We packed up and farewelled
Timber Creek this morning, bound for a place that Josh and I were highly
anticipating – Lake Argyle. This is the
world’s 8th largest man-made lake and is Australia’s largest fresh
water lake. It spans approx. 1,000 square
kilometres and holds about 80 times the water of Sydney Harbour. Calling it huge is a massive
understatement. We checked into a
powered site at Lake Argyle Caravan Park and realised that we didn’t have any
phone or internet reception here – bliss.
After setting up, we wandered over to the stunning infinite pool which
overlooks the lake. It is amazing that
we are looking at such a large expanse of water but in fact can only see 1% of
the lake’s water! On our way back from
the pool, we stopped to kick the footy around in the park. There was a little boy and his baby sister
who were keen to join us so we began to play with them while their folks set up
their camper trailer. Once their camp
was set up, we introduced ourselves to the Garland family. Roy and Georgie and their lovely children
Finn and Matilda (Tilly) were on an adventure of their own from country NSW
across to Broome. We were having a great
time having a few drinks, and a few more before deciding that we should head to
our van and get some dinner underway.
The kids were warm and at home in the van while us adults were enjoying
some music outdoors – that was before “old mate” walked by and told us to turn
it down, and it was only 7.45pm. We’d
had quite a few drinks by this time and the party was rocking…. however, by
around 9pm Josh had kicked the kids out of his bed, had a quick shower and gone
to bed, snoring loud enough for the rest of us outside to hear. Tilly was already in bed by this stage and
Georgie went to take Finn to bed not long after Josh – but she never
returned. Roy and I sat up enjoying a
few rums by this stage and I have no idea what time it was that he ventured off
around the caravan park looking for his campsite. I think it was just after midnight that I
woke from my reclining chair outside and found my own way into bed for the
night.
The following day none of us were
feeling too good – and unfortunately it wasn’t the best way for Georgie to feel
on her birthday. Most of us spent all
morning in bed trying to sleep it off, not that it helped that much, and in the
afternoon we made our way over to the pool hoping that the swim would give us a
much needed kick-start to feeling well.
Around 2pm we boarded a bus to do a tour on Lake Argyle. The boat was lovely and comfy and it was
still warm and sunny – Georgie’s birthday had started to improve. As part of the tour we saw the north, east
and west of the lake, we were taken to crocodile bay and the bay of islands to
name a few places. It was amazing to say
the least! Just before the sun set, the
boat was parked and we had the opportunity to swim in the lake. Sure enough Josh was again first to strip
off, climb the ladder onto the roof of the boat and jump on into the mighty
large expanse of water – and the girls
and Roy were right behind him. After
taking a few photos, I climbed the ladder too and hesitated for a while before
taking my leap of faith. The water of
the lake was so much warmer than the infinite pool back at the van park! I grabbed a noodle to float about in the
lake, whilst drinking my wine and watching the sun go down – it doesn’t get
much better than that!! When we arrived
back at the van park, we got cleaned up, had a quick dinner and met the others
over at the beer garden to enjoy a few drinks for Georgie’s birthday before
retreating for a relatively early night back in our snug beds.
The next day, Sunday, we had it
planned to take the boat out on the Ord River – so the other side of the dam
wall. There was the us, the Garland
family and another family that the Garland’s met in Darwin, including Daniel,
Bianca, Hayden & Brock. The three
families took off to the end of the road park located across the dam wall and
on the Ord River just near the boat ramp.
We had a fantastic day, taking it in turns up and down the river on the
boat and kicking the footy around in the park for most of the day – throw in a
few drinks, a bit of food & great company and we had an awesome day in the
sun. Tonight was just a couple more
quiet drinks – as our new-found friends were leaving for the Gibb River Road
tomorrow.
Monday morning rolled around and
we said our farewells to the others. It
would have been lovely to spend more time with them all but hopefully we will
catch up again soon out on the road. We
decided to head into Kununurra ourselves today as we were extremely low on
supplies and knew there was a Coles in town.
Upon arriving we saw that there was a Target, and as we hadn’t seen any
department stores for a while, the kids and I spent about an hour and a half
looking around – while Josh went elsewhere.
We wandered into the very small shopping complex had a small snack and
decided that we would wait until later in the afternoon to grab our groceries. Instead, we drove out of the centre of town
to a nice park to make ourselves some lunch and catch up on some phone
calls. Whilst there, one of the calls we
made was to Dad, so at the same time, we organised his flights to meet up with
us in Broome in a few weeks time. This
after we checked out a few other stores like Betta Electrical, Retravision, a
toy store and a couple of other variety stores before finding our way into the
Visitor Information Centre and then off to Coles for the groceries. As we were trying to squash everything into
the car to take back with us, we had a chat with an aboriginal woman wanting
some assistance to call a cab – and of course Josh was obliging. It was early evening as we were driving the
hour back to Lake Argyle and in doing so we had the most beautiful orange sky
with a full moon in the distance – just stunning!
Tuesday morning, now that we had
some supplies, the kids got pancakes with strawberries and chocolate syrup for
breakfast – yummo! Late morning, we had
planned to do some school work but instead ventured down the road to the Argyle
Downs Homestead Museum. It is the
original Durack family home built back in 1894.
However, in around 1972 when Lake Argyle was being dammed, it was
decided not carefully pull this home down brick by brick so that it wasn’t left
at the bottom of the Lake once filled.
They rebuilt this home with attention to detail, and using the exact
materials, high up on this mountain (on the road in to Lake Argyle Caravan
Park) and turn it into a museum as a memorial and vision to the families who
first settled the vast Kimberley region.
As well as viewing this home in its near original state, there is also a
lot of information about the Durack family – interesting to say the least. They even went so far as retrieving the
family’s headstones and relocating them to this museum instead of allowing them
to sink deep within the lake once it was filled. Upon leaving the homestead, we made a turn
off the main road into the bush to where a spillway is and found beautiful
remote land with a small amount of water below.
Fortunately, we were fairly high up, as below in the water was a good
sized crocodile – only a freshie though, nothing to concern us but great to see
it moving so gracefully in the water without a worry in the world! This afternoon, we again forewent the
schoolwork and went for another dip in the infinite pool whilst we still had
the chance.
You may have noticed that it’s
been a while since any school work has been done – well Wednesday and Thursday
we made the most of our free time by drilling the kids into some of this – and
it was about time. I can’t confirm that
it was done with the most effort (as we still had swimming to do) but majority
of it was done. What didn’t get done, we
sent back that way – unfinished! We had
better things to do and, as it was mostly music work that wasn’t finished, we
figured it wasn’t much to worry about.
However, in saying that, Zoe and I had a lot of fun learning a cup song
from a movie that we’d watched. OK – it
wasn’t what school had asked – but we learnt some rhythm and coordination
whilst learning it anyway. Sami didn’t
join in with us but she’s been singing quite a lot in the van lately (I wish I
had earplugs) so I’m sure it counts for something – maybe? The State of Origin was on tonight so after
dinner we went to reception to watch the game (finally got to watch tv for an
hour or two). What a game! NSW was flogged – and boy did they deserve to
be. They played terrible. After the schoolwork on Thursday, we found
another lookout – this time the position was given to us by a couple that we
met in the pool who are working at Lake Argyle Van Park for the season – so
people in the know. It is one of the few
vantage points that you can get from the land.
It was a great view but I think the best way to see a lot of the lake
all at once could only be by air. If
you’re viewing the lake by land or water, and you look out at the horizon for
as far as the eye can see, all you can still see is the water… it’s impossible
to see the entire lake from these points due to its size.
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