13 - Return to Kununurra / Lake Argyle

June 2016 - 06/6/16

We were still having some issues with our caravan batteries not being able to maintain a high level of charge. This may have been to do with our fridge running most of the day and not cycling on and off every half hour or so as per normal. All of these issues may have been compounded by the day time temperatures ranging from 33 to 36 C and night time temperatures in the 20’s.

We spent two days on power at Wyndham hoping that some 240 volt charging would assist the batteries to recover.

Our next planned stopover was to be at Lake Argyle with estimated daytime temperatures of 36C for the next 7 days.

We purposely left Wyndham to find somewhere to free camp to test out how well our batteries would cope with our independent living in case we needed to replace them before heading to Lake Argyle.

Leaving Wyndham we just had to stop again at Marlgu Billabong where we spent about 4 hours watching the bird life, adding another crocodile to our previous days sighting of 3. A little further down the road we found a nice quiet area away from the road for the night. 

We stopped at Kununurra to make some enquiries about our batteries to find another long weekend was upon us with most businesses closing early for the weekend. A reassessment of strategies and we decided to stay in a caravan park at Kununurra over the weekend providing us with more time to evaluate our options. 

Naturally we utilised the caravan parks swimming pool each day, spent time at the local weekend market, took a drive where we visited the publicised Ivanhoe water crossing which had been just opened to vehicles in the last week, viewed the Ord Valley produce fields, the Sandlewood factory and the Hoochery rum manufacturer.

Ivanhoe water crossing and we weren't temped to cross with our vehicle

Ord Valley produce paddocks - curtesy of Lake Argyle water storage area

Another day we participated in a cruise on Lake Argyle, Australia’s largest artificial lake where we were transported from our accommodation to the lake, viewed a museum at the areas famous pioneering families residence, (Durack’s) before boarding a luxurious 55 foot catamaran for over 5 hours of cruising on the lake.

The original Durack Homestead

Removing our footwear prior to boarding our catamaran

 The setting and scenery was brilliant. As a bonus during the day we were permitted to jump overboard a couple of times to immerse our bodies in the very pleasant 25C waters. The whole setting made for a great atmosphere and the conversation amongst all the vessels occupants flowed till the days end.

Sunset on Lake Argyle