11 July 2014

As expected today was a long drive and it was quite a good one until later this afternoon when the space between the 10 kilometre distance to destination posts seemed to start getting longer and longer. The day started early due to a few early morning road trains air braking past the campground, but that was a good thing as I was able to get all packed up and be ready to hit the road just as soon as the sun was up, you don't want to be too early so as to avoid the little furry creatures on the roadside in the morning.

It was very quiet on the road and the Count just ran along happily as the temperature was a lot lower in the morning that up in Darwin. I have however worked out that the slowing starting was indeed just a reaction to the cold temperatures and it is back to starting almost instantly with warmer weather. Anyway the roads this morning were mostly like

So it was really a great run through to Victoria River 194 kilometres later. The landscape changed very dramatically as you drive along and get closer to the Roadhouse with no more of the mostly scrubby flat land along the way.

 The Roadhouse diversifies, they have campgrounds, motel units, bar, fuel, takeaways and helicopter rides along the river and terrain

 The Roadhouse

 Red escarpments everywhere, it's an amazing sight

 Looking north along the river

 The old and new bridges, guess there is much less chance of flooding with the new one, but it still goes under

I know it is tiny, but I don't have a larger lens for "just in case" pics, two RAAF jets out for a tag flight over the river.

The day progressed and slowly there were more and more Boab trees starting to appear, not huge numbers by any stretch, but nice to see some coming in even if none of them had any leaves.

 It seemed a long time before finally I reached the border between Northern Territory and Western Australia and had to go through the Quarantine inspection to ensure I was not carrying any fruit, veg or plant matter into WA, you used to do along the east coast a long time ago.

You can see the Quarantine station in the background

Once across the boarder, I have to confess I had no idea that Kunanurra was actually that close to the border, it didn't take that long to get into the town and the layout here is a little unusual as the centre is in a "U" shape and the other areas are mostly grid, so there seem to be streets going in all directions in the middle.

 Arrival

 This is one of only two Boabs I have seen that actually have leaves

 Centre of town, it sort of fans out from around the Tourist Centre (boab above in front of) and the local swimming pool and there seen to be roads and cars everywhere

More town 

So I dropped into the Tourist Centre to see what is what and if there is actually anything to see here in Kunanurra and found the location of a few things to fill the afternoon, so firstly it was off to locate the hills above the town where the lookout is to be found, and they certainly seem to like the old controlled burn here too as even the lookout, despite being all rock, had been torched to get rid of the growth up there, it was still smoking.

 Looking over the main part of town and Lily Creek Lagoon

 Looking out to the west

Next up on the list is the Ord river Diversion Dam, it is not a huge or pretty dam, but I guess it does its job nicely and makes for a flood control system  and a great fishing area area that they would not have otherwise, well to the same extent. It is interesting to drive along the road over the top as well as you can see between the "pavement" sections straight down at the dam gates. The Pelicans seem to like fishing in the flow through the sluice grate.

 Again bettered by the distance but the Pelicans are enjoying themselves

 Park at the bottom of the damn would probably find itself underwater in the wet season

Oh and tonight I am going flash this is the digs, for the night, it has a bed and kitchen and it's own bathroom and the Count even gets it's own parking spot.

 I have another day here tomorrow, which may be a hard thing to fill in as most of the Heli tours require at least two people and they are really expensive as well, so I will have a look about and see what there is to do otherwise. I have to do and oil change at some stage as well, so there should be plenty to do...