From roughing it in the bush at Purnululu with mozzies and giant centipedes, we found ourselves in 5 star luxury at the 'Ivanhoe Resort'(was just a fancy name for a caravan park). Green grass, great amenities, a beautiful pool and even local wildlife. Rory's favourite were the green frogs in the toilet block and Marks was the frilled neck lizard that was just wandering around near our site. Gotta love that!
Kununurra the town was established in 1960 to service the Ord River scheme. The Ord River was dammed in 1971 (its as old as Sharyn!) to supply water to one of Australia's largest irrigation schemes. Kununurra has approx. 6000 people and has its own Target, Coles and numerous variety of shops. Kununurra is also the base to jump on a light aircraft or chopper and explore Lake Argyle and Purnululu by air, which was our initial intention. We got all the brochures but just couldn't justify paying over $1000 for us all to go flying for 2 hours...that works out for us to be a months accomodation on a powered site! (We figure it's something we will do when we have retired and have lots of money to splurge.)
So because we didn't fly over the Bungles or cruise on Lake Argyle, we got to just enjoy 'being' in Kununurra, and this meant meeting new people. We found the people of Kununurra to be open, warm and so friendly. Our first 'interesting person' was our next door neighbour at our caravan park. He owned a 'Geist' caravan, a German engineered van that looked like it stepped out of the space age. It was massive, approx 22ft and are priced over $70,000! We got chatting just as he was packing up, and we learnt that he was the recently retired CIO (Chief Information Officer) of Wesfarmers, a real high flyer. He has a house in Perth and one in Melbourne (next to Rex Hunt!) and was an international jetsetter, admitting he was one of those men in suits who walks around airports with his mobile phone to his ear and felt very superior. As we got talking he just opened up to us, telling us that his professional life was so busy he never got to see any of his childrens school concerts or sports day, and that it was one of his biggest regrets, but the monetary rewards were so great, he felt it was justified at the time. Strangely enough his son is now an executive with Shell and has the same jetsetting life that he had. We had a fascinating conversation and wished they were hanging around so we could chat longer
We then hit the shops for a look and met 'interesting person' No. 2. She worked in the local newsagent and just started telling us all about herself and her amazing life. Her husband used to play football for a short while with Geelong FC and then suffered a knee injury that shortened his playing life. Her husband always loved the Kimberley area and they moved up to Halls Creek when their first child was 2/3 years of age. They had 3 children in total and as their first child neared secondary school age, Perth was their choice for boarding school,(long way from Kununurra!) When their youngest child was 5, they had a car accident near the Ord River and their son (who was 11) tragically died. She spoke of how her sons principal at the time, wanted him buried in his prized old cricket jersey from Lourdes in England, the family wanted to have it framed and a plaque put on it in memory of their son so this jersey could still be seen and treasured, but the old principal refused and said it must be worn and buried with their son. Her story was so moving at one stage both she and I (Sharyn) had tears welling in our eyes, and even though we didn't even know each others name, it was a shared human experience that I will never forget. She said the local aboriginal women were encouraging her to place a memorial board at the site of the accident, which they had named 'Leycesters rest area' to commemorate the memory of her son. We look forward to seeing it when we get back up to the Kimberley one day. (After chatting to this lady Mark nick-named me Andrew Denton, the way I'd ask a question and people would bare their souls!)
When we returned to our campsite after a big arvo shopping in Kununurra, it was dark (sunset here at 10 to 5!) and we had new neighbours, who became 'interesting people' No.3! They live on the Tamar River near Launceston in Tasmania with their own jetty
and after having 5 precious kids, decided this is their time to explore Oz. They had this cool new camper/caravan called an 'Ecotourer' which folds down like a camper trailer, but goes up like a pop-top caravan. It even had a toilet and shower on board. This couple were so lovely, they had such a positive, energetic aura they were great to be around.
Marks Mum & Dad called to let us know they had arrived in Katherine to meet us (and were going to cook us a roast!), so after a brief stop at Lake Argyle (looked like Lake Eildon but with water!) we had a long trip through Timber Creek, Victoria River and onto Katherine. Lamb roast and Northern Territory here we come!
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