Thursday 24th July

Today has not been our best day. It started badly with Prue seeing two indigenous people attempting to gain entry to our Mazda Bravo at 0100 this morning. Thankfully, it has good locking all over it and they did not get in. To top off a bad morning, we have mislaid a set of Karavan keys. This made me feel sick in the stomach but both are feeling a bit better now.

After reporting the incident and the missing keys to both the Caravan Park staff and the local Police, we moved on with our day.

We first went up to the lookout just above the town and what a wonderful sight. The town set out with lots of trees and outside the wondrous scene of the Ord River Irrigation Area. This appears to go on for almost as far as we could see. A variety of irrigated crops and also sandalwood plantations are planted and growing on this area. It was a treat to see this oasis in what is a very dry landscape adjacent to it.

As we drove around this area we went to the Ivanhoe Crossing of the Ord River. We watched a Toyota Landcruiser cross over at about 350 mm depth. I decided I did not need to cross this area. As we entered into the Crossing area we noticed a coach belonging to Keating Coaches from Gunnedah about to leave. After we left this area we travelled a short distance to the Fruit Bowl. Here again was the Keating Coach. We went inside and were happily surprised to find Brian and Aldath Hailes along with Kevin and Kerry Keating all from Gunnedah. We were all surprised to see each other and caught up on some things that have happened around Gunnedah. They left with their passengers as Brian was co driver with Kevin.

We then drove a little further to the Hoochery which is the first legal distillery in Western Australia. We took a guided tour through the establishment. It was quite small but the tour was very personal. A great description was given to about 20 people by the resident distiller. After the tour, tastings of the end products were able to be had. Prue and I tried the Chocolate Coffee Liqueur. Very nice drop.

Then we drove into Kununurra after a phone call from Helen Parrington, originally from Alstonville, who flies aircraft for Slingair based at the airport. We had lunch with her and a pilot colleague. We talked about the various flights around the Kimberleys and the ones they felt may interest us the most.

After lunch, we checked and collected our mail from Lennox and returned to the Caravan Park. I prepared the massage table for a job later in the afternoon. While I did a massage, Prue went to the Lovell Gallery and is enthused by the art there.

Eventually, the young lady arrived and she chatted while I worked on her and we found we knew a lot of the same people. I seem to make connections every where it seems. Just as I finished, another young lady came and booked 2 massages for Saturday morning. The one departing said to the other I did a very good job. Nice to hear the compliments. Maybe someone has instructed me well!