3rd August 2008

Again this morning, I went for a nice ride out to the north of Kununurra. Out for a 38 km ride. On my way back into town, I rode up beside another cyclist, Ian, who is from Melbourne. He is among a group of volunteers that are building a short wave radio antenna for Christian Community Radio. He told me it is so people in up to 60% of the world can receive Christian religion and news. Apparently, because so many of the listeners are illiterate and in countries that do not have Christian beliefs it is one way that the word of God can be shared with them.

Prue spent some time doing emails and also had the opportunity of chatting to Malcolm and watching out grandson, Zac, on Skype. I missed this lot of communication.

This morning we had arranged to go to Wyndham with our new Karavan friends, Ian and Kay. Our departure was around 0900. It is just over 100 kms each way so we just cruised along.

Our first stop was at the Grotto. The Grotto is worth a visit. Staircases carved out of the rock lead to a quiet waterhole oasis in a kind of cool amphitheatre. It is one of those strange anomalies in the landscape. It was quite warm and not really inductive to a climb down and up so we took photos from the top.

We drove along for a while taking in the awesome grandeur of the passing countryside. This included a burn of grass near the road. Some of these fires are not legally lit and inevitably cause the wrong grasses to proliferate.

After about an hour in the rental car, we arrived in the main street of Wyndham. Our stop was adjacent to the Big Crocodile which is a huge 20 metre long concrete structure. It consists of 5.5 km of steel rod, 10 rolls of bird mesh and 6 cubic metres of concrete.

Then we drove up to the Five Rivers Lookout. It rises to the east of the town offering one of the most dramatic views anywhere along the Australian coastline. The view over the five rivers (the Durack, King, and Pentecost to the south, Forrest to the west and Ord to the north) and the vast mud flats which sprawl in every direction give the lookout a viewpoint which can only be bettered by actually flying over the town.

After the Lookout we descended to the town again and then drove down to the Wyndham Port and to the Hotel there. It was here that we had a very large lunch. It was a very place and we saw a few familiar faces from the various Caravan Parks.

Following lunch, we moved to our car and on the way were approached by an aboriginal trying to sell some engraved boab fruit. The quality was not too good so no transaction took place. Then we drove along the Port precinct but we could not get very close. We did notice cattle being brought in so they can be loaded onto a ship soon.

Our time around Wyndham was over and we drove back to Kununurra. On arrival, we decided to have a coffee at the Ivanhoe Farm Cafe. It is a really nice cool place to relax especially as the temperature had been around 35 degrees, on this winter day!!

Back to the Caravan Park and collect washing and prepare for pre-dinner drinks again with Ian and Kay. So ended another nice day in the East Kimberleys