Towards Broome

We refuelled and then visited the Halls Creek tourist information centre to ask about a dump point for our toilet cassette. We thought that the local caravan park might have one, but we were surprised to find out that the nearest one was 117 km south. Fortunately, we were heading that way; otherwise, we'd have to dig a large hole and bury the contents as we have done in the past.

 

We continued along the Great Northern Highway, heading towards Mary Pool. Luckily, we had enough of our own water to flush and clean our cassette, as there was no water supply available for that purpose. I counted just over twenty vans camped here, and we couldn't believe what a cesspool this campsite was. There are eco-toilets and rubbish bins with lids, but toilet wipes and toilet paper were scattered around the entire site. What a bunch of lazy grotbags, all happy to camp amidst all that filth. They will be the first to complain when these types of sites are permanently shut down.

 

Our plan had been to stop early and stay at another free campsite known as Ngumpan Cliffs. But because we were making such good time, we just stopped in for a quick look before continuing on. This site was completely different from the previous free camp, with not a piece of litter to be seen anywhere.

 

We stopped briefly in Fitzroy Crossing before driving another 43 km, then turning north onto the Leopold Downs Road for the 11 km trip into the RAAF Boab quarry rest area. Even though it was a short distance, we still needed to reduce our tyre pressures because the corrugations were quite severe. At one stage, we had to drive in the soft sand on the side of the road to escape the bone-jarring ride. At one point, I had to engage the low range to continue.

 

The material from the quarry was mined to build the Curtin Air Force Base south of Derby. The quarry is generally filled with water, making a lovely campsite surrounded by boab trees. Still, unfortunately, I didn't read the latest WikiCamps entry, which mentioned that the water had all evaporated. A poor wet season contributed to this. Anyway, we found a nice spot for the night.

 

This guy refused to move for several minutes, so we couldn't continue, even after I sounded the horn.

Leaving last night's camp, we stopped on the road for several more boab photos. I never seem to tire of looking at and photographing these trees, although I think Ros is maybe over it.

After reaching the bitumen, we continued heading west, but not before stopping at a rest area for morning tea and, yes, you guessed it, another boab to photograph. 

We passed the Willare Bridge Roadhouse 187 km later and, after another 145 km, arrived at the Roebuck Plains Roadhouse. We booked into Broomes Gateway Caravan Park for two nights. The park is located 30 km east of Broome, and the sites are very large, but there is no power unless you have solar or a generator. Our idea was to see if we could secure a site in Broome and were lucky enough to book one at the Roebuck Bay Caravan Park. It’s the only caravan park in Broome that has a view of the water. While our site is not beachfront, we do have this view from under our annex.

The Duncan Road

We are now heading towards Broome, but having already driven south from Kununurra along the Great Northern Highway in 1996 on our way to Purnululu National Park (also known as the Bungle Bungles), we are again taking the less-travelled road. We are off to complete the section of Duncan Road that runs south from the Victoria Highway to Nicholson Station.

 

After visiting the Bungle Bungles in 1996, we drove south to Halls Creek, then joined Duncan Road as far as Nicholson Station before taking the Buntine Highway towards Kalkarindji (Wave Hill) and passing through Top Springs on our way to Katherine.

 

Now we are completing the remaining part of Duncan Road that we missed out on all those years ago. We left Kununurra at 8:30. I successfully found a cache 41 km later at the WA border, and another 14 km further on as we turned onto Duncan Road. Here, we deflated our 4WD tyres to 30 psi and the vans down to 25 psi.

 Our camp tonight is at the Negri River, 140 km south along Duncan Road. The road is unsealed for its entire 441 km and was originally built to serve the cattle stations in the area. After 46 km, we passed Rosewood Station, established in 1885 and part of the Durack Empire. 

Another 7 km later, we crossed back into Western Australia. At the 131 km mark, we had again crossed the border and were now back in the Northern Territory. I'm glad we reduced the van's tyres by 25 psi because the 140 km took us five hours to complete. The road was rough with lots of corrugations and long sections of stony ground, with some stones much larger than a man's clenched fist.

When traversing the dips and floodways, which were too numerous to count, we were reduced to a walking pace of below 7 kph. We rarely reached 30 kph until, at the 121 km mark, we passed the sign welcoming us to the Halls Creek Shire. From there to our campsite, we maintained a steady 50 kph, with the only minor issue being long stretches of bull dust.
 
Our campsite was on the south-western side of the Negri River, overlooking a stretch of water. Best of all, we had the place to ourselves. Tonight, we christened our new folding BBQ plate that we bought at the most fantastic camping shop in Kununurra. We built a fire, and once the wood had burnt down to coals, we cooked our fillet steak accompanied by coleslaw and tomatoes. The night was concluded with coffee by the fire and the most magnificent array of stars.

 

We also purchased a new camp oven and fry pan with a removable handle. This oven is much smaller and lighter than the one we've used for the past thirty years. There was no need for the larger oven because we now cater only for ourselves. The new fry pan replaced two other heavier pans we had carried before. All the items were left at the camp kitchen at the van park in Kununurra and were gone when we checked the next morning.
 
What a difference in this morning's temperatures compared to Kununurra. Just ten degrees inside the van at 5:30 quickly had the diesel heater running smoothly and the hot water service turned on for a nice hot shower before breakfast. We left at 8:30, heading south towards Nicholson Station at the intersection of the Buntine Highway and Duncan Road.
We crossed back into Western Australia 40 km later for the rest of our journey.

We stopped several times to take photos of the Bungle Bungle Ranges off to the west. Our Hema maps on our iPad indicated that's what we were photographing.

Today's road conditions were an improvement over those of yesterday. 
Once past the intersection with Duncan Road and Buntine Highway, we came across two different road crews working on laying down new road base, and we were finally able to reach speeds of up to 60 kph for the first time in two days. 

We had intended to camp at Marella Gorge, but I miscalculated the turnoff into the gorge and didn't realise my mistake until we were 20 km past the turnoff, so we just continued heading towards Halls Creek.

Country as we passed through Flora Valley Station:

We would have preferred to get right off the road for this B-triple cattle road train, but it just wasn't possible.

Our plan was to keep going towards another free camp on the Elvire River at Caroline Pool, but when we reached Palm Springs, another free camp, we decided that would be fine for the night. The campsite is near Duncan Road, but we didn't expect much traffic during the night. There were two other groups camped there when we arrived.  

Palm Springs is a natural spring that was once used as a local water supply and supported a market garden supplying vegetables to the surrounding district. The water was very clean, so we used it to do several loads of laundry.

 

We had a peaceful night's sleep, with only one vehicle passing by during the night. We left our campsite at 7:30, heading towards Halls Creek and the bitumen after covering 441 km of dirt track. The last 40 km were through winding, hilly country with quite rocky road conditions, which kept our speeds well below 30 kph. 

Kununurra and Surrounds

We stopped at the entrance to Keep River National Park to reinflate our tyres. We crossed into Western Australia and went through the hassle of having the van and 4WD searched at the Quarantine Checkpoint before heading towards Kununurra. 

We had already eaten our fruit, vegetables, and honey, so there was nothing to declare. 

We were surprised to see about eight different groups of campers who were clearly unaware of the restrictions, devouring their fruit before passing through the checkpoint.

 

We are camped at the Ivanhoe Village Caravan Park, but they are exaggerating and should drop the word' resort' and simply call it a park.

Our first night's site was on dirt, with only a few blades of grass and a tree overhead that kept dropping leaves, which kept us awake. Behind us, on a rise, a van vacated a lovely, green, grassy site, so I quickly went to the office, and luckily, it hadn't been pre-booked - this is where we had stayed.

On one of our days, we drove north to Wyndham, which is called the Top Town of the West. We took a 4wd track known as Parrys Creek Road and then returned to Kununurra on the tarmac. Part of this route ran parallel to the Ord River, and we stopped at a campsite called Mambi Island boat ramp. There were three groups camping there, and it was clear they were into fishing.

The port was originally established in 1885 after gold was discovered at Halls Creek, and over five thousand miners passed through here to reach the goldfields. The Five Rivers Lookout is the main attraction for visiting Wyndham. The lookout, situated atop the Bastion Range at 330 metres, offers a breathtaking view over the port and the five rivers that flow into Cambridge Gulf. These rivers are the Durack, Pentecost, King, Forrest, and the Ord. Sadly, we couldn't quite capture with our cameras just how spectacular the view from the lookout truly is. I would imagine sunset might help to improve one's photos.

Talk about 'Boot Hill'. The rocky ground on which this cemetery is situated reminded us of the Farina cemetery. Digging graves here with a pick and shovel would certainly be tough work. This pioneer cemetery was in use between 1886 and 1922, and reading the tombstones gives you an idea of just how harsh conditions must have been in those early years.

On another one of our outings, we visited the Hoochery and the Sandalwood Factory. The Hoochery is the only legal distillery in WA. Locally grown sugar cane is used in the process, and they have the capacity to produce 50,000 bottles each year. We sampled one of their tasting paddles, then tried their rum and mango ginger cake, followed by a coffee. Both cakes were absolutely delicious.

Our tasting paddle, from left to right, included: Aguardiente Verde Aniseed Liqueur, Cane Royale Liqueur with chocolate and coffee, and Ord River dark rum. I believe Bundaberg Rum's Royal Liqueur surpasses this one easily.

The sandalwood factory and plantation are located just north of Kununurra. The company owns two plantations in Western Australia, two in the Northern Territory, and one in North Queensland. Processing facilities are situated in Kununurra and Albany in the south of WA. The trees are actually Indian sandalwood trees, but wild populations are now endangered due to illegal harvesting and theft. The oil is highly sought after and is widely used in the pharmaceutical, fragrance, and aromatherapy markets.
 
Photos taken from Kelly's Knob, including one showing the main irrigation channel that supplies water to numerous plantations across the Ord Valley. 

We have just finished an Ord River Cruise with Triple J Tours. When we were last in Kununurra, we visited the dam and the museum, which is a replica of the original Durack family homestead built using the original stones from their homestead.

Our tour involved cruising 55 km up the Ord River to the base of Lake Argyle and then returning. We were later joined at the dam wall by people who had completed the Ord River day tour, where they were bused to the dam.

Lake Argyle and the Ord River scheme are a massive project that was initially conceived by Kimberley Durack, but unfortunately, he passed away in 1968 and never saw it completed. 
 
The damming of the Ord River formed Lake Argyle, which usually covers 1000 sq km, but during a good wet season like 2011, the surface area expanded to 1500 sq km. 
The dam wall was constructed using materials sourced within a 1 km radius of the site. It is not made of cement and steel but of clay and rock. The type of clay used becomes stronger when it gets wet.
 
Before the dam was completed, a pumping station was installed on Lake Kununurra to help divert the river if water levels became too high. It now sits idle and has been repurposed as the Pump House Restaurant.
 
Unlike the Snowy Mountains Scheme, which uses pumping stations and holding dams to transfer water for hydro power, the Ord River scheme relies solely on gravity. The height difference from the dam wall to the ocean is 42 metres, so the water flows downhill continuously. 
 
The hydro power station at the base of the dam generates enough electricity to supply Kununurra, Wyndham, and some of the diamond mines south of Kununurra.

Lake Argyle has a volume comparable to twenty Sydney Harbours and is estimated to hold 30,000 freshwater crocodiles. This one is just a baby hiding in the reeds.

The 55 km stretch from the Lake Argyle dam to the diversion dam at Lake Kununurra has an estimated population of 6,000 freshies. I have never seen freshwater crocodiles that grow to the size that we have seen. Grant, our skipper, explained the reason, and it is that their habitat never changes, remaining constant regardless of the season.

To enhance agricultural output on these black soil plains by increasing plantations is as simple as digging more drains that connect to the main drain.
 
Water extracted from the lake and the upper reaches of the river is diverted for agricultural use, but then returned to the river without changing its flow.
 
We stopped to observe a large and foul-smelling population of fruit bats, estimated to number over 1½ million, which fly north each evening to feed. Grant explained that they do not pose a nuisance to farmers growing crops like mangoes because their habitat, like other parts of Australia, has not been cleared for farms or development. They are more interested in feeding on nectar than attacking the crops.
 
The Comb Crested Jacana and its young, or Jesus Bird, because it spends its life living on floating vegetation.

Australian darter:

Black tailed rock wallaby:

Sunset over Lake Kununurra: