12 July 2014

Today was a very laid back day with not a great deal done to be honest. I got moving reasonably early though it took me a while to find somewhere quiet to actually do the oil change as it was well due for it after about 11000 kilometres. It should have been an easy job and only taken about half and hour at the most but unfortunately the oil filter wrench just would not have a bar of undoing the filter from the spin on fitting. It took me a while to get something to happen though finally got it to move and was able to get it out and the new one fitted, so problem sorted and new oil done. I had to go across town (which takes minutes) to get to the land fill site to dispose of the old stuff and as such I was already 5 kilometres outside of the town so when I got back to the highway I decided to go the rest of the distance out to Lake Argyle for a look.

It is a 70 kilometre drive out there so it is a fair drive just for a look when you're doing it at 80 per hour, but have to say that the drive is certainly worth it, well once you turn off highway, the landscape is great and looks amazing and the lake is huge, really it is just massive.

 The road out is a great drive through some amazing scenery

 The roads are mostly straight until you start going through the hills.

 The landscape is huge, look at the size of the Count lost in it.

 Almost like a painting, you can see the lake in the distance.

Lake Argyle is Australia's largest artificial lake and can be clearly seen from space (so the tourist info says), it was completed in 1971 and the dam wall was raised by a further 6 metres in 1996. The area seems very popular with the grey nomad set (even though they actually have to pay to stay here) and with the boaters as well. During the construction they had realised that a substantial part of the property that the lake is named after was going to be underwater and so they decided to dismantle the buildings and move them to another area for historical purposes. Unfortunately they miss timed the removal and the filling of the lake, they thought it would take 5 years to fill and just to surprise them it actually filled in just two years (some substantial wet seasons indeed!) and the buildings that were left unfortunately went underwater. They took quite some years to get the funding to reconstruct the the homestead on higher ground in the hills above the new lake.

The original relocated Argyle homestead of the Durant family

 The lake stretches a substantial distance.

The earth fill only dam wall is 335 metres long.

After that it was back to town to have a look for the "City of Ruins" rock formations that are supposed to be 4 kilometres out of town to the north east, so it should have been a quick drive, though I should have realised something was amiss when I went past this sign on the road they are supposed to be beside

The sign clearly mentions the Hoochery which is on the same road but about 12 kilometres out of town, the Hoochery of course is a distillery and is Western Australia's oldest legal still, but there was no sign of the "City of Ruins" anywhere. If there are supposed to be an attraction you would think they would make something more of them, but I think I may have caught sight of the City on the way back into town though it was hard to tell from the length of the undergrowth, there was certainly no signs visible at all, so maybe it is the "Lost City of Ruins" now. I then went into town and took a couple of pictures of what could be the main street, the layout here makes it difficult to tell really and of the lagoon, which connects to Lake Kununurra, which connects to Lake Argyle, so shouldn't they all be Lake Argyle then?

 Turning into Messmate Way from the highway gets you directly to the town centre.

 Messmate Way into the town centre.

 Lilly Creek Lagoon looking along the highway to the west.

Lilly Creek Lagoon.

Tomorrow is back into the Count and driving west, heading for Derby and Broome, though will probably have to stop around Fitzroy Crossing, if not before...