Kununurra Day 1

Josh was up very early, well it was one and a half hours later to his body but we still had a slow morning before getting everyone motivated and in the car to head for Wyndham, Western Australia’s most northern town.

We are now travelling on the edge of the Kimberley’s, a place I want to spend some time in the future. It is really a place that requires a four wheel drive, preferably someone else’s, and a tent or off road camper trailer to really get the best view. We did get a bit of a taste of the area in what we could see, only making me more determined to return.

Along the way we pulled in at “The Grotto” where we had to walk down 140 steps to the bottom where there was a waterhole that was also the site of a waterfall in the wet season. After sitting and enjoying the scenery for a while, it was time for the climb out and time to be on our way.





On arriving it Wyndham, we quickly realised that there was very little to this town and our choice of a chip sandwich for lunch was most probably not going to be a good one.

We drove to the top of the Bastion Range to lookout over the Cambridge Gulf, a place where five rivers drained. This provided a great view of the surrounding area, although a little hazy because of the many burn offs that were happening around the countryside. It was then back into town, if you can call it that.



There was nowhere to buy those chips and so we ended up at a bakery that was quickly running out of pies, and had every cake that contained cream for sale. Was not what we expected or wanted for lunch but was not to bad as an alternative.

Went into a general store and started talking to the owner, who said that Wyndham was again a growing area and a place where there was plenty of money being made. The problem was that little or no investment was being made by the owners and so things were looking run down. Left with little enthusiasm to return to this place but not disappointed we had been there.

On the way back, we turned onto the start of the famous Gibb River Road and travelled along the first five to ten kilometres of it. It is very corrugated and rough but still one of the roads that I want to travel from end to end one day. I can only dream of it now. After this short experience, the main road appeared to be very smooth.

Before we arrived in Kununurra, we took a turn off to what was advertised as a swimming hole but turned out to be a waste of time. We go to the first spring which was little more than a big puddle on the side of the road, the next one even worse and so we headed back for the comfort of the caravan park swimming pool.