Kununurra to the Bungle Bungles

This post is about Saturday 10th - a bit of a gap between the last post and this one.

As we get further into the Kimberley region (Day 2) we are starting to appreciate how special this area is. A vast and dramatic landscape of striking colour, Kimberley’s geography is one of huge contrasts.  There is no question the Kimberley is massive. Covering  about 425,000sq km, it has a coastline which extends over 12,000km and includes more than 2,600 islands, a third of Australia’s total. It is 1.5 times bigger than NZ yet its population is less than 40,000. 

Enough of the geography lesson. Now today.

Stocked up at Coles in Kununurra because we won’t be near useful shops for a few days.

An interesting detour this morning (120km) to Wyndham the oldest and the most Northerly town in WA.  Now with a population of only 1000, it sits surrounded by mudflats at the place where 5 rivers converge.  Originally known for the place where drovers brought over 12,000 head of cattle from the Queensland looking for suitable grazing land. Planned to take about six months, the drove actually took over 18 months. The mob and the drover’s numbers where significantly smaller on arrival in the Kimberley’s.  Wyndham was the site of a meat works built about 1919 by the Australian government. Workers were shipped in each year for the 13 week season. It was at the time the largest meat works in the southern hemisphere.  Now it is a sad little place which occasionally ships out a little iron ore and some crude oil.

Our home for 2 nights is Bungle Bungle Caravan Park on Mabel Downs Station, a grand sounding name for a stoney,  sandy area we share with some black cockatoos and Brahman cattle. Tomorrow we head off at an early 6.30 am. for an 11 hour four wheel drive expedition into the Purnululu National Park to explore the Bungle Bungles. 

Will report on that in the next post.  Time now for sundowners, well earned after 400km today.