What a surprise Kununurra and surrounds has been. We picked a great caravan park (CP) on the edge of town at the foot of the Mirima National Park (NP). One great feature of Kununurra is that due to the dams, water is never an issue. In fact we’ve been encouraged to wash our car and van to water the grass at the CP which has been fantastic for us to get rid of the red dirt from the last month in the Kimberley.
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We arrived in Wyndham on 03/07/2021 for a 5 night stay. Wyndham Caravan Park (CP) is a lovely haven: beautiful trees, beautiful grass and little dust. Yippee! And the weather is just perfect: blue skies, no humidity, little breeze, warm days (30) and cool evenings(15).
Wyndham is a very nice small town. Some facts about Wyndham: the most northerly town in WA, daily tides rise and fall up to 8.3m and one of the hottest places in Australia with an average maximum daily temperature of 36c.
We spent the 5 days visiting the various local attractions.
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El Questro Station / Resort is a destination at the end of the Gibb River Road (GRR) east of the Pentecost River (the river flooding closes the road in the wet season) and the end of the gravel (yippee!). It offers all types of accomodation/camping, walking tracks, 4WD tracks, lookouts and Croc free swimming holes. It has recently been taken over by an Australian company who are improving its battered reputation. Yes it is over priced but the facilities are good. And to be honest everything in the Kimberley is expensive. We really have enjoyed our rest here after the GRR.
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We have endured the Gibb River Road (GRR). We felt the start and end had the best sights which are accessible without having to endure the 700km of corrugations. Really pleased with how the van coped with only one puncture.
The GRR was opened to service the large cattle stations in the Kimberley and through tourism is now the access to many national parks (NP) and stations in the region from Derby to Kununurra. It is still a truly remote part of the world.
The road is mainly gravel but is gradually being tarred to allow access all year around. In the wet season the road is inaccessible in places due to flooding and destruction of the road. It has a reputation for destroying tyres (more later) and caravans but as long as you deflate tyres, drive to the conditions and keep an eye out for washaways and large stones it’s just rough (and takes lots of concentration).
We stayed at: Windjara Gorge NP, Mount Hart Wilderness Lodge, Manning Gorge NP, Drysdale River Station, Ellenbrae Station.
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Derby is in the west Kimberley region of Western Australia near the amazing Horizontal Falls. Amazing is an understatement! Due to the tidal range (11 metre), volume of water in a connected lake and only one narrow water access point, the tide rushes through the channel to create a ‘horizontal’ waterfall.
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Half way up the Dampier Peninsular from Broome is Banana Well getaway with access to Beagle Bay Creek via a bush track with a tidal range of 10mtr, crocs and bull dust everywhere.
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Broome, largest city in the far north of WA. A truely tropical location and gateway to the Kimberley region (land of Crocs and Barramundi).
A few interesting facts about Broome: Broome owes its place as a tourist destination to Lord Robert Alastair McAlpine who built (amongst other things) the Cable Beach Resort along with many other improvements; there are no traffic lights due to potential power cuts during cyclone season, instead it has hundreds of roundabouts; house roofs do not have gutters as they get destroyed by the power of the rainfall, houses do not have water tanks as there is too much dust in the air that washes into the tanks; it has the 2nd largest tidal range in the Southern Hemisphere at 10.8m; it has a population of 15,000 residents that swells to 40,000 during the high (winter) season.
We have absolutely loved our time in Broome.
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In the Pilbara region of north west Australia, Karijini NP is in the middle of Iron ore mining country with its dark red rocks, red dust, spinifex grass and a myriad of gorges. We booked 4 nights to explore the park from the “so called” Eco retreat (over priced cods wallop). Our time in Karijini was gorge(ous). Paul’s joke not mine 😄.
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A long drive day on 18/05/2021 inland towards Karijini National Park (NP) our next big destination. Before then we have a couple of stops, firstly to Cheela Plains Station for 2 nights, a working station that has diversified into a camping destination and secondly Tom Price for 2 nights to visit the big mine and stock up.
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We have loved our 5 night stay in Exmouth. Amazing diving, snorkeling and scenery. We could have stayed longer.
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