Our first impressions of Kununurra were that it is a very beautiful place
indeed. The high ranges that flank the town make it quite spectacular and
the lush green gives it a great feel.
We have been vegging quite a bit since coming here and apart from doing a
drive around to the local spots of interest our only other venture was out
to Emma Gorge in El Questro for the day.
We debated long and hard whether to give the camper another flogging down a
dirt road and in the end decided to go the ‘day trip’ route. We heard mixed
reports on the Gibb River Rd into El Questro and in the end just had to make
a decision. One man’s ‘roughly corrugated and nasty’ is another man’s ‘no
problem at all’ so road reports are not that reliable!
The town of Kununurra seems well set out and has a good vibe, but I guess
you’d need to live here for a while to really know what its like. Danelle
went for a walk early one morning and saw the ‘cleaner’ out getting rid of
all the beer cans and crap from the previous evening so maybe the veneer of
respectability and attractiveness is only a daytime experience.
It seems the north west towns have really taken the tourism thing very
seriously and have been on a major clean up. I expected Halls Creek and
Fitzroy to both be somewhat ‘third world’ in their appearance, but the main
areas present much nicer than that.
I’m sure there are still ugly parts to these towns and I’m sure they have
their ongoing social issues, but if you didn’t know better a simple ‘drive
thru’ would see them present very well.
I wonder is that a good thing or a bad thing?…
The weather here has been humid – not my favourite – and with no breeze at
all it has been a pretty steamy few days. We are staying in the Ivanhoe
Caravan Park which is right up there as one of the best parks I have come
across.
The vibe here is very friendly for the most part and we have some
interesting neighbours. The young couple just up from us have started
picking watermelons for work. They leave at 5am and get home at 4pm and they
have signed up to do it 7 days a week. Neither of them have looked too
lively in the last few days. At $18 / hr you’d have to be desperate for cash
I reckon. The guy across the road is one of those friendly but awkward
people who talks very loud and doesn’t quite know when a conversation is
over – or when someone needs to be left alone. A little strange, but well
meaning – possibly a Christian. Then there are the people on the other side
who pretend they are living here alone and say hello to no-one. I want to
jump into his path as he walks along and say ‘boo’, or something equally
silly, but maybe he’s just shy… or rude… Then there’s an older couple
two vans up who live in Butler just a few streets away from us.
At this stage we plan to move on tomorrow, and head into the NT but that
will depend on canvas being dry.
Hi Andrew,
i am loving your blog, we drove from Vic to the Kimberley in 2003, I hope you are going to Lake Argyle, we could not believe how vast it is and the dam wall is enormous. We went on the sunset cruise which was great, some went for a swim with 30,000 fresh crocs. (and survived)
Happy Camping!!
thanks Tina – went to check your blog out but it seems to have disappeared!
$18/hr aint that bad Hamo. A friend of mine was paid $15-16.50/hr for full time work and didn’t complain of the rates. And I imagine jobs in the far north are harder to come by than in the hustle and bustle (tee hee) of Perth.