​Kununurra 7 - 13 July 2017

Some of the extensive cropping under irrigation. In the 'foreground' are mango trees and top left are Indian Sandalwood.

 Kununurra is an amazing place! I didn't know what to expect and was pleasantly surprised. It sits within an enormous irrigation region fed by the massive Ord River which was dammed in the 60s to control the flow of water and supply a growing agricultural industry.

The Ord River at Ivanhoe crossing. The crossing is still closed a few months into the dry season inspite of there being 2 dams upstream. Amazing volume of water.

Cotton cropping failed due to a number of factors as did sugar cane - except for the Kimberley specialty rum they make out of a small dedicated crop. Currently they are successfully growing a range of fruits, vegetables including a number of legumes, and chia the production of which is huge supplying much of the world. The big money spinner however is Indian Sandalwood mainly for its oil extracted for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. It's a fragrant area. Diamond mining is still enormously productive including the spectacular pink.
And of course tourism is its other major industry and wow! was the place jumping. Lines of caravans queueing up every morning to get a spot in one of the 6-7 parks. And try to get a haircut - you had to book a week in advance, and they have 4-5 hairdressers!

Our caravan park by Lake Kununurra. More about the flight later.

We were camped beside Lake Kununurra so we took a sunset BBQ cruise of course! The lake is part of the Ord river which incidentally has hundreds of crocs of both kinds. They reckon 1 every 10m; we didn't count and didn't go in the water!

Specialty rum made with locally grown sugar cane.

Very special!!

Wyndham is only about 100k west of Kununurra so we scooted up there for a look at what is the oldest town in the Kimberley. It is located near the junction of 5 rivers which flow into the Cambridge Gulf. It was established as a meat export point for the burgeoning cattle industry back in the late 1800s.

Young boabs embracing! I just had to include these sweethearts photographed along the road to Wyndham. The number and variety in the size and shape of these strange trees is astonishing. And the age of some must be at least hundreds of years old.

The port of Wyndham beside the confluence of rivers.

This is a rock 'shop' where I spent a fascinating half hour or more learning about Zebra rock, a distinctive banded rock found in the East Kimberley near Lake Argyle. Outside there were huge chunks of rock, cutting machines and all kinds of rock mining paraphernalia. It was intriguing and I wished that we could have gone prospecting down by the lake.

Two special places near Kununurra are the Bungle Bungles and Lake Argyle but more of that later.

And as the sun slide into the lake, we headed back to camp after a BBQ cruise on Lake Kununurra.