As I mentioned in my last post, when Dot and I arrived at Kununurra's Country Club separated from our tour party to have an entertaining evening meal with our Armidale friends who by chance were in the same place at the same time. After that, we had an early night before tomorrow's interesting trip up the Ord River to see one of Australia's most significant dams and the surrounding countryside. Here's Lake Kununurra on which we took a long, but interesting, boat trip up to Ord River Dam.
And it's impounded by a wall across which runs one of the main into the town itself. Again I wondered at the crystal clear weather which bestowed temperatures in the mid 30s C.
We floated initially past farming properties using the abundant water for irrigation.
And here's one of the pumping stations sucking water from the Ord for farm use. But a little beyond the farming zone the river lay placid amongst rising and increasingly wooded banks.
In places, the river edges were shrouded in various kinds of rushes and the waterway hosted many lily pads like these.
These lilies were home to masses of water birds that ran fast across them. And, talking of birds, can anyone identify the species up in the tree here? And can you see the large nest in the photo below?
As we moved upstream the land on either side became increasingly hilly and attractive.
And this Pelican also floated past.
And see the croc on the rock? It's almost certainly a freshwater croc because the salties are not known to climb dam walls. But I wouldn't want to take a swim downstream of Kununurra. One's life expectancy would be short.
Life aboard our little boat was relaxed and we skipped ashore for a little snack at one point. We also caught sight of some of the dam's fish stocks.
Drifting further upstream, the landscape became drier and more rocky, but the water remained placid. We also observed some visitors with kayaks.
And at one point we passed a colony of bats.
Eventually we saw the dam wall coming into view. And
judging by the size of the bus on top - see the white blob - it's a pretty large structure.
Here, at the base of the wall is the hydro-electric station - also visible in this view downstream - the stretch of water we had just navigated.
In the other direction up-stream lay Lake Argyle. It's an immense body of water up to 50 km long and 40 km wide at some point. In a previous post I stated that this lake contains about 20 times the volume of Sydney Harbour, itself a large estuary.
And to prove I was there see me standing on the dam wall/
After viewing Lake Argyle, we caught a bus back into Kununurra, zooming along stretches of empty road. At one point, however, we left the road to visit the homestead of the famous Durack family who pioneered farming in this remote region.
The family's shown here and the tour through their home was a bit like going through a National Trust property in the UK or more settled parts of Australia.
One room contained a lot of horsey gear and another looked more like an office.
Eventually, we passed Kununurra and took the Gibb River Road through more lovely scenery towards the well-known El Questro resort. Now, does anyone know what El Questro means? It looks Spanish, but Google translate was quite unable to help!
We reached our resort as the light was dimming.
It was another great day!
AS
We floated initially past farming properties using the abundant water for irrigation.
And here's one of the pumping stations sucking water from the Ord for farm use. But a little beyond the farming zone the river lay placid amongst rising and increasingly wooded banks.
In places, the river edges were shrouded in various kinds of rushes and the waterway hosted many lily pads like these.
As we moved upstream the land on either side became increasingly hilly and attractive.
And this Pelican also floated past.
And see the croc on the rock? It's almost certainly a freshwater croc because the salties are not known to climb dam walls. But I wouldn't want to take a swim downstream of Kununurra. One's life expectancy would be short.
Life aboard our little boat was relaxed and we skipped ashore for a little snack at one point. We also caught sight of some of the dam's fish stocks.
Drifting further upstream, the landscape became drier and more rocky, but the water remained placid. We also observed some visitors with kayaks.
And at one point we passed a colony of bats.
Eventually we saw the dam wall coming into view. And
judging by the size of the bus on top - see the white blob - it's a pretty large structure.
Here, at the base of the wall is the hydro-electric station - also visible in this view downstream - the stretch of water we had just navigated.
In the other direction up-stream lay Lake Argyle. It's an immense body of water up to 50 km long and 40 km wide at some point. In a previous post I stated that this lake contains about 20 times the volume of Sydney Harbour, itself a large estuary.
And to prove I was there see me standing on the dam wall/
After viewing Lake Argyle, we caught a bus back into Kununurra, zooming along stretches of empty road. At one point, however, we left the road to visit the homestead of the famous Durack family who pioneered farming in this remote region.
The family's shown here and the tour through their home was a bit like going through a National Trust property in the UK or more settled parts of Australia.
One room contained a lot of horsey gear and another looked more like an office.
Eventually, we passed Kununurra and took the Gibb River Road through more lovely scenery towards the well-known El Questro resort. Now, does anyone know what El Questro means? It looks Spanish, but Google translate was quite unable to help!
It was another great day!
AS
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