Phil and Denise's Travels

We arrived here and decided this was a good place to put our feet up for a breather before heading into the Northern Territory, as we had been travelling every day since we left Derby. Despite the arid landscape this is the land of plenty courtesy of the Ord River Irrigation Scheme and the Hydro Electric power station. They grow all manner of produce here and I even saw Sugar Cane for the first time which appears to be the dominant crop.

Apart from using the time to chill out we explored the region which included a day trip to Wyndham. Wyndham is 100 K’s from Kununurra by road, and is a town which is unfortunately slowly dying. It is not the hub it used to be since the port was downgraded and it shows in the look and feel of the place (or lack of). However there were number of wonderful spots we looked at including The Grotto (gorge and water hole) and Parry’s Lagoon which was on a billabong and flood plain which looked and felt like the tourist brochures you see of Kakadu National Park. The view from the 5 river’s lookout overlooking the town provided a stunning panorama, but once again the prevalent smoke haze obstructed a lot of the long distance view.

Another place of interest was Celebrity Tree Park where visiting celebrities planted trees in the park overlooking Lake Kununurra and Lily Creek Lagoon. Some of these celebrities were as varied as John Farnham, Peter Brock and Harry Butler to name a few. We also looked over Lake Argyle which is a huge area and you don’t appreciate the enormity of it until you’ve been there.

Kununurra is very tourist oriented and there are lots of tours you can do to places such as Lake Argyle and the Bungle Bungles, but we limited ourselves to a sunset BBQ cruise on lake Kununurra which was beautiful and well worth it. With our batteries well and truly recharged we are ready to finally leave WA after 7 weeks.