After some nice R&R at Katherine it was west bound towards WA.  Our first stop for the night was at Victoria River Roadhouse for one night.  It is one of those stopovers where you drive in and select your own site.  If you are lucky and beat most of the crowd you can end up with a pretty good spot to camp, as we did.  This would also be a good place to base yourself for a few days if you wanted to look at the Judburra/Gregory National Park nearby.  We had a look at this park a couple of years ago when we left on our first trip away and were heading east,  not west and really found it interesting.  That time we stayed at Timber Creek and drove into the national park from there and had a good look.  If we do it again we might do it from Victoria River Roadhouse next time, it seems quieter and seemed to suit us better.

From Victoria River we decided to stop over at Zebras Rock again for a couple nights.  We also stopped here a couple of years ago as well.  The turn off into Zebra Rock is only about 14 kilometres from the WA border and just over 10 kilometres in from the highway on a very dusty road.  When we were in Katherine, the caravan we stayed at allowed you to wash your vans, which we did.  After the 10 kilometre gravel road drive into Zebra Rock it looked like we hadn’t even thought about washing the van.  The joys of caravanning and gravel roads I suppose.

There is no power or water at Zebra Rock so you have to be all full up when you arrive there.  They do have showers and toilets though the showers don’t have hot water if you are thinking of using them.  They have there own mine at Zebra Rock where they mine Zebra Rock.  These are quite a nice looking rock and according to the owners extremely rare and worth lots.  Not really being into rocks in a big way they didn’t do much for me and I also thought the value being placed on them was a bit exorbitant.   They have a few different tours from here operating and we booked ourselves onto the sunset cruise tour of Lake Argyle.  Lake Argyle being so large actually crosses over into the Northern Territory and is about a half hour drive from Zebra Rock to where they moor their cruise boat.  The cruise goes for four hours and includes nibbles and drinks.  The price had gone up a bit since we did the last one but is still reasonably priced.  The area they take you is mainly wetland type country and there are plenty of different birds to see as well as lots of fresh water crocodiles. The fish and chips after the cruise weren’t bad either.

Leaving Zebra rock it was a quick trip over the border and back into WA.  We are staying in Kununurra for a week and have booked into the Lakeside Resort to really lap it up.  We were given an excellent caravan site right next to the pool with some views out over the lake.  Feeling very spoiled we are at the moment.  We did a little bit of touring while here in Kununurra.  As we saw a fair bit last time we felt not much pressure to really go out and do to much.  We did a day drive from Kununurra towards Wyndham and turned off to look at Marlgu Billabong.  This billabong had heaps of birdlife on it and we sat there for ages just looking at all the different varieties there was to see.  There was also a large saltwater crocodile around 4 metre long there, though he was a fair distance away and you needed the binoculars to see him clearly.  Also near the billabong is the Old Wyndham Telegraph Station that has a few old ruins you can walk around and look at.  From this billabong we took Parry Creek Road back to Kununurra.  This is referred to as the back road by locals and follows the Lower Ord River part of the way and provides access to Valentine Springs, Middle Springs and Black Rock Falls.  Being the dry season the falls weren’t running and the springs were low in water, but still worth the drive to look at.  Arriving back in Kununurra we were able to come across Ivanhoe Crossing which is open at the moment.  Last time we were here it was closed off to all traffic so it was a novelty to be able to drive across this time around.

 

After a week of lapping it up in Kununurra we start heading south and towards a bit more reality and home for a while.  We still have a few tings to see on the way, so it will be a steady three weeks or so until we get there.