Day 11 - Kununurra to Larrawa Station
There's not much between Kununurra and Broome, so its going to be a couple long hot days to skirt around the Kimberley's and get to Broome. First, a bit more exploration of Kununurra.
Quick Stats
- 5 hours on bike
- 537 km
- 4591 km total
Not in any rush to leave Kununurra, I awake with the sun at 5.45 am (WST, pesky timezones again) and go for a walk through Celebrity Tree Park.
I almost convince myself I could live here, then I remember its 6.45 am, already 24°C and the middle of 'winter'.
Kununurra was established to service the Ord River Irrigation Scheme in the 1960's. A whacky idea to stop the wet/dry season impacts on farming by damming the Ord River at both the main dam (the road out of town) and the diversion dam. Robert Menzies in 1963 (then PM) said Kununurra was the most exciting place in Australia.
I'm constantly amazed the endeavors undertaken to bend nature to suit humans over the last two hundred years of European colonisation. I've only got to look at what I saw yesterday to understand just how uninhabitable this region should be.
Anyway the dams, along with allowing a bunch of agriculture before though impossible, resulted in the nearby wetlands being converted into a lovely permanent lagoon.
Lake Kununurra
A coffee at the waterfront cafe in the caravan park and I go wandering through the Celebrity Tree Park. Plethora of birdlife including an elusive Western Bowerbird nest (they collect white instead of blue over here?).
The Park itself was established as a means to bring celebrities to Kununurra. Each one would get its own tree planted. I found a few Australian authors and TV personalities, but it seems they haven't had much international success.
Naturally the boabs are the tree of choice around here. Apparently their biggest predator is lightning, scientists think the ones that avoid that fate can be over a thousand years old, but being soft fibrous wood they have no rings to count.
A second coffee and a brekky wrap and I should probably get going. I pack up and head into town to get some supplies. The township is a far cry from the resort-like waterfront, with shuttered and abandoned businesses (including banks and ATMs - thanks NAB...).
On the way out of town I make one more diversion to Ivanhoe Crossing. The back way out of town.
Looks like a nice spot for a dip, but we're in croc country and the pools belong to them.
Oh well, time to depart. We've got a bit more of the Kimberley's to see on the way out of town and then not much else. Within 5 minutes of leaving town I'm dreaming of those 130 km/h speed limits of the NT.
Couple hours down the road I hit Warmun Roadhouse. About as upmarket as every other roadhouse out here, but took the cake for the most expensive fuel so far - $2.60/litre for 91ULP. Diesel was $2.90. Thank you CP3 for only using 4.5L/100km (although it'd be nice if you could do that happily on 91 and not 95).
Bit further down the road I get to Halls Creek. Not wanting to risk staying here, nor at Fitzroy Crossing, I grab a bit more fuel ($2.55 for 95, bargain) and continue on for a cattle station.
Larriwa Station lies in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Crown land sold to some bloke in the 80s crazy enough to run cattle out this way, it sits on the bank of the mostly dry Christmas Creek.
They've got a good bore though, excellent hot showers, and only charge me 15 bucks for that and a green bit of grass to camp on. It'll do. "Nice and safe", all the Grey Nomads keep saying.
Minimal phone coverage tonight, will have to upload this tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm heading to Broome, although some other bike tourers warn me I'll get some sticker shock on the accommodation costs.