Round Australia: Day 67

Day 67 Lake Argyle

Well when I say it was an early start, it was an early – 4 am! We had to be in Kununurra by 5:15 to go

Crops in Kununurra

Sucking on a barely sugar

for our plane ride. We left camp jut on 4:30 and straight into a swarm of big bugs that hit the windscreen like paintballs. We just about ran out of clear windscreen to see through. W made it into town at 5:13 and the guy arrived right on 5:15. Aaron was our man for the day. We had to pick up 2 more people along the way and they were ready as well. Aaron drove us out to the airport to Slingair’s terminal. From here he

Bay of Islands from the air

Land waves

introduced us to our plane and went through the safety drill for the air craft. It was an 8 seater plane with 5 people on board so there was plenty of room. Aaron soon had us airborne and we flew over the town and out to Lake Argyle. The lake is impressive from the ground, but it is truly spectacular from the air. The flight down took us just on an hour and the landscape is breathtaking. There are hills that look like waves rolling

View from the air

along, deep gorges, dry river beds and huge flat plains. We flew over the Bungle Bungles and landed at the airstrip. There was a bit of confusion as to who was doing what. The other couple we were with were doing a walk tour and we were going to do the helicopter ride, but they got to have breakfast on their tour so we wanted to go with them. Aaron rang in to check what was happening and soon had it sorted, the other

On our way

The Bunble Bungles

two went off for their tour and we went off to the helicopter, no breakfast for us. They had collapsed two tours into one trip.

It was about 7:30 and we took off with Joe our pilot for the R44 helicopter. It is a 4 seater helicopter with no doors. Maureen was not too sure about this so we decided to both sit in the back whre Maureen had a rail on front of her to hold onto. The wind had

Bunble Bungles

Maureen taking a picture of Maureen taking a picture

picked up a bit and the temperature was mid 30’s already so Joe said to expect a bumpy ride due to all the thermals. Well he was right. We took off and went over to the Bungle Bungles. The area has a range of structures. It has the hill ranges that are flattish on top and have huge canyons carved in them, some

Passenger Terminal

Front of the queue at boarding gate

over 300m deep. The rock structure is layers of different rocks but they are not corroded like the dome areas. The domes are the same rock but they have been eroded away by the sands blown in from the deserts and have made the dome forms. The rock is a white colour but when you look at it, it is in bands of red and black. The red is the iron oxidising in the rock and the black is from a bacteria that grows on it.

Our ride

Excitement and terror

Chip it away and underneath is white.

The ride was great, Joe took us in and out of the gorges and chatting away to us and Maureen had a death grip on the bar for most of the flight. She did however let it go now and then to get some pictures, that really do not do them true justice. We both agreed that we would like to see the ranges from the ground, just to get a perspective

Joe our pilot

Bunble Bungles gorge

of the size of them. We got back to the airstrip about 8 and headed back to the buildings. Now came the wait, normally we would have flown back after the helicopter ride but we had to wait for the other couple and they were not due back until 9 so we had to wait for them. One of the pilots brought us a piece of cake of his own and we had water. 9:30 came, no sign, then 10, no sign then just after 10 the bus rolled up

Lovely deep gorges

Gorges - Palms at bottom 20m high

and they chatted away whilst we waited and then we got back on the plane. They had a lovely tour but the guide had no sense of time and wandered here and there and took ages.

We were back in the plane and off we went. We flew over the Bungle Bungles again and then on up to Argyle Diamond Mine where we circled around to look at the pit, apparently they are now going to go underground instead of open cut. We then flew up over the Lake and over our camping ground then back to Kununurra and landed at

Gorges

The mounds

11:30. Anyway, we drove into town and looked for a café for breakfast as we were starving. We had been up since 4 and could eat a horse by now. We found a café called Wild Mango but as our luck goes, they had just finished breakfast and we had to have the lunch menu. Fed and watered, we went to the shops for some food and headed back to camp. The pool was lovely as the temperature was in the 40’s and no breeze.

Return to base

Waiting for the hikers

As the afternoon wore on we were outside our van when our neighbours from across the way asked if we would like to join them for a drink. They were Steve and Tracy from Perth who have two great little kids aged 4 (twins) Adam and Emma. Also there was Barry who is from America and we will talk more about them