo. I can understand why when transport is the issue. If anyone gets the opportunity to talk to a Federal member, tell them to extend the airport here to an international one and this area will explode. We found a couple of farms later in the day that grew vegies and fruit and it is wonderful, but as they say, they cannot get it to markets without planes. Anyhow, we went on and stumbled on the Hoochery Distillery. Now this is my sort of farm. They use the local sugar cane for the base of their rum and you can do tastings with 3 shots for $5! We lined up 6 shots and then proceeded o taste them like we knew what we were doing. By the time we were finished we were quite merry. 1 pot screamers at the best of times, with a couple of over proof items we were quite merry. We decided then to have a cup of tea and some cake for lunch. The tea was fine and the cake was wonderful, chocolate cake with Rum and Mango cake with Rum!

We staggered out to the car, me as unsteady as usual and Maureen singing songs and wishing the light poles goodbye! Off we went back to town and again to a spot listed as a tourist attraction – Kelly’s Knob, well we eventually found it after referring to maps as there were no road signs for it. We went up this hill and came to a dead end with a gate on it saying go away or some such and we had to back down the steep road and round a sharp bend to a spot where Maureen thought she saw some steps as I was driving up. Sure enough, there were some steps and as yu went up them, it said lookout ahead. Maureen got some lovely shots of town.

Back in town we went out to the Diversion Dam and parked next to it and Maureen went over the abutments and got some pictures, the monument near it says it was opened my Sir Robert Menzies and David Brand with Charlie Court was Minister. So long ago and still to prove itself. We drove across it and out to the Zebra Stone Place. They have some lovely options for jewellery and ornaments but far too expensive. But further down the road was where we found our fruit and vegie place. The farms here are smaller and do smaller crops. One where we got some bananas was run by a Christian group that run Christian Radio and the farm supports it through its income. Lovely places and had a good time picking fruit. In town we dropped in again at our café and had some afternoon tea. They shut at 3:30 and we arrived at 3:00 so they were very good and let us set up and do a bit more on-line stuff until 3:30 and then we shuffled out.

 Back we went to Lake Argyle when we suddenly remembered that Tia had sent us a package to Broome but we had not picked it up. Maureen rang Australia Post and they arranged to transfer it to Darwin for us, so it will be like Christmas when we get there. Off we went again and watched the sun set over the hills on our way back. Back at Girt, we went for a swim in the dark again (we only go there at night as the pool hours are from 6:30 – 6:00 and we just go to make sure no one is breaking the rules) and then back to Girt to have some dinner and to try some of our new fruit, which by the way was delicious. Tomorrow, Maureen plans on doing one of the walks.