Today dawned sunny and clear, better than yesterday which in turn had been a whole lot better than anything we had experienced for almost three weeks, ever since we had been in Katherine first time around. We had read somewhere in all the publicity that Kununurra is renowned for its clear blue skies. Today we saw those.
After breakfast we headed into town back to the
Information Centre where they are starting to recognise us as regulars, to
purchase an annual National Parks pass. We had decided that paying out for an
annual pass would be more economical that paying entry fees every time we poked
our nose into a park. Alas they did not have them to hand. When we said that we
had wanted to purchase the pass before visiting Kununurra’s own Mirama National
Park, the girl there suggested we leave the land cruiser outside the park and
walk in. We could have done so but instead chose to write a wordy note for
any vigilant park ranger and leave that on the windscreen. As it turned out
there was one vehicle leaving as we entered and no other in sight during our
time within the park boundaries.
Mirama is touted as being a mini-Bungles, for those
who can’t see the real thing, and based on the photos in the publicity, I can
support this claim. The park is quite small but spectacular none the less. The
area was declared a National Park in 1982 well before the Purnululu National
Park became a tourist destination. The 350 million year old sandstone range
with its cliffs and valleys make for attractive walks, all of which can be
taken within an hour.
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| Mirama National Park |
We wandered through the narrow canyon to the
Demboong Banan Gap through which we could see Kununurra and up the steeper well
maintained track to the Derbe-Gerring Banan Lookout from where we looked across
to Kelly’s Knob and down to the caravan park we had abandoned in Hidden Valley.
We saw a couple of antilopine wallaroos and a variety of birds and altogether
enjoyed our outing in the rugged landscape.
Back at
camp we compiled lists of camping needs for our planned trip into the real
Bungle Bungles and agreed that two or three days away in a tent seemed just as
complicated to plan as twelve days on Cape York had been. Chris discovered that
sunlight perished plastic when he removed one of the water cannisters from the
rear of the caravan for refilling. We will have to buy another tomorrow when
the town opens for business.
After
lunch we took a drive down the west bank of the Ord River to explore the
irrigated agricultural areas along Packsaddle Road. As we had discovered
yesterday in the northern area, there was little visible from the road. We saw
mango and banana plantations, a lime orchard and great fields of sandalwood. We
also noted a sign at the roadside that advertised fresh fruit sales but today was
closed. Somewhere I had read that Kununurra was just full of fresh fruit and
vegetables available for the traveller, a fact I had thought most welcome given
the strict quarantine restrictions back on the border. The reality is that the
fruit and vegetables available are only those for sale in the IGA and Coles
supermarkets at rather inflated prices; freight from Perth or Broome or
wherever makes them extra pricey.
Back at
camp with the temperatures still high, 35 degrees, 36 forecast for tomorrow, we
made our way to the swimming pool to join four others. Soon there were more and
the pool had become a social centre of trip note chat. We swapped advice about
camps and places to see and came away with enough information to make some decisions about the road ahead.
This all
brought to mind again the fact that we have not done well with our free
camping. Since we left Canberra on 2 March, we have passed a mere six nights in
free camps out of the total thirty eight days; just 16%. This has been mainly because we are wimps when it comes to bugs and humidity. Hopefully we will make amends for
this over the ensuing months.
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