The Top End of WA

We left Derby early on Thursday morning with the aim of getting to Fitzroy Crossing for the 11 am Geike Gorge boat trip. Got there right on time - booked the tour andwalked onto the boat - about 35 degrees in aluminium boats.... Geike Gorge is the remains of a Devonian Reef system that once stretched 1000km along a vast inland sea in the middle of Australia - or probably Gondwanaland. The Fitzroy River flows through the Gorge and at present is at its low point - in the middle of the Wet season it is about 15m higher and the flood plain is 25km wide. It's really hard to get your head around just how much water these rivers carry!
Anyway quick drive around Fitzroy Crossing - now a fairly dry community - no alcohol over 2.5% at the order of the women of the community - same in Halls Creek as we found when we went into the bottle shop and had a choice of 3 different types of light beer. No wine at all, not even our beloved 1litre bricks!!!
So we headed on to Halls Creek - figured there was really nothing in either Fitzroy or Halls Creek that we really wanted to do, so we just went to the Halls Creek Caravan Park - dry dusty and locked in overnight - and then out the next morning at 7am.
The road to Kununurra is spectacular - through several sets of mountain ranges (all low - these are very very old mountains and although many were once the size of Mt Everest they have eroded over the millenia) and through some spectacular Kimberley countryside. Arrived in Kununurra early afternoon and parked at the caravan park near the lake. Lots of bugs and a few mozzies but not too bad.
When we went through Turkey Creek we booked our flights into the Bungle Bungles - or so we thought, When we called the office to confirm and tell them where we were staying they cancelled our booking and moved it to Monday. Not much we could do about it, so we "did" Kununurra - difficult as most things were closed because it was Saturday afternoon! Went and had lunch at Ivanhoe Crossing, went to a rum distillery (too sweet for me) and Zebra Rock Gallery. The highlight of this was feeding the fish - a thousand disgusting black catfish all with mouths open trying to get the food. However this soon turned to great amusement as Michael was "attacked" by one of the Archer fish - who seemed to have it in for him - circling and then squirting him with water until he was really quite wet. :)
After a really hot uncomfortable night we had a day to kill. Michael decided we would go have a look at Wyndham. We knew this would be an auspicious trip when we crossed over Cheese Tin Creek and then Dead Horse Creek, but little did we know what delights awaited us!
Twent-five km out of Wyndham, the most northerly town in WA, we came across our first traffic light since we left Perth 25 days and 6,500 km of road later. Waited there in 35 degree heat until the road cleared of the two cars coming in the opposit direction through roadworks and then headed on into Wyndham.
Made it to the outskirts when Constable and Sergeat Plod pulled us over and breathalysed Michael. 12.20pm on Sunday. We went on to the fiver rivers lookout, looked out, had lunch, fed brown kites and tried to get them to fly in close enough to take photos and then headed back into town.


I was all for going straight back to Kununurra but Michael insisted on seeing the port, so we headed out there. Very old, very dingy, trying to make history out of bugger all. For example the hospital which opened in the late 1890s and closed in 1909 because it was riddled with termites, or the magistrate's residence, which was built with inferior mortar and never occupied because it was so far away from anywhere and the local aboriginals were very hostile.

However part of it still stands. Go figure.

Left is the main street.

10 minutes later we were on our way back across the mudflats with a big 4wd up our clacker. I was driving at this stage, so when the red and blue flashing lights went on all I could think of was whether for some insane reason the speed limit over the mudflats was only 60.... however , it was another pair of Constable Plods doing random breath testing, so I was also tested (2.30pm Sunday). We were doing well so far - 2 breath tests and a traffic light - so we got the hell out of there as fast as we could, and back to sunny Kununurra. We may be getting a but jaded, but beer o'clock couldn't come fast enough!! OH - I forgot to mention the giant croc didn't I? hmmm. This is Michael wrestling the giant croc in Wyndham...