It was a lively night in the bar last night. I was able to watch my beloved Blues enjoy an unexpected triumph on one of the big TV screens. I raised my arms in jubilation at the end of the game and then did a in the middle of the room and no one batted an eyelid. As we walk into breakfast this morning someones hosing out the bar. The door to the ladies toilet is front and centre. Its adorned with a colourful Sheilas sign, and theres a pair of buffalo horns mounted on the wall above it. The mens, by contrast, is down the end of a dark corridor and has a very small and respectable looking Gentlemen sign perched discretely above its entrance. Im not quite sure what message we should be taking from this.....
Today we head off for an overnight stay out at the Bungle Bungles, which are about an hours plane flight south of Kununurra, and are the main feature of the Purnululu National Park. Were joined by three other fellow expeditioners. Pat and Kathy are fellow refugees from the southern winter, from Orange in the southern highlands of New South Wales.
Yvonne is from the Gold Coast. She tells us that shes just turned 80 and is travelling around the country by herself in a caravan. Huh? What is it with these not so young women and solo travelling through the remote outback. We thought that Jane from a few of days ago was crazy enough, but this ladys twenty years older. Havent any of these people seen Wolf Creek? (For the uninitiated this was a movie based loosely on the true story of British backpackers Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio. They were attacked in their campervan in central Australia in 2001, and Falconio was dragged away never to be seen again.) Issy asks Yvonne if her children worry about her, but she says theyre mostly just jealous.
We got an email from the yesterday asking us how much we weigh. The fine print said that if we were out by more than 15% they reserved the right to kick us off the flight. We havent weighed ourselves since we left home, so I gave them our weights from then. We do however seem to have been consuming an awful lot of food while weve been away, so
hopefully theyll let us board. They seem very trusting; they dont weigh us again before we climb into our seats. I hope the plane doesnt fall out of the sky.
Our pilot Matt flies us up over the heavily irrigated Ord River valley and then on over Lake Argyle. He tells us that the dam wall was raised recently and the Lakes capacity is now more than twenty times that of Sydney Harbour. Perhaps unsurprisingly its now the countrys largest freshwater body. The site of the original Durack property (of Kings in Grass Castles fame) is under the Lake somewhere, and the buildings themselves were relocated before the dam was built. The Duracks took a couple of years to get here overland from Queensland, arriving in 1882, and were the first to establish a pastoral operation in this neck of the woods.
We pass over the Argyle diamond mine which were told only ceased operations last year. It sounds like there was a bit of subterfuge at play in the lead up to its opening. Someone was to investigate whether there was anything out here worth digging up. The list of things they were asked to
look for was apparently very specific, and included all the usual suspects - iron ore, copper, zinc, uranium, etc. Diamonds didnt rate a mention, so when they found them they didnt feel obliged to tell anyone. They then proceeded to take out a lease themselves, and spent the next several years digging up their fortune. ....well something like that.
We approach the spectacular Bungle Bungle Range - hundreds of characteristic shaped rock formations by spectacular deep gorges. It seems that the Bungle Bungles have only been discovered by the outside world relatively recently. The local indigenous folk had been living here for the best part of 20,000 years.
