7

Kununurra

We left Katherine realising that this was the last sight of anything but 'frontier country' we would see for some time.

Our destination was Kununurra a small hamlet some 500km away. This small town was only established a few years ago to service a local dam project. To put the journey into context, there was only one small hamlet (mainly a road house) on the whole journey. We didn't count, but probably only encountered half a dozen other vehicles in the 5 hour drive.

The rest stops are well signposted but note the distance to the next one..
The wet season is just about to start and we got a taster of what it can bring	Torrential rain quickly created one to two foot floods across the road, which when hit at speed can be quite frightening
leaving the rain behind we were back in the 40c heat The baobab (boab) tree is common in arid northern Australia, especially on the Kimberley Plateau. Also known as the bottle tree, this native plant stores water in its bulbous trunk. During times of drought, Australian farmers cut up the trunks of baobabs and feed them to livestock to keep the animals from dying of thirst	Lake Argyle - Ord River Dam. A huge Lake that is some 50km long and reputedly containing enough water to fill the Sydney Harbour 20 times over. We had lunch here...it was bl**dy hot!!!

..hold it in!!!
	the dam
the Ord River which has been dammed	this was a painful photo ...hot rocks!!!

This poor little pelican was caught in the rough waters of the outlet...he eventually found calmer water
We crossed from Northern Territory to Western Australia. Due to quarantine rules we had to ditch all the fruit (which is surprisingly expensive) we had bought that morning. Bggr! (we had a time change of minus 90 minutes here)	the scenery just keeps coming
I'm having fun but I've got wet knickers (from the sweat!)
We made it!	This tiny National Park was really pretty in the afternoon sun
The sandstone is a local feature we are going to get very accustomed to	known as the 'hidden valley'
Kelly's Knob, with the vast town of Kununurra in the foreground	"It's hot and he want's us to wait for the sun to come from behind the cloud"
...it came out, and the photo was taken

more bottle trees	Day 2 in Kununurra On the way to Wyndham
The road to the Moochalabara Dam	It's difficult to describe how barren this location is
The river is low at present but salties abound!	The 'Prison Boab Tree' a bottle tree used as a prison in days past.
We are on the Gibb River Road, one of Australia's notorious bush roads
	Kairen fords a dry river (she made Laurie get out to take the photo despite the warnings of saltie crocs around)
Laurie in search of the 'perfect bottle tree'. Actually he's on the phone trying to contact Avis because we think we have a problem with the car)	the perfect bottle tree????
back on tarmac	..he's still trying to contact Avis
Five Rivers View above Wyndham