It’s been a lovely couple of nights so far at Lake Argyle, which is a really pretty spot in the Kimberley. We arrived here quite late on Saturday as I needed to stop in Kununurra at the hospital before we came on here. I’ve been having trouble with my right eye and wanted to see someone about it before we headed here and on to Timber Creek and Victoria River Crossing where I knew there’d be no medical services (apart from a first aid box a lot of roadhouses keep).
I’d been to the hospital in Wyndham the afternoon before, but arrived late and the doctor had finished for the day. The only other way to see ANY doctor in the area was to go to outpatients in Kununurra in the morning. There would be no doctor at the hospital on Sunday as she’d be out at a community and there are no doctors in private practice in a town of 6000 plus us tourists. All pretty tough for the locals.
After a wait of 4 hours to see the doctor, although the eye was swollen, bloodshot and vision blurred, they couldn’t find what has been irritating it and me for 9 days.
When it was time for me to see the doctor, a nurse called a large aboriginal man in a wheelchair and me in at the same time. I followed him in, then asked another nurse where I should go. She said it was OK if I went in with my husband which gave him and me a good laugh!
The drive out to Lake Argyle was very pretty-especially when we turned off the highway and drove the 35ks in. Lake Argyle is Australia’s largest body of fresh water and was formed when the cattle station Argyle owned by the Durack family was dammed. The Durack family came to Australia from Ireland and eventually settled up here taking pastoral leases around Old Halls Creek, Wyndham and Kununurra. Mum borrowed all Mary Durack’s books on the family history from Warragul library when I was around 12 and as I read them all too, I was pretty excited to see the area.
Dead Horse Springs
Sunday we took a drive out to all the look-outs over the lake, then after lunch went out to the Durack’s Argyle homestead. It was rescued before the site was flooded and then rebuilt as a tourist attraction over the next two years. It was apparently hard work as the stone walls were over 13 inches thick and had to be numbered to get them back together. On the way back we stopped to look at Dead Horse Spring, took a drive along the Slipway Creek and finally stopped at an interesting looking rock. We thought there should be aboriginal rock paintings somewhere like there and there was. We found a cave with a very good crocodile, people and the stenciled hands you often see.
Ord River and Picnic Ground
We had thought about taking a boat tour, but decided the $150 each for a 5 hour tour was a bit pricey especially when we already had 3 days sailing in the Kimberley! Instead, we put our boat in the water and gave ourselves a 3 hour tour. We saw lots of birds, a croc and we had a couple of bites on our barra lure-it was beautiful out there and cost us $17 and two pieces of fruit!
Row, Row, Row the Boat on Lake Argyle
After a late lunch and a little rest, we went down to the “swimming beach” (which also doubles as a rather rocky boat ramp) for a very pleasant dip. We had heaps of barra, a few cat fish, archer fish and a black bream around us as we took our swim.
Tomorrow against many people’s recommendations, we’ll head to Timber Creek where we will visit Gregory National Park which was part of another Durack cattle station.
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