We came back from Kakadu, picked up Billy & stayed at Barra Park @ Howard Springs for a couple of nights. We then headed back to Katherine before heading west. Stayed at a different place just outside of Katherine called Manbulloo Homestead. Nice spot away from the “crowd” in town.
Arrived at WA border & lost all of our fruit & vegies at the quarantine checkpoint.
Sometimes when you get to a spot you realise why you travel. Lake Argyle is one such spot. It is majestic in its vista & astounds you with its sheer size. We stayed for four nights but could have stayed longer. It holds 18 times more water than Sydney Harbour, it is 1000sq kilometers in surface area, it is over 900km in circumference, it loses 200,000 litres/hour to evaporation & has over 25,000 Johnson River Crocs (freshies) in it. It was created by damming the Ord River & was opened in 1971.
The weather has been consistent for the last couple of weeks 20 degrees at night & 38 in the arvo. Lucky they have a pool which has a really nice backdrop.
The sunset cruise is money well spent. It takes you to see a very small part of a very large lake followed by a swim in the middle of the lake with a drink watching the sun go down. Spectacular!
The sunrises aren’t too bad either, you have to be up early as it rises at 5.30am & sets at 5.30pm.
We even had entertainment. The birds eat well up here, heaps of mangoes.
Reluctantly we left Lake Argyle & drove down the road to Kununarra. It is on the Ord River & has lots of farms around it which are irrigated from Lake Argyle. They have been struggling to find the right crop to grow for 30 years. They have tried sugar cane, bananas, rice & lots of others. Lots of mangos & limes. The new savior is sandalwood. Heaps of trees everywhere. They have to be 10 years old but when harvested they are getting over $1m a hectare. Who knew that there was so much money in perfumery?
Dinner last night at Pumphouse Restaurant (100m from caravan park). Not used as pumphouse anymore but great spot, food & wine was excellent. Sunset sublime.
We couldn’t find a decent pub but we found the next best thing. There’s nothing like a tot of rum when the temperature is up.
Off further west tomorrow.
Great photos Pete and your commentary is very good. I reckon you both must be enjoying the grey nomad life style. Enjoy!