Day 25 – Katherine to Lake Argyle

We left the lovely caravan park in Katherine around 8am this morning, and headed along west along the Victoria Highway, Kimberley country bound. Not far down the road the landscape started to change dramatically. Gone were all the beautiful white gums, and tall termite mounds, and in their place gently rolling hills, dramatic red escarpments, and huge flowing rivers. The ground seem to turn into red sand before our very eyes, and the green of the tree leaves against the rocky red hills was stunning.

 

We stopped briefly at the prettily located Victoria Creek Roadhouse, situated on the huge Victoria River. Beautifully situated against the red, rocky escarpment, it would make a nice stopover in the caravan park attached.

Our morning tea stop was at the Timber Creek Roadhouse. A place I was interested to see again, as last time around, we stayed in the caravan park attached to the roadhouse, and we distinctly remember how awful it was, and the noise and stench of bats in the trees was horrible, and kept us awake all night. Well, it hadn’t changed much, and still looked as rough as ever. There were notices pinned to the front of the roadhouse advertising for a male security patrol officer, and warning people that as the last one had left, there were currently no security patrols of the area – most comforting.

 

We didn’t have to drive far before we started seeing the amazing, strangely shaped, white Boab trees. Now we really feel like we are in Kimberley country. These stunning trees have huge circumferences around their middle only, with strange small branches sticking out their top. They have always held a strange fascination for me, and I was pleased to see them again.

 

Before long we were lined up and stopped at the Northern Territory / West Australian border for our quarantine check. Eventually, an officer boarded our caravan, checked our fridge and cupboards for any fruit, vegetable, nut, honey, seed or plant we may be carrying, and then proceeded to let us pass into WA. We had heard stories of other travellers buying two weeks worth of groceries ready to head bush, not aware of the quarantine laws, and then having to forfeit all their produce at the border. Wouldn’t that be annoying?

Anyway, crossing into WA we gained 1 ½ hours, so had to turn our clocks back. Very confusing! Lily wondered if we would have lunch again! We therefore arrived at our next stop for the night (Lake Argyle Caravan Park) at 3pm (NT time) and only 12.30pm (WA time).  We had heard of a wonderful afternoon/sunset cruise on Lake Argyle, so hoped we were in time to book it up for that evening.

The caravan park here is amazing. Stunning scenery right on the edge of the massive lake. The pool here has to be seen to be believed. It is an infinity pool, so it looks as if it merges right into the lake. Spectacular. It is a large caravan park , lots of shade and grassy sites, a restaurant, shop, outdoor movie screenings, and activities. An oasis in the desert.

 

Anyway, after unhitching the van, and plugging in the power quickly, we headed down to the boat cruise office, 5 mins down the road, and booked ourselves in for the cruise that was leaving in an hours time (2.30pm). We were picked up by bus at the park, and along with 30 or so other fellow travellers, taken down to the boat ramp where we boarded our vessel.

 

The lake is just so spectacularly beautiful, with its rocky, red escarpments surrounding it, and glass like, deep water, I can’t find the words to adequately describe it, but I will try. It is more of an inland freshwater sea than a lake. It is ten times the size of Sydney Harbour – about 70kms x 45km in size. It has many rocky islands all over it, and because of its size, you just can’t see the whole of it at once. It is 40 metres deep in places.

Anyway, we were really looking forward to our three hour cruise. At first we were taken to a rocky cliff that sloped down towards the water, and pulled in close to view some cute little rock wallabies. There are lots of them around the lake, but they are usually too shy to see, but the skipper threw them a few pellets and they wandered shyly down right in front of the boat allowing us to get a good look at their cute little faces.

 

 

A few kilometres further around on a different island we stopped again to look at some larger grey wallaroos. They also got a feed of pellets.

 

Another part of the lake, we watched many fresh water crocs sunning themselves on the banks, or darting into the water once they spotted our boat.  There are only fresh water crocs here, and with their much narrower head shapes, they are easy to identify. They are not aggressive like their larger cousins, the salties, so we had no fear of them, but wouldn’t get in the water near their egg laying nests.

 

A bit further on, in another part of the lake we stopped once again to look at all the different species of fish in the water. Large black catfish, archer fish, barred grunters, and many other species all came alongside the boat, hoping for a feed. They were not disappointed, as our skipper handed us all some bread to feed them, they leapt around, vying for a piece. Sam had a wonderful time feeding them, and wishing silently that he had his fishing rod with him.

 

A few kilometres further on we slowed to view the huge, silky webs of the golden orb spiders that inhabit the dead trees of the area. Their silky threads are so strong that they have actually been used in the making of bullet proof vests, and NASA spacesuits. Amazing.

 

After cruising around, taking in all the amazing scenery and beautiful vistas, we eventually stopped 10km out from the edge, and the skipper tied the boat up to a floating buoy. Then told us that we all needed to dive overboard (floating foam noodles provided for those that wanted them), and there was champagne, beer, soft drink and nibbles for anyone in the water. So off the back of the boat we went. The water was a beautiful 25 degrees – lovely temp on this hot day, and most refreshing. The kids thought it was just wonderful, diving off a boat, swimming around, and best of all, eating dip and bickies off a floating esky lid! An amazing experience and one we will remember for a long time.

 

As we floated around in 20 metres of water, drinking our champagne (that was me!), nibbing on our biscuits, and watching the setting sun turn the rocky cliffs a glowing red around us, we mentioned to each other that this has got to be one of the highlights of our trip so far. 

 

Sam told me as we were listening to the skipper (Greg) tell us about the history of the lake, the weir wall, and the attempts of all the different crops grown along the Ord River using the lake water, that this was one of the best things he had ever seen. A highlight of course being the swim in the very deep water, in the middle of this beautiful place.

 

Eventually we reboarded the boat, finishing off the last of the snacks. I have to say its not easy treading water with a drink in one hand, and a biscuit in the other, but it was certainly fun trying.  The sunset quietly happening around us was brilliant, the pink and orange tones lighting up the sky around us, as we travelled slowly and smoothly back across the water. Along the way we chatted to the Swiss and French tourists around us, on the relaxing trip back to the dock, watching the sun drop into the horizon, leaving us all finally in silent darkness.

Our skipper joked that he knew his way back through the rocky islands by feel. Then we disembarked, hopped back on the bus for the five minute bus ride, back up the hill to the caravan park.

We quickly fed two very tired little kids (it was only 6pm WA time, but 7.30pm our body clock time, and after all that swimming they were wasted), and put them to bed, reflecting again on our wonderful afternoon and evening on the lake in this remarkable place.