Across The Top through boab country

From Lake Argyle it was a short hop to Kununurra, where we decided to have two nights and eventually extended it to three. This was due to waiting at the hospital for half the day for a prescription which had become necessary. There was nowhere else to do it and one just has to be very patient. It is the way of the outback.

Kununurra is a town that grew up around the building of the Ord Diversion Dam and then the main Ord River Dam and has since flourished due to the effects of the dam on agriculture. Irrigation schemes are being extended, which allows for the opening up of more agricultural land. It was a busy place. The campsites by the lake were very pleasant and we celebrated Warwick's birthday with a meal in the caravan park's restaurant by the pool. Very nice.

There is already quite a lot of water in the Ord River, which meant that Ivanhoe Crossing was already closed. Isobel is sure that this is the causeway we crossed back in 1985 when we did our trip with the kids in a Hi-ace pop-up. It would not be one to cross with this beast at the best of times, but in fact it was running too fast for anything to be able to cross. It seems to be good for fishing, though.

Ivanhoe Crossing with a couple of hopefuls

Our intention was to detour to Wyndham and a rather smart-looking "wilderness retreat" called El Questro, but the weather was looking distinctly stormy and El Questro meant quite a stretch on unsealed road. Perhaps we would get there OK but if a real storm struck, maybe the return would be doubtful. So reluctantly but probably wisely, we missed out that detour and headed straight for Halls Creek. A boring road at the best of times, it was made quite irritating by the amount of roadworks. A couple of roadhouses on the way broke the monotony a bit.

Halls Creek boasts a pioneer by the name of Russian Jack, who is said to have carted a sick mate in a wheelbarrow all the way to Wyndham to the nearest doctor -- a distance of some 300 kilometres! One cannot help being amazed at the stories of pioneers and the conditions in which they lived.

Russian Jack. It seems his mate survived.

Next stop Fitzroy Crossing, another largely Aboriginal community. This town is involved in a lot of interesting medical research. We had our first real rain for many months during the night, which caused us to abandon the idea of the only tour still open on Geikie Gorge. The real splendour of Geikie needs clear skies and sunshine and we still had grey skies and rain. This will be for another trip.

So it was on towards Derby, past scores of boab trees. These trees are variously described as bottle trees or upside-down trees, due to their extraordinary shape and to the fact that they store water in their trunks, which causes them to swell into odd shapes. Near Derby, we visited a particularly famous tree called the "Prison Boab Tree", which in years gone by was used to hold some of the prisoners who were being forcibly moved for sentencing in Derby.

The Prison Boab Tree near Derby

Derby is known for its extraordinary tides and we walked out on the wharf as the tide was racing in. That particular day it was 11 metres and the way it was racing in was impressive.

We still had time to make it to Broome so we pushed on, with boabs of all shapes and sizes all the way.

A line of boabs down the middle of Derby's main street.