Monday, 12 July: We wanted to go north to warm up, so we went north - and it warmed up! 95 F for the last 4 hours on the road today. We are in The Kimberly - more of a savanna grassland than the Pilbara, with taller, but still thin trees spaced more widely apart. To the west of us are beautiful deep gorges, behind us (we are in Kununurra - pronounced can-na-NAIR-a)are a collection of amazing rocks at the Bungle Bungles. Unfortunately, most spectacular things are 20 to 80 km off the bitumen. The best way to really visit this spectacular west coast is with a 4-wheel drive pulling a caravan (trailer), so you can head out into the boonies, and explore to your hearts content. Only problem is that it might take years...
Last night at Fitzroy Crossing we had dinner with another Ray, this one a retired Aussie Navy man, his wife Jo, and son Tom who works at the Crossing Inn - the oldest pub in WA, by the way. Wonderful people. Besides trading innumerable sea stories, we solved all the worlds problems. Ray was up to see us off this morning. Many good people out on the road, most of whom seem to be delighted to spend hours entertaining total strangers. (They think I talk funny)
We were stopped on the road today for about 1/4 hour as stockmen were mustering a very large herd of cattle from one place to another. It was a HUGE herd, running four abreast, over 4 km long, sometimes on both sides of the Great Northern Highway. To control the herd they had two men on horseback in the bush, two helicopters in the air, and a man in a ute (pickup truck) on the road. Sorry I don't have pictures of the herd, but there was really no place to safely pull off the road, and we were in a convoy of vehicles.
Kununurra is situated on the Ord River Project, a water control system with a large dam, and a massive lake behind it. It seems to be a very prosperous town, and it is nice to be back where there is water - not too much available where we were for the last 2 days.
On to Katherine tomorrow, then a day exploring Katherine Gorge before arriving to vist Sue's cousin Gaye in Darwin.