24 February 2000

Weather rainy/cloudy at Katherine this morning, so didn't bother about heli flight over Gorge. Instead, drove south west out of town around 8:30 a.m. heading for Kununurra and Wyndham.

First part of trip fairly uneventful in patchy drizzle. Then we drove into Gregory National Park. Like being in a different world. Road began winding between bluffs which soon became taller and more rugged. Then down a hill and around a bend we came upon the wide, brown expanse of the Victoria River. After driving across the bridge we arrived at the wayside inn of the same name. What a superlative spot, situated on a broad, flat expanse of land above the river bank and surrounded by tall, rugged bluffs similar to those we had just come through. And everywhere the screeching of corellas, in the trees and on the ground. After filling up with fuel and food, we moved on towards Timber Springs. Not long before we reached this roadhouse we unexpectedly came upon an amazing sight. On the grassy verge at the side of the road were two large (over a metre) silvery grey birds with red heads "displaying" (i.e., performing a ritual dance). At first we thought we were witnessing the famous "dance of the brolgas" and desperately trying to be as unobtrusive as possible we eased the car off the road, switched the engine off and coasted to a stop. But unfortunately when the birds realized our interest (and before I could grab a camera) they stopped what they were doing and slowly sauntered off into the bush. Never mind. It really was enough of a privelege to see what we had seen even without being able to photograph it. Later at the motel at Wyndham Port we were trying to confirm the species in our bird book and realized from the descriptions that what we had seen were probably not Brolgas but the much rarer Sarus Crane, a species which was only separately identified from the Brolga in 1966.

After topping up with fuel at Timber Creek we continued on towards Kununurra, crossing the border into WA at around midday (and losing another hour and a half). The border check was fairly rigorous with the guy from the WA quarantine department noting our registration number, time of entry into WA and checking the ute for prohibited foodstuffs and other items (honey, fruit, vegetables, animal skins and a number of other things). We had not come far from the border when we saw the turn-off to Lake Argyle. Rather than back track tomorrow to see it, we decided to call in on the way past. The scenery on the way in to the lake is as imposing as any we have yet seen on our travels. It consists of a large range of enormous bluffs (many of them extremely steep, or even sheer) and the road winding through right up against their bases. Unfortunately, it was drizzling or raining all the way in to the lake and therefore no good for photography. There was a lot of water lying about and the road was covered to a depth of probably a couple of feet at three creeks, and we proceeded through these very gingerly. Under the circumstances we just filled up with petrol and retraced our steps to wait for the weather (hopefully) to improve, not wanting to stay too long in case the already swollen creeks rose further and prevented us getting out.

We then moved on to Kununurra and after having some lunch there continued on to Wyndham, a further 100 kms north west. Again there were large pools of water lying all around adjacent to the road and we later learned that torrential rain had fallen at Wyndham all last night. We had a brief look around Wyndham and then moved on to Wyndham Port, where we are spending the night at the Wyndham Town Hotel. Will begin exploring tomorrow, working our way from here back down to Kununurra before moving out for Derby - 925 kms to the south east. This might be a bit ambitious and we may have to stay somewhere overnight.

Wyndham is nothing like I imagined it would be. I was expecting a reasonably sized thriving and bustling seaport on the upper reaches of the Cambridge Gulf. Instead it is a small sleepy hamlet which might well be described as "the town that time forgot". And there is this very loud and very deep croaking coming from somewhere not far away outside which has Lorraine worried because she is certain it is the mother of all cane toads.