Timber Creek - Kununurra
NT/WA

We're in WA! We arrived in Kununurra this morning having stayed put at our Big Horse camp for 6 days, not doing very much.

James has been a bit off colour but he seems ok now.  Probably a crook gut from too much people food – left overs, fat off lamb chops etc. We'll limit his diet to dog food in future. He is pretty skittish though. I’m guessing it’s just a matter of time till he adjusts to the constantly changing environment, my paranoia about ticks, roos and snakes, and the heat, which does knock him around a bit, but it does us as well. A couple of days back we gave him his first bath since leaving and he didn't mind me pouring cool water over his head at all, and yesterday I gave him a haircut with which I was pretty impressed.

We threw a few lures in from the bank by the boat ramp (very high on the bank I must point out!) most days but with no luck, and Friday we put the tinnie on the river.

That was scary! The trailer system  which has the wheels actually attached to the boat unfortunately means spending quite a lot of time in knee-deep water at the bottom of the ramp while removing them for launch, and then even more time and at greater depth to re-attach for retrieval. Boy, were our eyes peeled for crocs!

On the river however, it was beautiful. We headed upstream for a while and tried a few different lures trolling, then back to a couple of spots where creeks ran into the river to throw a few lines - but sadly our efforts were to no avail. Not even a look or a touch.

We only saw one little croc - but they are there alright. Our camp neighbours said they had seen a bird dive to the water to grab a lure a few days earlier (at the boat ramp mind you) and it had become entangled in the line. A few moments later a croc casually swam up and with one chomp the bird was gone and the croc disappeared.

Back at camp after we eventually got the tinnie out of the water Brian had a calming beer and decided he wasn't ever going to play in croc-infested waters again... and spent the rest of the afternoon de-rigging the tinnie. It's now back on top of the car and will probably stay there until we get to a crocodile-free area or he acquires a portable boat trailer.

Each morning (and sometimes evening) while at Big Horse we drove about five km back toward town to go up the escarpment that overlooks the settlement  and river so we could get phone/internet coverage for Brian to continue working. The views are stunning – escarpments everywhere with a great big river flowing off toward the sea.

One morning we went out to the Gregory Tree. The turnoff the highway is about five km west of Big Horse camp and three km along a dirt road toward the river. On this historic site stands a large Boab tree. In 1856 Gregory and his explorer mates arrived and put some graffiti on it. I don’t think the locals at the time would have been too happy as it's also apparently a sacred aboriginal site.

The abundant Boabs in the area are beautiful. There are also lots of kites and sea eagles souring above (usually checking out James), pretty kingfishers, parrots, kangaroos and a couple of snakes that we have come across.

Saturday we tried out the new washing machine (plastic tub thing with counter-rotating discs in the bottom which we purchased at the Caravan Show last year). That was actually fun. It first blew a fuse in the van when I tried to run it through the inverter. Fuse replaced we put the generator on and it worked for about 20 minutes pretty well before overheating, so we’ll need to run it for 10 minutes or so then let it rest. We used the limited water on tap in the park as well as some rain water we collected the night before. It’s a two-man job but cheaper and more interesting than putting coins in the slot and hanging around for ages at a caravan park.

Last night we took drinks up to the lookout on the escarpment to watch the sunset. Stunning!

And this morning I did some sunrise shots from the boat ramp. That was also amazing.

We spoke to Blackie yesterday and the river was still rising at Daly which means there's no point in considering going there for the moment. The maps and books came out again and we decided to keep heading west about 270 km to Kununurra and the Kimberley where it is dry and we have lots of touring, camping, fishing, boating and sightseeing options. We can also consider whether we’ll venture a few km’s down the Gibb River Road to go to Emma Gorge and El Questro Station.

Two or three weeks here will give the Daly time to recede before we head back to the east - or - maybe we'll just stay here a month or two. Who knows?

As a PS to my last posted blog, we discovered Brian's IPod also went walkabout. Double bugger!