Once upon a time in the West

Dire Straits sang:
Some people get a cheap laugh breaking up the speed limit
Scaring the pedestrians for a minute
Crossing up progress driving on the grass
Leaving just enough room to pass
Sunday driver never took a test

Oh yeah, once upon a time in the west..........

Well there are not a lot of pedestrians out here and we are certainly not breaking any speed limits. We've found most drivers pretty respectful of the speed limits and laws to date to so far. 

Tue 2 July
After a short delay having the bike rack securely welded to Joy's bumper and then the flat battery given some shock therapy (because we forgot to disconnect while all that work was being done) we were on our way again. Special mention here of Ray at Katherine Sheet Metal who delivered great service and did a very professional job on our rear end. Ray, who owns the joint, happens to be Fran's son so it all turned out to be very fortuitous that Eric ran into her the day before. 

Today its 'True West' along the Victoria Hwy. Approaching the Victoria River Region you get a first glimpse of the dramatic escarpments as you near the Victoria River Roadhouse. The fairly flat, tropical habitats of the Top End give way to the semi-arid landscapes and the palette of colours changes. Beneath the uninterrupted blue skies lies the rich, red loam soil. It is covered by sun-bleached dried grass and thousands of anthills that only reach about the same height. The foliage of the trees is more often the grey-blue of Blue Gums and there are Yellow Kapok and orange Kurrajong blooms on the leafless branches of their trees. Increasingly you are struck by the odd Boab trees with their trunks swollen at the base, giving them a bottle-like appearance. Between them stand the white trunks of taller River Red Gums, like sentinels observing the surrounds. 

Most stunning of all though is the scenic beauty of the river's valley, cutting through the astonishing escarpment. It is majestic, and changes every time you drive it because of the changing light conditions. Today it is mostly clear, an occasional smoke haze and some pictures are taken through the tinted windscreen.

We had lunch at Victoria River Roadhouse with Great Bowerbirds and a Pied Butcherbird. We pulled up stumps at Timber Creek for the night. Invigorated by that drive rather than weary. We camped right on the banks of the Timber Creek which feeds into the Victoria River just outside town. Both are full of crocodiles and in fact there is one small fellow catching the last of the sun between us and the water's edge. 

Within a short walk we saw a Yellow tinted Honeyeater, Crimson Finches and Blue winged Kookaburra amid the usual characters. 

Thinking ahead we were astonished to realise that tomorrow we would be crossing the WA border where there are very strict quarantine restrictions. We have to eat all our honey and fresh fruit and vegetables. While Eric prepared dinner I made a quick potato bake to use up lots of potatoes, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, onions and garlic. It is now in the freezer and I hope it tastes as good as it sounds because there is a heap of it.......

Wed 3 July
We had a leisurely sleep-in, no need to rush off as we are crossing the border and moving our clocks back 1.5 hrs later today. Let's wait under the doona for the chill to pass. This is such a different experience for us. We need to negotiate who makes the first cup of tea. It will be my turn tomorrow then.  

It is hard to give someone who hasn't been out here a sense of the vastness of this area and the photos don't do justice to the magnitude of the landscape. We called in to Keep River National Park, just before the border, and drove the 18kms on dirt road to Goorrandalang Campground. Here there is a 2km walking trail that weaves through the sandstone formations that are similar to the Bungle Bungles. It was fantastic and we saw the rare White-quilled Rock-Pigeon and a Black-breasted Buzzard.

Returning to the campground we were dismayed to discover the state of our cupboards. Even though the catches had been engaged, the corrugations had rattled them loose and we were met with a scene of disaster. The worst mess resulted from the lid of the peanut butter managing to unscrew itself (Yve had warned us about this). It looked like a peanut butter lava flow throughout the cupboard. We cleaned up as best we could then ate the last of the fresh fruit and veggies for lunch before returning over that same 18kms and the next few to the border. When the quarantine inspector and Eric entered the van they were met by a similar mess and the chap felt pretty sorry for us and didn't search too thoroughly. This time we had lost the top to the porridge and a number of cups had smashed out from overhead cupboards. The fridge was also a mess but we didn't bother to clean up anything until we got to Discovery Park on the banks of Lake Kununurra. That's where we learnt the sliding door to the en suite had broken its restraints and was also off its brackets. 
We spent the next hour washing and repacking. Another lesson learnt. Our cupboards and drawers will need new clips if we consider doing corrugations again. At this point Eric is dead against it. At last we got to enjoy the peace and luxury of having absolute lakeside frontage. Note: photo enhanced by Google. 

Thurs 4 July
The morning light turns on early here and the lake looked fabulous again this morning. There was a cheeky Nankeen Night Heron tucked into the bank hoping for an early breakfast. 

We made our repairs, spent some money in the local stores replacing or updating and then had jaffles for lunch. Now it feels (or should I say tastes) like we're camping. Why do I wait until I am camping to enjoy a jaffle? We rested through the heat of the day then took a drive out to Ivanhoe Crossing. There were quite a few others there and the usual crowd of birds including Pelican, Whistling Kite, Darter and Pied Cormorant. We walked upstream as far as the track continued but didn't see any other birdlife. Too hot still.

So then we tried Mirima (Hidden Valley) National Park just on the outskirts of town. It is often referred to as the mini Bungle Bungles and its not hard to see why. The rocks were formed at the same time, about 300 million years ago from sediments deposited by creeks and wind-blown sand before being swamped by the inland sea. Twenty million years of weathering have produced the eroded sandstone rock formations. We walked the Demboong Banan Trail which climbs to a point overlooking Kununurra and passes amazing rock formations. Took far too many photos as you do. Found the Black breasted buzzard and White-quilled Rock Pigeon.

Once we got back to our caravan park we went for a walk along the water's edge and there were more birds here than we had seen all day. Eric got a super shot of an Azure Kingfisher on his favourite perch but we also saw White-browed Robin, Rufous whistler, Crimson Finch, and many others. 

5 July
Time for another game of golf this morning. We are camped right beside the Kununurra Golf Course but still had to drive as we didn't bring our buggies and its a bit too far to lug the bags on our shoulders. How do those caddies do it on the circuit? And those bags are so much bigger though we have the same number of clubs. The course was dry but really lovely. Challenging too with lots of dog-legs and sand scrapes for greens (which we haven't played in many years). We chose the 9 holes with lots of water hazards because I thought we might see more birds that way. Big mistake! But I only drowned my ball once. 

We spent the worst heat of the day around the camp then did some shopping to prepare for the next few days when we leave here and head further west, but also south and must consider the chill factor. In the cooler late afternoon we rode the bikes to Celebrity Tree Park on the banks of Lily Creek Lagoon. Since the park opened in 1984, a number of celebrities have visited the town, many have performed at the Kimberley Moon Festival including John Farnham and Kate Ceberano for example. Each celebrity has planted a tree which is identified by a plaque. We attended the festival a couple of times; once from Katherine and another time from Darwin. Very special memories. Other celebs are more official or even royal. The Shire of Kununurra was planning to vote on whether to remove Rolf Harris’ plaque from the park when thieves levered it off its concrete plinth the weekend before. For all that, we enjoyed the cycle/walk and found plenty of birds as well, including the Red-backed Kingfisher and Zitting Cisticola. 

When we cycled toward home we took the trail out beyond the park through the golf course but by then the sun was low on the horizon and we were either cycling directly into it or it got too dark, so we settled for a drink on the water's edge like everyone else. Life's tuff.