Day 35, 36: How much beauty B4 we pop?

Hi all again – sorry about the day or so’s silence – not that we haven’t been busy in the far north.  We finished up in the Bungles with the best walk that I have ever done in my life – it was only about four kilometres long, and it was into Cathedral Gorge in the Bungles – do you remember the most recent Qantas ad, with all the kids in this gorgeous cavern with a natural pool and lovely white sand – that is where we were – and it wasn’t only the destination that was stunning, but the walk into the gorge was just beautiful – we were there very early – around 7.30 am – and there was a lovely breeze blowing to start with (a big plus in this hot place) and we walked in through the orange and grey striped beehive formations, down a mostly dry river bed, winding our way slowly up the gorge, with little pools of water all along the way, each one alive with fish and dragonflies and of course a huge array of birds.  There were a few ladders to climb, and a long slow incline with evidence of lots of water erosion on the soaring walls of the gorge as we went – it must be an amazing place in the wet season. 

The destination was Cathedral Gorge – and it is no surprise that it is a special place to the aboriginal people – whatever God you worship, you sure can feel Him there!   I must say I get a bit offended with tourists who yell and shout and throw rocks in the water in special places like this – I know it sounds a bit ‘fuddy-duddy’ but I really feel that when you are in such a beautiful and special place, that is obviously very meaningful to the locals, you need to be quiet and respectful - just one of my internal rules that obviously don’t occur to other people!  I can quite understand the motivation behind the sign we read that said that aboriginal belief was that if you picked up a stone in this sacred place you could get sick, and if you took the stone, you could die!  Not likely I know, but I was kinda hoping for a bolt of lightning for some irritating foreign tourists who were talking at the top of their voices in that lovely spot.

 There was quite a bit of wildlife along the way – we saw a beautiful dingo – who was quite interested to see if we would feed him, which we didn’t.  We saw a goanna (which of course Rich tried to catch) and several birds that got Rich very animated – lifers I believe – personally I love the plentiful bee-eaters with their bright shiny blues, greens and oranges. (White Plumed Rock Pigeon – only found here)

From there we headed back to our van along the torturously rough road – dust, dust and more dust, several river crossings (I am sure that Rich will include the obligatory photos to show we really did do it) and finally to our van (which I was SO delighted to see).  Onwards ever onwards through some of the MOST spectacular country and scenery I think I have ever seen in Aussie, finally pulling into Kununurra.  Of course it is school holidays in WA (which we had not factored in) so we struggled to find a powered campsite in any of the four caravan parks – but it was serendipitous really, because we have ended up in a lovely little unpowered site, right down on a lake shore, once again with plentiful birds, space and lovely shade.  We are quite alright without power because we have a deep cycle battery (which we paid a small fortune for, so it is nice to see it actually being used) and Rich charges it during the day with some solar panels. We have discovered that the powered sites are all ‘cheek by jowl’ in regimented lines, but the unpowered sites are usually on the grass, in the shade and wherever you can find a spot – just up our street really! And with all the younger back-packing campers, who are a little less up-tight about their vans and 4x4s.

This morning we had a regroup time – catching up on emails, phone calls, washing and cleaning the rather dusty car, getting our laundry up to date, sorting ourselves after the camping – then into town for the first coffee in a few days and then off to see the Ord River Dam (aka Lake Argyle).  Once again, a truly magnificent wonder – I said to Rich today, I wonder how much beauty we can absorb before we pop!!  We had a picnic lunch at a shady and grassed picnic site overlooking the Ord River below the dam wall and were completely inundated by a mob of Greater Bower Birds – Rich fed one a bit of bread (big no no) and before we knew where we were they were all around us.  We even got a picture of one of the males displaying his electric pink crown …… just lovely (we thought of you Breadens and took some photos specially for you!) 

From there we decided to take a sunset cruise on Lake Argyle (largest man-made lake in Australia; 22 Sydney harbour equivalents; a simply massive body of water with no development allowed on the shores, so the wildlife abounds {not quite Africa but close} – everything about Lake Argyle reminds us of lake Kariba in Africa – the size, the fish, the bush is similar), which initially I fought the idea of - generally I don’t like to do the touristy thing, but I must say, it was well worth it.  Again we saw numerous fascinating wildlife (a nesting Jabiru stork, rock wallabies, wallaroos, various sized crocs and lots of different birds) – and from the very knowledgeable tour guide chappie, we got all the low down info on both the wildlife and the construction of the dam itself.  I will let the photos speak for themselves – but if you are ever here …. Do the tour!

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