Day 155. Spring Creek Rest Area (Bungle Bungles) to Kununurra

A girl can dream can't she?

 

Scarlett 'helping' me wash the car

Bugger! After yesterdays adventure into the Bungle Bungles, I woke to see the car in all its muddy glory. I normally wouldn't worry about washing it while on the road, but since there is a lot of mud under the guards, (and two mud guards were starting to fall off); I really needed to wash the beast. About 30 buckets of water (from the creek) later the job was done. The water and mud crossings also did a little damage to the drivers side front and rear fenders; so I broke out the hammer, drill and some screws and did some running repairs. All fixed now!

As the drive in was not the easiest (it made Scarlett car sick); we have decided continue our trip north a day early. We did plan on doing two days here, but in the one day we did make it into the Bungles Bungles, all our expectations were met 10 fold, and we had the most amazing experience.

It was an easy morning; cleaning, washing and trawling through the hundreds of photo's from our visit into Purnululu National Park. It was about 10am by the time we hit the road; so Scarlett settled in the back and watched a movie, and Bec read a magazine or two.

Wide load - coming through

I need to vent a little here. One thing I would like to point out is how dumb some people are with regards to rubbish disposal - and this includes grey nomads. All the rubbish bins provided at Spring Creek Rest Area were over flowing with rubbish (as they obviously hadn't been emptied in quite some time). But this didn't stop anyone from piling them beside the bin. As you can guess, the crows were having a field day as they tore open all the bags to get to the scraps inside; and it was creating an unsightly mess. Everyone could see what was happening; and instead of taking there rubbish with them (and find an empty bin along the way), they would still just dump their crap! It s a disgusting and lazy thing to do, and these beautiful rest areas are becoming a dump ground because of it. It wasn't only Spring Creek, but all the rest area's along the highway were piled with rubbish and the crows and animals had attacked every bin along the way. I was embarrassed by the mess. We finally found an empty bin about 60kms from where we had camped, and disposed of our rubbish correctly; I just wish other people were as considerate about our environment! (vent finished).



Is this the Argyle Diamond Mine?

 It was a fairly uneventful trip to Kununurra. We did notice a big mine in the distance as we drove along one section of the highway, and Bec likes to think that it was the Argyle Diamond Mine. So she asked me to stop the car so she could take a photo of it off in the distance. Its as close as Bec will probably get to Argyle Diamonds; so a girl can dream can't she? :-)

We pulled into the Doon Doon Roadhouse; where I put some diesel into the pajero (at $1.93 per litre), and Bec jumped out to get some photo's of the massive road trains up here. They are four trailers long. and there was two parked head to tail here; so Bec took the opportunity to take a photo of them parked next to our caravan. Unfortunately it was so long that you can hardly see our van, and the photo really doesn't do it justice; but you get the idea.



Now thats a road train! (and that's us parked beside it way down the back)

As we came into Kununurra this afternoon, we crossed the weir that separates the Lower Ord from the Upper Ord river. The gates were open and there was a huge amount of water being released. Bec and Scarlett kept an eye open for an 'salties', but none were seen.

We did a quick visit to the Information Centre to see what there is do do here, before heading into the Hidden Valley Caravan Park - where we have booked into. We're here a day early and the park is full, so we have been given an unpowered site for tonight, and will move into a powered site tomorrow (hopefully).