Lake Argyle

It was a lovely drive today, through lots of stunning scenery.  As soon as we left the campsite at Gregory National Park, we were surrounded by enormous, red, rocky cliffs, with thick seams running through them or along the top of them.  They were amazing.  We stopped for a photo, but it really doesn’t look as impressive as the real thing!

We stopped at Timber Creek Roadhouse.  The gas was the most expensive yet, at $1.47per litre.  Grant was horrified, but we needed a bit more so we would make it to Kununurra.  We discovered we had internet access there, so we posted some blogs and then ate some more fruit and veg and honey sandwiches until I ran out of bread.

After Timber Creek Roadhouse, we began to see Boab trees beside the road.  These are fat looking trees, with bare branches reaching up to the sky, like weird people raising their hands.  Cooper kept spotting them and calling out “there’s another one!”  Some were enormous.  Very strange looking.  We pulled over to take a photo of the biggest one, and met a man who was walking along the road in the really hot sun.  We gave him the last of our cold watermelon and half a jar of Gordon’s honey.

Along the road a bit further we passed some people with their caravan off the side of the road.  The wheel had come right off and they were stuck, 174km east of Kununurra, in the middle of nowhere, with no phone signal or anything.  We said we’d phone the RACQ (they were from Queensland as well) as soon as we had a phone signal.  That took another 100kms! 

As we pulled into the quarantine checkpoint for Western Australia, there were signs asking us not to bring any plants, fruit, veg and honey into the state, and to avoid the spread of cane toads.  The road curved and the left lane led past the quarantine point, under a big awning, and two men stepped out into the road and signaled us to stop.  It was quite an operation.  The standard questions, “do you have any fresh fruit or veg, or honey?”  “Yes, I have an unopened bottle of honey from coles” I’d had it for ages and thought that because it was unopened and bought from coles, would be ok.  But no.  I had to hand that in and they would burn it with other confiscated items on their property!  Apparently there is some honey fungus that was introduced into Australia about 25 years ago from America, and Western Australia is the only state that doesn’t have it.  The honey they sell in Coles and Woolworths is NOT the same honey as we get in Queensland.  Theirs is boiled for 24 hours longer.  They like their bees here in WA.  They pollinate the crops.  The quarantine officer said they crush say, a rockmelon, every few metres along the rows and the bees come and pollinate the vines, then return to their hives at the end of each row.

We opened up the caravan and he went inside and opened the fridge and looked in most of the cupboards.  Everything was fine, except he took the two mango boxes I had shoes in and the fruit box from the boot Grant had all his maps and travel guides in.  I cleared all the shoes out of the mango boxes so I could hand them over, and found a very live baby cane toad in the bottom of one!  It must have jumped in one night while the boxes sat outside on the ground.  I was horrified.  Here I had carefully cleared our van of all fresh fruit and veg, and dumped the peels and seeds up the road in bins at Timber Creek, and I would have brought a live cane toad across quarantine.  But the Quarantine Officer said the cane toads have already reached WA, and he wasn’t too worried.  It went into their deep freezer with the other cane toads they’d confiscated!

The other thing they took were all the samples of grass and leaves Katie has been taping into her journal over the past few weeks.  She was NOT happy.  Kept telling us how useless the whole quarantine thing was, and that anyone could bring stuff in if they were really keen. We got a bit cross with her, and then when we pulled up for the night and began unloading our stuff, I discovered a whole grass stalk Joseph has been saving, as well as a giant seed pod Oskar picked up in Katherine Gorge.  Oh dear.  Not sure what to do about that.

It was only a short way across the border to the turn off to Lake Argyle, where we are staying for the night.  The red, rolling hills and cliffs were amazing to see as we drove the 30 odd kms into the caravan park.  I don’t think the Grand Canyon puts on a better show.  The similar layer of rock ran through all the hills, as it did back at Gregory National Park.  Back there it had reminded us of the Great Wall of China.  Here, the hills must have been pushed up with movements in the earth after the flood, because the rock layers run at an angle to the ground.  Just amazing. 

The boys love this caravan park.  The toilet block is made up of ensuite style cubicles.  Each room has one toilet, one basin and one shower.  So you can lock yourself in there for a little peace!  Interesting what you miss when you are away from home.

 Cooper and I in the infinity pool

Oh, and it has a swimming pool with an infinity edge, so you can swim and have an uninterrupted view of Lake Argyle.  This Lake is apparently the  largest water reservoir in Australia.  Eightly times bigger than Sydney Harbor.  It reminds me a little of Lake Como in Northern Italy, where the hills slope right down to the water.  The manager of the caravan park said there are plans to turn this into THE wedding destination for couples who what something a bit different.  They are going to build a 4 million dollar reception building overlooking the lake, with a boat that can take you out into the middle of the lake for the actual wedding.  They have already started on a couple of 4 bedroom villas overlooking the lake to house guests to these large functions.  People could fly in to Kununurra and be bused the 70 kms out to Lake Argyle.  A bit sad, really, as it is so lovely now, without huge buildings going up around this man made lake.