Week 25: Kununurra WA - Purnululu National Park WA

 Stats Overview

Km's Travelled: 641

Km's Hiked: 2

No. of Campsites: 2

The Adventures

We have made it through a wet and miserable week of unseasonable rain in the Kimberley.  We even had a cold day where the temperature only hit 17! Some of the locals told us it was the equivalent of snow for the Kimberley, so this is certainly my type of place. We had a fairly uneventful week in Kununurra, until it started to be filled with the wrong type of excitement - being woken up in the middle of the night to car alarms going off as people were going through the park trying to break into vehicles. When we woke up to discover the 200 series parked next to us had been stolen on Tuesday morning, we decided that after 10 days it was certainly time to move on while we still had Bertie in our possession!

Aside from the thefts, we had a really lovely time in Kununurra and enjoyed actually getting to participate in town events like going to the drive-in, the weekend markets and most exciting of all - waffle night at the local ice-cream shop! We also continued trying to fish, however, apparently it was too cold for the fish to be interested...well that is what we are going with any way! We also made a day trip up to Wyndham where we visited the infamous Prison Tree (it is a hollow boab that was used to lock up Aboriginal prisoners on their way to Wyndham for prosecution) and the Five Rivers lookout where the Ord, Pentecost, Durack, Forest and King rivers all combine to then enter the Cambridge Gulf. It was definitely a beautiful place! Wyndham is a really interesting, frontier town with a varied history - as a major port town in the gold rush days to having its main industry being meat processing. It still has a port that is used to support the various mining operations in the Kimberley, and yes we did have to visit it - Will really loves his ports! 

Fortunately Purnululu NP has re-opened (literally today), so we have finally been able to resume our adventuring. Not all of the park has re-opened yet, but it was certainly a good feeling to be able to pack everything up and hit the road again! We think it could still be another week until the Gibb River Road re-opens, so we aren't sure what we will be doing once we have left Purnululu.  

Kodak Moments

Never smile at a crocodile - Wyndham

This old boab is hollow inside and was used to hold prisoners overnight. It was surprisingly large inside! - Wyndham

Enjoying the view over the five rivers - Wyndham

We got to drive over clay pans which is a new experience for us - fortunately it hadn't rained here at this point! - Wyndham

We found some more rock art - Wyndham

Will got to enjoy a croc pie! - Wyndham

How fun is the drive-in! - Kununurra

Yes it does! - Kununurra

My greatest fishing accomplishment this week was managing to cast half of my fishing line into the Durack River...thankfully the line didn't break because there is no way I would be jumping in to retrieve it! - Kununurra

Enjoying sunset from the highest lookout in town - Kununurra