Back in September – to celebrate our wedding anniversary – we headed away for an extra long weekend. We went to Kununurra, not a place I would normally choose to go but due to circumstances we had tickets to go to Kununurra. So off we headed to the long term parking at Perth airport – on the bus to the terminal – all the way through security and then found our way to a place for coffee and breakfast. Our flight was called – we boarded the plane and we were on our way – 3 hours later we walked off the plane into 38oc heat. We waited and waited for Pat’s checked luggage (the joys of travelling with camera gear) and then joined our other travellers in the mini bus to our hotel.
We were booked in to a lovely place – Freshwater Apartments – into a one bedroom apartment – our room was lovely and cool with the air-conditioning having been left on for us. We settled ourselves in and headed off to find the local supermarket so that we could buy in our supplies. Off we went, we discovered that Kununurra really isn’t a good town for walking around, it’s hot and we had to limit ourselves on what we could buy due to having a bit of a hike back to our accommodation. But shopping down, bottle of wine in hand we headed home to relax. On our return walk, as it was sunset we watched hundreds of “flying foxes” overhead. Having a nice easy dinner with our wine.
Next day was a deliberate later start, we had booked ourselves on a tour. Pat discovered that he had forgotten his light weight trousers so headed off into town to do some shopping. (Delia’s being kind and not mentioning that I needed deck shoes too – I found a bargain pair of Converse shoes. However my sight and dim lighting failed to see that they were a light pink – Delia loves them).
Later on a bus picked us up from our accommodation and took us up to Lake Argyle via the Argyle farmstead, and then on to the base of the dam for a boat trip down the Ord River back to Kununurra. It was amazing, as you are out on the river and travelling at some speed it is quite cooling. We saw lots of different flora and fauna, including crocodiles (fresh water ones), bats (the aforementioned ‘’flying foxes’’) and an abundance of bird life. We stopped at a lovely little spot on the river for afternoon tea and headed back to town, pausing to watch the sunset.
Saturday was the day we had to be up early for a four-wheel drive tour, which was something we were looking forward to. It was amazing, well recommended by a friend of ours. It was proper four-wheel driving and we went out to some amazing places. Had a lovely morning tea in the bush and then headed off to Secret Springs (which you do require a proper four-wheel drive to get to for a fabulous swim at the base of a small waterfall. One thing I will remember is that when we went down into the areas which had permanent waterholes and were rather shady – the butterflies were incredible, they were everywhere.
Sunday our last day before we flew back to Perth, was another afternoon tour. We decided to go for a swim in the lovely pool that morning. It was superb. We got ourselves ready for another bus pick up and tour – but this time with a twist. Our bus picks us up, we head back to lake Argyle (via the homestead so 2 visits in 3 days) and onto a little boat to do our tour of the lake. Lake Argyle is huge – it has a surface area of around 1,000 square kilometres. We saw rock wallabies, lots of fish, some more fresh water crocodiles and, at sunset, we jumped into the water and went for a swim. It was fantastic. Then back to the pick-up point, for the bus ride back to Kununurra – with the warning to put on our seat belts as they did occasionally hit cows on the road! It’s apparently quite a problem.
Last day, we got our check out time extended by an hour, and headed off in a taxi to the local national park – Mirima National Park. It was amazing. It has some great walks and fascinating landscape (it’s known as the mini Bungle Bungles). We really enjoyed our walk, but it was hot and despite taking lots of water we did run out but thankfully only at the end. A call back to the taxi firm and we headed back to our accommodation for a bite to eat and a shower all in time to exit the room. We spent most of the afternoon time, waiting for our lift to the airport back around the pool, and even went for a swim again.
Back to Perth, pick up our car and be greeted very enthusiastically by Siena. One of our friends had been lovely enough to house sit and look after our pets while we were away.
All in all it was a fabulous time and I was amazed by the scenery. Enjoy Pat’s photos.
Until next time.
