Time out in Kununurra

Poor Tim was quite ill for a few more days when we first arrived in Kununurra so we’ve been taking it easy. Kununurra is in such an interesting part of the world that we have been quite happy to slow down a little and check it out slowly, with occasional forays to Lake Argyle, or beautiful Mirima NP right next to town, or Lake Kununurra which is about twenty metres away from where we are camped.






It has been funny to be back in WA and yet still such a long way from home. We’ve even been a little nostalgic about things as ridiculous as reading The West Australian (which is truly as good as The Guardian in comparison to the NT News). And we’ve already bumped into Helen-Mary Sykes, an old family friend of Nic’s from Bunners, and Ted Griffin from around the corner in Hammy Hill. This is what happens when you get back to your home state!

And it has been an amazingly busy time in Kununurra – it is already packed with tourists. Then there has been a rodeo on for 3 days, so there have been plenty of lanky cowboys in jeans, big buckled belts and cowboy hats wandering around. And the cast and crew of the Baz Lurhman film Australia have all arrived to shoot scenes up here. You might think we’ve been stalking them since we bumped into the film set in Bowen, then Darwin and now here – and still no sighting of Nicole and Hugh!! But we did see Paul Kelly in the only decent café in town this morning, and heard the coffee makers discuss how Nicole Kidman has her own coffee machine in the secret location that she is staying and so won’t be ordering coffees from them.

We finally made it along to the tail-end of the rodeo but the idea of it was much more fun than the reality – we saw some of the bull riding and ‘bucking broncos’ and it just seemed unnecessarily cruel to the animals. We probably should have gone along earlier when they were doing campdrafting or something like that. But we did enjoy seeing cowboy hats been worn without a trace of irony!

Heading west

Got back to Katherine and turned to the west, into the magnificent escarpment country around the big Victoria River. We stayed a night at the eastern end of the Gregory River NP and walked up to the top of the escarpment at sunset – a beautiful view.




Our next campsite was near Timber Creek, right net above the mighty Victoria River - and being on this main road over to WA, it was a bit of a thoroughfare! We caught up with Kerry and Greg, a couple we’ve been bumping into since way back at Kingfisher Camp in Queensland. And also Jan and Brett, a couple we spent a bit of time with at the Daly River camp.

But on the first night there Tim started feeling quite sick, and it turned out to be a nasty case of tonsillitis complete with a bad fever. We spent one day at the campsite, pulling a mattress around to chase bits of shade for Tim to lie on. On the following day we were able to see a nurse at the clinic in Timber Creek and Tim got an array of antiobiotics and painkillers to help him recover. We also got a pretty ordinary cabin at the caravan park in Timber Creek for the patient.

Nic was meanwhile amusing herself at the campsite and caravan park watching the huge number and huge diversity of travellers on the road at the moment. It is BUSY in the north at the moment! Hard to imagine just how many people are travelling with a caravan, campervan or camper trailer in Australia right now.

The most commonly viewed species is the grey nomad – with shiny brand new 4WD pulling a sparkling looking caravan. There is also the sub-species that has the Winnebago or the enormous shiny bus pulling a 4WD as a runabout. Just occasionally there is an old-school version – like this old Kingswood pulling a tiny wee van. Or an old-school bus conversion. But they are a rarity!



Then there is the overseas tourist (often German) in the Britz troopie conversion, or more recently the Landcruiser with a rooftop tent.


The backpackers in either a backfiring old 4WD coughing black smoke, or a ‘Wicked’ brand campervan with some graffiti scrawled over it. And then the occasional person camping in just a tiny wee tent!


There was even a guy who cycled, on a heavily laden bicycle, into this campsite. As the weather is getting a lot hotter I don’t think I was the only one to stare agog at him, and note how gaunt his face was. Hardcore.

Down to the Daly

We didn’t get too far when we left Darwin, just over to the next harbour to the west - Bynoe Harbour, and a place called Crab Claw Island Fishing Village. It was a lovely spot, apart from the sandflies. Despite being incredibly cautious (two sorts of burning repellents, about three sorts of spray/roll-on repellent, and covered up clothing) we both got bitten and Nic (who responds poorly to insect bites) was devoured.

This was our chance for a bit of saltwater fishing, and some exploration of the really tidal, mangrovey harbour. This was all good, but the fishing wasn’t so great. Once again, it wasn’t just us, everyone was complaining of the same lack of fishing joy. The most exciting thing was when Nic had something big (a blue salmon?) on her line but lost it at the boat.

From there we went on to the beautiful Litchfield NP – having a swim in every cold, green rock pool we could find. These NT freshwater swimming holes, at the base of lushly vegetated waterfalls, have been a bit of a revelation! On a dusty 35C day they are just the ticket!



To get down to the Daly River we took a short cut through on a great track that involved a few deep-ish creek crossings. It also crossed through the some really scenic flat grassy plains dotted with termite mounds. Some were the enormous buttressed kind, and there were also acres of the magnetic kind, where they are built on a North-South axis, to maximise the heating and cooling. It still spins us both out that termites can be so clever.



And then to the famous Daly River! It is a big wide river, with huge overhanging trees, that at times look like they wouldn’t be out of place on a Tasmanian river. Lots of crocodiles, which already don’t seem such a big deal – Nic is, incredibly, becoming just a little blasé! Along with the mobs of other people in tinnies, we spent a bit of time fishing in the Daly, and the only thing that worked was fishing with live bait, with which Tim had some success.



As an indication of how much the barra like the big cherabin, we pulled up one trap to find a small barra caught inside it, obviously having feasted on the cherabin that would have been inside.


In the end Tim caught quite a few barramundi, but only one was (just) legal. Again, this was the same story that everyone had – and the unseasonally cold weather that the north experienced a few weeks ago is being blamed!