We rocked up to a camp site halfway between Halls Creek and Kununarra just as it was getting dark, pitched the tent (Matt slept in his car alone, for various reasons.. one of which is a hilarious/creepy story) and started cooking our dinner of burgers and salad. After dinner we started to hear these really deep grunts coming from the darkness, they sounded really close and a bit aggressive. Matt and I knew that there could be wild boar in the area so obviously we went to investigate with our flash lights at the ready. We hunted the noise down for a few minutes (sidebar: we found a drunk guy passed out in a chair outside his car, that was pretty funny) then we finally discovered the source of the noise. It was just a cow wandering around grunting and eating grass, not as exciting as a wild boar but it was a fun adventure for the first night. Throughout the hunt we kept discussing our escape routes, and how fast we thought we could kick off our flip flops and bolt back towards the car.
I don't think I've ever sweat as much as I did that night (even up until now), I thought it was bad at night... then the sun decided to come up and turn the tent into an oven. I had to retreat to a nearby bench at around 5am (much to the chagrin of Berry, as there is no way to get out of a tent without waking the other person up), an hour or two later the other two woke up and we got started on breakfast. We had beans on toast then left for Kununarra, which is the boarder town between Western Australia and Northern Territory.
As we were driving along we saw a few bats fly across the road and into a tree, we thought hmm that's cool, then we looked into the tree and it was inundated with bats.. along with the three other trees around it. So we had to screech (haha..get it..bats...screech) to a halt and whip out the cameras to take pictures and videos, it was so loud and there was a strange smell coming from the trees, which I assumed was the bat poo (just found out guano is only the name for poop from cave dwelling bats, seals and sea birds).
The scenery on the way to Kununarra was absolutely amazing, seeing the change in scenery between Geraldton and now this was crazy. It went from completely flat, dusty desert, and wild flowers to large hills, trees and greenery everywhere. This region is known as the Kimberley Region and it's know for the mountains and being very beautiful, and it sure was. (Sidebar: en route we were seeing a lot of, what looked to be, random pedestrian crossing signs. But then I realised they are probably Aboriginal tracks that crazy white people put a road through)
Our plan was to go to El Questro Gorge, but unfortunately it closed the week before we arrived. The National Park was still very beautiful to drive around in though so that was ok, and we also saw some dingo pups and probably the mother chowing on a dead cow which was cool. Oh wait... did I forget to mention Matt's air con was broken in his car...and it was getting hotter by the kilometre..oh..well I mentioned it now. It's also hot ALL the time when you get closer to the north and staying along the coast, so swimming is a must. However, the further north you go, the more dangerous things are in the water..like jellyfish and salt water crocs, so swimming areas are scarce. Just outside of Kununarra town centre was a swimming area so we jumped on that opportunity to cool off. There we found a cool tree sticking out the water with a rope swing, and some local kid was doing back flips off the top like a BAWSE, so that was pretty sweet.
Later we arrived at the Lake Argyle caravan park which had a wicked infinity pool, so it looked like the pool was running off into the lake. It was really an amazing view, so Matt and I decided to do flips off the edge of the pool to celebrate the awesomeness. I probably could have stayed there for a week or so, just meeting the people that came through and talking to the caravaners, very nice place. We spent most of our time there in the pool, we did go down to some look outs to see the lake from a different angel but it looked the best from the pool.
We left for Katherine (first "major town" LOL in Norther Territory) in the afternoon the next day. As we were leaving we saw a bush fire on the top of a mountain that we were told was caused by a lightning strike the previous night, pretty cool. The next cool thing we saw was two wedge tail eagles eating a freshly dead wallaby in the middle of the road. Now normally when you approach birds on the road they fly away, even if they are eating, they just fly away and come back and continue. But these two MASSIVE eagles didn't want to give up this meal, so as we approached them they just stood their ground and opened up their wings...and I'm no animal specialist but I'm pretty sure they were giving us the "What the eff are you looking at?!" face.. so we just slowed right down and had to drive around them as they continued their feast. I couldn't believe they were going to fight the car, badass. That night we just camped at a random camp spot, again it was blazing hot but I was getting more used to it by now.
On the NT in the morning! Thanks for the great time WA, it was a blast but I'm glad to see the back of you, gotta see the rest of this vast and beautiful land~
Peace & Love
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