Gorge-ous

We have spent just on a week at Kununurra and are now settled into the Bungle Bungles for three nights. We have relished the opportunity to have some relaxed days after our three weeks on the road.

Kununurra is the main town for the Ord River Irrigation Scheme, and I guess I expected it would remind me of Leeton, the main town of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area and, and my home town. In many ways, there are many similarities – the flat countryside, the wide canals and narrower channels taking water to the thirsty farms, regulators measuring the flow of water, and of course the neatly laid out plots. But Leeton is much more intensive with smaller farms with citrus and grapes, vegetables, homes, with families working away on their farms, farm-gate stores selling the tomat, oranges, onions and all the veg grown on their fertile fields. Of course Leeton has changed with larger farms growing rice and cotton.

But it is very interesting out here. We took a drive out to the countryside to check out the farms, visit the sandalwood factory and other attractions. One has to look very hard to see a farm house, and I suspect the farms are often operations of large agri-companies.

One thing this area has in abundance is water. We went on a river tour up the Ord River from Kununurra all the way up to the Ord Dam that hold back the impressive Lake Argyle. The river courses through magnificent gorges and the typical Kimberley backdrop of deep red and rich brown cliffs, reeds and bushes in abundance hiding the ubiquitous freshwater crocodiles. We returned home to the wide waters of lake Kununurra in time for a splendid sunset splashing its colours across the western mountains.

On Wednesday we took a drive out to El Questro, once a cattle station to the East of Kununurra, but now a rather expensive resort just off the Gibb River Road. We had to do a river crossing of the Pentecost river, named for one of its surveyors, and not, as I imagined, for the ecstatic experience of successfully crossing through its deeply flowing waters. We did a short cruise up a section of the Chamberlain River which has a few saltwater crocs – so much more dangerous if you happen to fall in.
This amazing country introduces more spectacular beauty each day, with chasms of colour in the mountains shaped into the most spectacular formations.

We did not stay at El Questro, but at the adjacent Emma Gorge which had some lovely “glamping” tents, complete with ensuite facilities. Rob and the girls went on a hike up to one of the waterholes for a swim, but Jenny, Pauline and Rob all started feeling a bit ill so returned before getting all the way. Anne pressed on as she is imbued with a resolute, fearless Cornish quality where she refuses to succumb to impediments such as sickness, fear and injury and presses on stoically to her goal. It turned out that these impediments were thrown, and she had a fall, fainted and had to be assisted home with the aid of some friendly travellers. Fortunately, apart from being a bit shaken, there is no lasting damage.

We finished off our Kununurra experience with a trip to the nearby Hidden Valley National Park. The walks were thankfully short on well-made paths and each turn unfolded spectacular cliffs and rocks and lovely native vegetation.

The “Durack” name is embedded into Kimberley folk lore with their opening up of cattle farming and of course a famous cattle trek from Queensland to the Kimberley around 1879-82. To fill our knowledge, some have been reading Kings in Grass Castles which (very) roughly describes the history of the Duracks. Since we had a DVD of this story (greatly romanticised,) we have run a couple of movie nights which seemed to draw the interest of some of our neighbours in the Kimberleyland Caravan Park. Durack’s old property Argyle, now lies on the floor of Lake Argyle, while the homestead has been relocated from its watery grave to the shores of the lake.

Saturday 5 June. Fuelled up and hitched to our vehicle, we decamped from Kununurra for the next part of our adventure, this time to the Bungle Bungles, but we had a stopover at the Bungle Bungles Caravan Park a couple of hundred clocks down the highway, and still about 70 kilometres from the actual geographic phenomena that is the Bungle Bungles. We were up early on Sunday so that we could Zoom in to our Tuggeranong Uniting service back home. They were having a few technical issues, so I found myself messaging tips and instructions from the other side of the continent. One never really feels untethered fully from the routine of jobs back home, despite our best efforts to flee.

The drive out to the Bungle Bungles is a good test of vehicles with a deeply corrugated road wrapping itself around the landscape and dipping into numerous creeks. Luckily the waters were lower than normal, so although John and Rob were looking forward to some challenging river crossings, they were rather tame for the most part. We got our park passes from the Rangers’ station and proceeded to the airstrip where we had booked a helicopter flight for Jenny, Pauline and me. I thought the suggestion that they need to call up the heavy-lift chopper for me was a bit cruel – but the extra space was amazing. It was exciting flying with the doors removed, but an even greater thrill to fly over these fantastic rock formations and canyons formed by erosion and weathering over millions of years. The following day we went for some walks through the park. We only did a couple of the southern walks, as John has been feeling a bit ill and excused himself from our adventures – and we did not want to totally abandon him.

We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge – ensuite tents, but with some dim lights, but no power. The dinners and breakfasts prepared by the lodge team were truly wonderful and fitting for a classy city restaurant. I found myself totally underprepared for the cooler nights out here. The tents have handy floor ventilation, and canvas walls, not designed to keep out the chilly night air. My jamas were of the light summer edition, so it was a cold couple of nights.

I think we have all felt that each day, each new part of the Kimberley, delivers a richer experience of the raw beauty of this country, particularly in this part of the world. And I confess to the world an alarming ignorance of what is available here for tourists and that has been the lived experience of Aboriginal Australians for tens of thousands of years. It is a bit embarrassing to think of the ways we recent arrivals have clumsily and forcefully imposed ourselves on the landscape as opposed to the Indigenous people who actually embraced and lived within the bounty and limitations of the land. We have so much to learn.

Our blog is delayed a little bit this week, as we have had to wait till we get to a place with both power and Internet. In this case Halls Creek where we are staying for a couple of days.