We left El Questro quite early this morning, we went through quite a few water crossings on the way out again.

We drove until Kununurra, where we stopped for breakfast and to do some supermarket shopping. From Kununurra we then drove for about another hour to Lake Argyle. We didn’t do a lot in the afternoon after we arrived at Lake Argyle. We did, however, go for a little swim in the infinity pool! That was really awesome! It’s like you’re going to swim off the edge and fall down the steep hill into Lake Argyle! Apparently it has been voted Australia’s best pool. We went for a little walk in the evening, but we didn’t do much else!

Tara

We got up and went for a walk to Champagne Springs only we didn’t make it the whole way. We got lost in a part were the signs weren’t clear. We walked for ages trying to find the 1000 year old Boab tree which marked the halfway point. We found a Boab tree but was obviously not the actual one. We decided not to go any further because we couldn’t find the track. We had a rest before starting back. We then actually found the path. We followed it until we got to the big old Boab tree. It was very large and looked like it was 1000 years old. We had a rest there then headed back. We then went for a drive to look at the Chamberlain gorge. The hill down to it was very steep. There was as sign saying engage 4 wheel drive now. We don’t have a 4 wheel drive so we were worried we wouldn’t make it back up! We made it back up then drove back and had a swim in the creek and a relaxing night. We had a nice dinner at the Steak House. Tara was the only one who had steak! We had a nice day.

Double-barred finch that we saw on our walk.

Tess

This morning we went to a hot spring near here called Zebedee Springs. The water in Zebedee Springs ranges from 28 degrees to 32 degrees! I’m not sure exactly what temperature it was when we were there, but it was very nice and warm! The pools were quite shallow, so we couldn’t really swim.

Afterwards we went to Emma Gorge where we did a two hour walk. At the end of the walk, there was a natural pool. The cliff walls were 65 metres high, and there were a few small waterfalls dribbling down. The water was icy, but Tess, myself, and even Mum still went in for a swim! It was rather refreshing!

After lunch we had a relaxing afternoon. We went for another very fun swim in the creek, and we also collected our painting from the art class. In the late afternoon, we went for a walk up onto one of the hills to see the sunset. We got quite a few good photos. We went to a barbecue buffet that the caravan park puts on every Saturday night. That was very yummy!

Tara

We got up and had a quick breakfast before Mum and I went for a seven o’clock horse ride. We went across several river crossings and at one of them we stopped to let the horses have a drink. At the deepest one we had to put our feet forward to stop them getting wet! We got to a big Boab tree and got to taste the Boab tree nut. I didn’t really like it, it tasted slightly like a walnut but it looked and its texture was like dried apple. There was a little bull and the horse ride instructor tried to round it up but it got away. We rode back then just sat around until two o’clock when Dad, Tara and I went to do an art class at the caravan park. Dad painted the Bungle Bungles using a crack effect which makes cracks in the painting. Tara also used the cracks but she drew a black Boab tree with a swirling back ground. I also drew a black Boab but I didn’t use the crackle. By the time the art class was finish it was almost dinner time. We had a lemonade at the bar then went back to the caravan for dinner.

Tess

We left Bungle Bungles caravan park in the morning, then drove to El Questro. There were quite a few river crossings that we weren’t expecting, but luckily we have an amphibious vehicle and caravan, so we made it through! When we got there, we set up the van, had lunch and then went down to the creek for a swim. The water was on the cool side, but still absolutely lovely! There were quite a number of different ‘pools’ and small ‘diagonal waterfalls’! It was lots of fun! Afterwards, we went back to the caravan and had a nice, relaxing evening. After dinner we played some Pictionary, that was lots of fun!!

Tara

We got up early ready for our 7:00 start to the tour on a 4 wheel drive buck, half truck half bus, into the Bungle Bungles in the Purnalulu National Park. We drove for 2 hours on a very bumpy road. We went through many water crossings. We finally arrived at our first walk spot. We did 2 walks. One was a short walk to see the giant dome like stones. Next was one to a big room like thing called the Cathedral with a little pool of water in the bottom. We then went to the look out. It was very nice. We had the worlds biggest wraps with ham and salad for lunch. They were very yummy. We drove for a while more on the bumpy road until we got to the next walk. It was in a big crack like thing in the ground. Some times it was narrow enough to put one hand and foot on each wall and climb! We had a long and bumpy ride home. It took mum a whole day to recover from her aches and pains. On the drive we saw a car that had been badly crashed the day before. Amazingly no body was hurt. The other thing we were told was the station next to the National park is 1.7 million acres! We had a great day.

Tess

It was only about an hour and a half’s drive today to get to the Bungle Bungles. Because we don’t have a four wheel drive we are staying at a caravan park in Mabel Downs station, just a few kilometres off the main road. This is because the road into the heart of the Bungle Bungles is extremely rough and the water crossings are numerous and plentiful. It takes two to three hours to drive the fifty three kilometres! Mabel Downs is 1.7 million acres! They graze 45,000 head of Brahman cattle! They only muster once a year, and select around 15,000 cattle to be exported live to Indonesia. They sell it to Indonesia for $2 per kg. Because Indonesia likes to fatten up the cattle themselves, the maximum weight is 250kg. We got there just before lunch time. We then just had a rather quiet afternoon. We did go for a little walk down to Spring Creek, that was nice, but not overwhelmingly so. The toilets and showers here don’t have roofs! You can sit on the toilet and look up at the stars! For dinner we cooked some chicken in the barbecue and had some salad.

Tara

We had a relaxing start to the day before driving 2 hours on the Tanami road to see the Wolfe Creek crater! The crater was made 300,000 years ago when a meteorite hit the earth and exploded. There is just the crater which is 850m across. It is the second largest in the world (the biggest is in Arizona, USA). We found it very interesting. We drove back and then just sat around the caravan park.

We had a few gates to open on the way!

Wolf Creek crater.

We saw some cattle mustering at Ruby Plains station on the way back to Halls Creek.

Tess

After a quick breakfast, we headed off to Geikie Gorge for a boat tour. Dad and Tess went down to where the tour was supposed to start and found our tour guide, Bill, asleep on the ground! But when we went back a few minutes later, at the proper starting time, he was awake. The tour took us down through Geikie Gorge. We stopped at one point where we disembarked from the boat to make billy tea. We learnt a lot about aboriginal laws, family structures, and customs. We saw a few crocodiles and two water monitors.

Geikie Gorge.

Water Monitor. They can grow up to one metre in length!

Spot the croc on the rock!

Billy tea smoke…

After the tour we drove for about four hours until we got to Halls Creek. We were planning to stay at Old Halls Creek, but when we got there it was deserted and run down, so we turned around and drove back back into Halls Creek where we ended up staying at the town caravan park. It was quite late in the afternoon by the time we got there and got set up, so we just had a relaxing evening around the caravan.
Tara

We started our drive along the dirt road. We drove for two hours on a very rough dirt road then came to a big over knee deep river crossing. We stopped and contemplated what we should do. We could try and go through and risk getting bogged or wait until another car came and went through to see how hard it is or go back all the way to Derby to get to the highway and go that way which would take a couple of days. We decided to wait a while for a car to come. We waited for half an hour and were just about to head back to Derby when we heard a car! We watched it go through, it was just a car with no caravan. They were Aboriginals and they went strait through right to one side on a angle so we think they must have done it lots of times before. We decided we couldn’t go through the crossing that way so we got in the car again just about to go back when we spotted a car and caravan coming along the road! We stopped and watched. They stopped and waded in to check just like we did. They had a 4 wheel drive but not an off road caravan. They went through with no problems so they told us to go ahead and drive through. They waited for us just in case we got stuck. We drove through and made it! Thank goodness we didn’t have to go back and take two extra days getting to Fitzroy Crossing. We arrived at our camp and went in to town to do some shopping then came back and had a swim in the pool. It was nice and refreshing.

Tess