Into beautiful Western Australia - 12th August - 20th August

We decided to split the 500km trip from Katherine to Kununurra into 2 days. Our first stop was still in NT at Timber Creek. Here we were very lucky to run into Judy and Dave - friends we had made in Alice Springs - and again the girls were fascinated by the 'tickle monster'. A truly beautiful couple living the dream of their son to travel around Australia. Sadly for them, their son was killed in a car accident 7 years ago, aged 23. Sadly for us, we will not see them on the rest of our trip as they are on a tighter time frame than us. A feature of where we stayed (and cheap as) was the free crocodile feeding at 5pm on the bridge of the river. All freshwater crocs, thank goodness, but still very hungry at that. Anyone could feed, but none of us were brave enough to take on the challenge. If you dropped the feeding stick, you had to retrieve it before the next feeding session.

After a good nights sleep, we were back on the road and ready for the beauty of WA. After a quarantine check on the border (lucky we were prepared and didn't have bin fulls of fresh food to throw out like the Europeans beside us!!!). We had booked into stay at Lake Argyle for 3 nights and enjoy this area near the Bungle Bungles before heading to Kununurra. The heat was stifling when we arrived and it didn't take long for us all to hit the pool. One look at the pool and I had Peter making his way back to reception to extend our stay to a week. A caravan park with an infinity pool sitting right on the edge of a cliff overlooking Lake Argyle. This was our big chance to relax, do nothing, make more friends and enjoy the views. As the days went by, Zali (who turned 4 while we were there and loves the DSi all her friends put in and gave her for her birthday!!) became a water baby. No more clinging to mum or dad, but out on her own in her float vest. Great for me as I can now sit back and continue with the reading!! The following video shows just how good my 'big' girl is getting!!

Not sure why the video sounds so windy, as it certainly wasn't at all!! Hope you enjoyed the view as much as we did!!

The first trip we did out on the lake was an afternoon sunset tour on a boat. This tour saw us venture into a very small section of the lake (which at its peak is 54 times the water capacity of Sydney Harbour). We got to see short eared rock wallabies, wallaroos, freshwater crocs (over 25 000 live in the lake), 7 of the 35 species of fish found in the lake, jabirus and pelicans. An abundance of wildlife to enjoy!! As we approached sunset, we anchored for a swim (not me, when crocs live here) and some nibblies and champagne. The sunset was just beautiful and worth the trip out on the lake.......

We also celebrated Peter's birthday while at Lake Argyle and to mark this occasion we booked sea plane flights out over the Bungle Bungles, Ord River, Lake Argyle, Argyle Diamond Mine and to see some of the remote, very remote, cattle stations which exist in outback WA. The trip started well - 15 minutes in, Zali burst into tears and needed to go to the toilet. 20 minutes in, I started vomiting. 25 minutes in, Zali joined in with the vomiting..... Peter wondered what the hell was going on!! The benefit of Zali needing an emergency toilet stop was we had to make an unscheduled landing in the Bungle Bungles. This saw the nine of us unload from the float plane with some very funny looks from the pilots of the fixed wing and helicopter aircraft. Simply, the view and the size of the Bungle Bungles is truly amazing. How nature can create such wonders is really beyond belief.

So between some sight seeing, reading, making friends (especially Mara and Steve from Kalgoorlie, who we will visit when we hit the south of the state) and enjoying each others company we loved our stay at Lake Argyle - no access to mobiles, internet and the rest of the world...... BLISS!!