Kununurra to Yulara

It has been a while since I last sat down to bring this blog up to date. We have been on the move quite a bit and those who are 'friends' on Facebook know exactly where we have been.
For those people who are not on FB, I'm not sure where to begin.  We left Kununurra and headed back to Katherine for an overnighter. From there we wended our way down to Tennant Creek, again for another overnighter and a big catch up with Eric and Ann Porter.
From Tennant Creek we then spent a few days in Alice Springs.  The usually beautiful sunny days did really not eventuate, the days were quite chilly and the nights went down to freezing or a bit below. We did manage to get out to Standley Chasm yet again and this time chose to follow part of the Larapinta Trail straight up from the valley floor to a lookout way above the chasm.  Thats was one hell of a walk and we were quite proud of ourselves for having done it.
Once again we visited Simpsons Gap, no mega effort to see that place, just out of the car and walk straight in. Instead of visiting Trephina Gorge again we took a very rugged track into the wilds to a place called John Hayes Rockholes, a really beautiful little billabong out in the middle of nowhere - we considered it to be a great find and not a place regularly visited by the hoardes and masses.
After Alice Springs we went bush for a couple of days to Chambers Pillar.  It is located south east of Alice along about 150 km of severely rugged, corrugated road.  But well worth the shaking.  We spent two beautiful days bush camping - no power, no water. Surprisingly it was quite warm, far nicer than Alice Springs. Very few, but the brave, go to Chambers Pillar so each night there were usually only four or five other vehicles at the camp site.
Of course we were faced with a further 150 km rugged, corrugated road getting back to the Stuart Highway to continue our travels.  We are now based at Yulara and from here we visited Uluru the day before yesterday and did the base walk around the rock.  In total that walk was about 12 km but the day was not too hot and we took our time and really enjoyed the walk.  Mike has now done it 4 times and yours truly 3 times now. I don't think I will ever get sick of doing it, Uluru is an amazing place.
Yesterday we headed out to Kata-Tjulka (The Olgas) and did the circuit walk of the Valley of the Winds.  Last time we were here the track was closed but yesterday it was open.  It took about 4.5 hours to walk about 10 km as there is a fair bit of walking up very steep rock walls. This is one of the most beautiful walks I have ever done in the NT and thoroughly recommend it to anyone coming up here.
Tonight we are off to see the Field of Light which is a huge art installation that will be here until April 2017. At night something like 50,000 led coloured lights come on and light one of the valley floors.  We are really looking forward to seeing it.Until today, the weather here has been great with temps in the high 20's and the nights about 8 degrees.  But today is cold and the sky is grey so we will be rugged up for the light show.
Tomorrow we are off again, firstly to Kings Canyon for 3 nights, then we head down towards Coober Pedy, over then to Lake Eyre, Broken Hill, Narromine and home.
For info on Chambers Pillar and the Field of Light Google have heaps of info.
All the photos have been updated, so if you click on the first small image it will take you through to the library.
Till next time.

Lake Argyle, El Questro & Kununurra

Finally a chance to update our blog after almost 10 days away from civilisation. No power, no water and more importantly no internet or mobile phone. Bliss.

After leaving Katherine we headed west and crossed the border into WA and dropped off at Lake Argyle for a couple of nights. Lake Argyle is the largest man made fresh water lake in Australia and is the hub of the mighty Ord River Scheme. It is a spectacular lake which disappears into the distance when looking at it from on high. On a previous visit we did take a cruise on the lake for a few hours and it is just wonderful, we did not do the cruise again this trip as there were a few other things we wanted to do in the area. We have also done the boat ride from Kununurra up to the dam wall of Lake Argyle.

The Lake Argyle Resort where we stayed has the most glorious infinity pool which seems to just hang out over the lake and is a favourite place for all visitors. But, we were not there to relax in the pool, so we hoofed it out on a 5 km walk up over the hills to look out over the lake for a different perspective and to look back on the resort. It was a beautiful walk through the red cliffs and valleys of the Kimberley. There is just so much colour up here, the reds of the cliffs, the blue of the sky is intense and the green of the vegetation makes for a wonderful vista.

We visited the Durack homestead which was originally sited a few kilometers away but would now be well under water. The homestead is a great visitor draw card as the Durack family back in the 1850's were about the first people to develop the cattle industry in the area. It took 2 years for them to drove the cattle from the Roper River in Queensland over to the Kimberley, they lost half their stock and quite a few drovers along the way. Times were tough in those days. The homestead is now a museum and has many photos of the Duracks and Argyle Station dating back to the 1800's. Very interesting.

From Lake Argyle we did the short hop up the road, through Kununurra and on to El Questro, one of my favourite places in the whole of this country. I'd love to say we stayed at The Homestead at $2000.00 per night, but we did not. We left that for the celebrities. Instead we had our own private campsite situated on the Pentecost River, at least 500 meters from the road and about the same distance from our nearest neighbours.

At night we had a campfire going and we would sit and stargaze, at one stage we tried our hand at astrophotography but I think we need to work on it a bit more!! On a previous visit we did the popular gorges, Emma and Amalia Gorges and Zebedee Springs. This time we did a few different things. We drove up to Saddleback Ridge along a torturous track that made us almost wish we could be back on the corrugated roads again. But the views from the top were to die for. As far as the eye can see there is just a vast expanse of rugged valleys and steep escarpments and rivers. Being the gluttons for punishment we also drove an equally rough track up to Pigeonhole for more spectacular views.

Yes, we managed a walk. This time the 6 km loop walk through Moonshine Gorge. This was a bit of a hike which started out quite beautifully following a creek up into the gorge, then it became a bit fierce as there were 6 creek crossings, quite a bit of scaling rocks and quite a hard slog up to the saddle of the gorge before making the descent back into the valley again. But we little troopers survived and headed straight for the ElQ pub for a celebratory beer.

We did another couple of short walks and also did the Chamberlain River cruise through the gorge but generally just sat around and enjoyed the isolation and lack of TV, internet and mobile phones.

So now we are in Kununurra again. And after the delightful solitude we had experienced we are now back with neighbours again, we can handle that (just), but the Kununurra Show is on and it is on right next to where we are staying. The noise is incredible as the music blares until 11 pm and the fireworks display is just deafening. We could not have chosen a worse place or time to stay in what is usually a lovely town.

Tomorrow we commence the homeward trip south. Tomorrow night Katherine (yet again) then probably Threeways for a night. We hope to have four or five nights at Alice Springs then a couple of nights at Chambers Pillar, but I will update that info when we get to Alice Springs.

Sadly we will be leaving this glorious weather behind. The days have been mostly in the mid 30's and the nights plummet down to about 20. Alice Springs will be very different, warm in the day and absolutely freezing at night.

The things we do.