Around Oz the First Time - Chapter 33 - Kununurra Day 2

The park is alive with movement (and noise) early. The air is still, full of the sounds of stirring people and the birds. Venturing down to the boat ramp, not far from our van where I had thought to take some panorama shots and perhaps do some fishing, I see a red billed waterfowl, a Swamp Hen, showering itself in the runoff from a van. Quite cute, almost mimicking a human in the way it was luxuriating in the falling water.

The ramp walk brings only disappointment from an angling perspective, because although the lilies of the edge of most of the lake are clear here, the reeds are prolific, there is no point getting the gear out to fish here. The vistas are however well worthy of many snaps and I oblige accordingly.

Silver Leader and Forbsy are nowhere to be seen, the evening has enticed a sleep in it would seem. We had talked about having another fish today, but it would seem this did not include an early start. Robyn starts on some work and I cook myself a tasted sandwich in the sandwich maker, turkey, tomato and cheese – yum.

Looking at my watch. Its only 7.00am, no wonder the others have not yet risen. Finally, I see movement, Silver Leader has wandered back from the direction of the toilets. We discuss the makings of a plan for the day, given Robyn is working, Rosalie wants a haircut, fishing etc. We decide to get everyone together and plan it out after breakfast.

Forbsy and I having eaten already look for new options on the rods we have. Forbsy needs to replace leader on one of his rods and has noticed my larger reel is letting go coils of line too big for the small runners on the rod, so I go hunting for some braid I can replace the 5lb line on my small reel to see of that will alleviate the issue. Forbsy offers me some 33kg braid which although a bit large for the reel will suffice for this experiment. I swap Forbsy a gold bomber (as he does not have one) as well as notice he has a lure that might be useful in the conditions we are looking to encounter, that has rusted hooks on it and replace them as well.

When we finally get together, Robyn is in a position where the work she has to complete is done, much earlier than expected, so she is keen to join the venturing party. Silver Leader informs us Rosalie now will wait for Broome for the hair appointment so we will eb a fill compliment when we drive out shortly. This is great as we will not have to consider returning to the van park until we deal with all the things we want to do, which might include lunch at one of the attractions. First though we need to pay for another night in the park, else we might get evicted. We wander up to the reception area and inform them we would like to stay another night – not bad for a group that were not even staying one night based on original rumours.

As we start out both women head from the exit, the place where the Mango Smoothies are made and purchase one. Robyn also manages a toile break as well. With the heat of the day already past 30 degrees I reduce the air-conditioning level to 18 degrees in attempt to cool things down. I am pretty sure those in the back appreciate it.

First on the agenda is Molly’s Springs. This a a 20km drive out of town then a 4km drive in from the highway on a dirt road. My GPS knows nothing of this place, thankfully the Tom Tom of the Silver Leader does, and we are able to find the turn off easily. On the drive into the springs we see a huge Boab Tree and we peel off the road to take the obligatory pictures. Robyn acts as the gauge marker and strikes a pose for which we can take the photos.

We pass a car coming out as we near the end of the journey and arrive to find the car park devoid of others. Let’s take a look at the obligatory information board. It says it’s a round trip of 1 kilometre with rocky parts and water traverses. I grab my rod from the Cruiser eager to check out the new rigging set up, no one else does and I find this strange as I am sure I heard someone suggest this was a good fishing spot.

Its actually only about a 200 metre walk we find out. The water traverses are a little tricky. With rod in hand I have a walking stick of sorts, so I am OK, Robyn has worn her “water shoes” and does not try to stay dry. Its only ankle deep in any event.

The pools are just that and it is small compared to others we have visited. There is nothing thermal about the water and no one is interested in a dip. There are lots of small fish in the water, so I throw a couple of casts and the lure is followed each time with no fish being larger than the lure. Forbsy decides to check out the top of the falls and heads up the escarpment. He takes many pictures so he can report back. I video him coming back down, suggesting a slip all the way to the water would be good for the vision, it doesn’t happen.

Don’t think though that there was not mishap on this little jaunt. Silver Leader of all people ends up on his bum, tour guiding his and my wife across the water traverses heading back. A cause for much merriment, Robyn decides that discretion is the better part of valour and continues to simply walk through the water. Evidence in the form a quick snap, and we are back at it. Back to the car and off again.

The list today has fishing, The Sandalwood Store, The Hoochery and the Argyle Fine Diamonds on the list, in no particular order. Its before noon and the Sandalwood Shop and the Hoochery both offer lunch so we bring a quick fish to the head of the list. We crossed two bridges on the way to Molly Springs, perhaps one of those will give us a spot to work on. No such luck, one ash construction work occurring on both side and the other will not give up any fishing spots without almost an abseil, not much fun when you need to potentially run away from crocodiles.

So its back to Ivanhoe Crossing, the scene of our exploits yesterday. This is not such a bad idea as the Sandalwood Shop and the Hoochery are passed on the way there. Sounds like something of a plan. We get to the crossing and there is a family swimming on the road. Gusty effort in my view. We head across both watercourses, marvelling at pelicans paddling against the current waiting for prey to be swept over, and turn right to head down the river.

As happened yesterday almost immediately we disturb kangaroos. Rosalie is very interested in photographing the Brahman Bulls we pass, until finally we are out on the riverbed. The bed has almost highway tracks on it such is the traffic that comes along here in the dry season. Silver Leader, who it should be noted did not think to include a rod in the car today, suggests we drive down to where the tributary joins back to the main river. Its rough but we take our time and we get to a very promising looking spot.

I head over to the river with the new rig in hand along with my backpack containing my lure case. First cast, double the distance of yesterday and with much less effort. I am chuffed. I hear a bit of a splash beside me and looking around I see nothing to suggest it was nothing more than a fish. I continue to cast marvelling at the distance and the lack of weed returning with the lure. Forbsy joins me and ushers me to a bush some 15 meters from where I am casting. There is a juvenile croc there with its head in a bush and its body and tail in the river. I am a little shaken by this and move much further way.

Forbsy has lent Silver Leader a rod and lure and he is casting towards a rock in the middle of the river. From the side you can see some fish rolling, flashing their white underbellies to the sun from time to time, but none of them will take a lure. Silver Leader sees another small croc but this one is more scared of us than we are of it and it scampers away. No joy here, the sun is hot, let’s move onto lunch. Robyn has brought the Cruiser much closer to the team fishing so its only a short walk back.

All loaded back up we are off, and not taking the same route we encounter issues of lostness. We are not lost, we simply cannot find our way. We know we have to go in the direction we are heading but there is simply no track in front of us just now. Backtracking I get us onto another of the highway tracks and we are soon crossing the causeway. As we get to the end of the water crossing, we notice we are being filmed. We all wave for effect.

Out of the water and off, let’s see which of the next stops we encounter first. We drive for a while through the irrigated planes, turn left and then right and we find ourselves at the Sandalwood Shop. The air is cool as we walk into the large shed like structure and the aroma is not distinctly Sandalwood but certainly something that makes you think of aroma therapy. Displays, information videos and a kiosk are here. The girls are in their element. Even Forbsy makes a purchase from the Secret Men’s Business Section. Will we lunch here, no, we will go to the Hoochery and dine there.

Walking out of the Sandalwood Shop I am confronted with the front of the Cruiser which looks like it is totally buggerred. The driving lights, supposedly reset at Darwin, are comically pointing in different directions as if to say “what the hell are you thinking having me out here in this heat and driving on those reads”. Silver Leader vows to fix them when we return to the park. We push them into place for now and head off.

All of 1 kilometre down the road, the Hoochery, the local rum distillery factory awaits us. We walk into what could easily been an old western bar, swinging bar doors and all. Disappointingly the response to our enquiries for lunch are met with “we are closing of the weekend and have let stock deplete, all we have left is chips”. So be it, we order 5 bowls of chips. But this is a distillery, there are displays of fine rum everywhere, including a 15 year old bottle at $379, we have to try some.

Forbsy and Silver Leader go the Saddleman’s Paddle, a selection of rums, determined by the purchaser from those on sale. I see a patron with 4 lemony looking concoctions and suggest I will have one of the those and not being a rum drinker of note, its probably the best way for me to sample their wares. Forbsy is in his element until he gets to a mango infused rum, he cant drink it suggesting there are some things in life that are wrong and this is one of them. He is most keen on their top shelf version but baulks at the price.

Silver Leader in the other hand is not a connoisseur of rum and can only stomach one of his selections, and offers the rest to Forbsy. He as well has gone for the mango version and both conclude the same thing. Needless to say, the shot glasses with that concoction in to remained full. Mine on the other hand was easily quaffable and I indulge in another. The chips come, along with some sauce and we eat.

Neither of those two venues impressed us overly. The Sandalwood Shop was an indulgence (from a man’s point of view) and the Hoochery just didn’t measure up, what with the food deficiency, yes there were good reasons for it, but every customer deserves the premium experience and it did not deliver at all. Very disappointing.

One last thing to do before we head back, the Argyle Fine Diamonds Shop. From a male point of view this sounds extraordinarily dangerous to let a woman loose in a diamond shop but so be it. They have been croc spotters for us while we were fishing, the least we could do is indulge their fantasies. The talk was to confiscate all credit cards before they went in, but we never got the chance. The Cruiser stopped and bother were gone in a flash.

Robyn had been told the shop allows anyone to try on any of the jewellery and they will take a photo of them and email to their Inbox, but of course they reserve the right to use the photograph in their marketing, sounds fair to me.

Walking around this shop was mind blowing. There were pieces, there were simply diamond unset into anything. You could see value in some of the stock but I found it hard to understand the pricing of 2 pink diamonds, unset, not much more than the size of a pinhead on display and sale at a little over $405,000. The sales lady explains that pink diamonds are amongst the rarest known to man, in fact. at the soon to closed Argyle mine of the 1,000,000 carats extracted each year only about a champagne flute full of pink diamonds are found, even less of some of the more expensive ones.

Robyn is like a pig in mud, so is Rosalie. They look here, they look there. Robyn sees something she thinks might look good on here ears and I agree, especially given the price, still reeling from the pink diamonds effect. She has come and she has purchased, all bases covered. Robyn also grabs a couple of “pink” diamonds for Kirsten (our daughter) and Hanya (our daughter in law) at $10 each.

Back into the Cruiser, there is one more forced stop to make. Given our itinerary for the next few days we need to stock up on alcoholic libations else we might be having a dry experience, which in itself is not a problem but it is hot and expected to be hotter over the next few days at El Questro and the Bungle Bungles. I pull into a drive through vendor and tell the other passengers I wont be long, I know exactly what I want and I will only be a few minutes, and a few minutes I was.

I bounce back into the Cruiser start it and begin to move only to be stopped by the girls because the car is not full. Silver Leader and Forbsy both followed me into the shop, unbeknown to me and were doing the same thing. I think that comes under the “one job” heading. My one job was to ensure everyone who left the van park this morning got home this afternoon. Nearly didn’t fulfil that one. Forbsy suggests there are worse place to be left behind. Then to add insult to injury to me, I get to the main road and head in the wrong direction. A U-turn fixes that and we are “home”.

The sun is far enough lowered as to allow a deal of shade on the vans. Our return sees fishing gear dismantled and readied for their trip tomorrow and a congregation of tables and chairs at the Silver Leader Beer Garden, but first I want to see the daily feeding of the toothless freshie by the boat ramp. Sure enough there is a crowd around two of the park staff. Whilst one is telling the story of how Toothless got that way the other is feeding it with pieces of steak to the hysterical joy of the crowd, mostly children who are standing beside the feeder of the croc.

Silver Leader has broken out the Webber for the night meal, and we oblige with some honey soy chicken skewers. A big day, cant have a big night so we retire pretty well straight after dinner.