Welcome to Western Australia & lovely Lake Argyle

From Katherine we drove to Timber Creek, our last stop in the NT. It was a popular stop over with quite a few vans and camper trailers pulling in throughout the afternoon. We enjoyed a stroll around the park, chatting to other travelers and enjoyed the freshwater croc and kite feeding, organised by the park owners. That evening we were disappointed to find the gas hot water that we thought fixed, was not. After some trouble shooting from Andrew (thanks to You-tube), he determined that it was the thermostat that had gone (not the circuit board that we paid for in Katherine). We appreciated the support from Merv and Felicia, fellow BT owners from WA also staying in the park, who tried to trouble shoot and fix with us – but to no avail. We will order one on Monday from Swift Hot Water to be delivered home to Sydney and brought across to Perth from Scott and Suzie in July. We had a late dinner, eating up all the fresh vegetables ready for our border crossing and headed to bed.

Back on the road at 8:30am the next morning, we headed for the Western Australian border! We were very excited to be crossing into another State – this time the furthest one from home. We sailed through the check point, having the fridge and freezer checked by the border staff and gave a woo-hoo shout that we had made it into WA!!

Not far from the border crossing we took the turn-off to beautiful Lake Argyle. We had a little queue to check in to the caravan park, as we forgot to factor in the hour and a half time change in WA, hence we arrived prior to the 11:00am check in time.

After settling in, we were off to find Michael, Belle and Hamish, Mick being my cousin from Brisbane on my mum’s side. How delightful to travel halfway around the country and manage to cross paths with family – we were excited. After hugs all round, we spent the afternoon at the famous infinity pool, taking photos and having a swim in the freezing water, while we watched the sunset on the red Kimberley cliffs. We were spoilt to pretty much have the pool area to ourselves. Mick and Belle had arranged a roast dinner, with veges, since we had none after the border crossing, so we had a beautiful evening catching up over drinks and good food.

Day two and we were excited to explore the lake via the 3 hour Lake Argyle Discovery Cruise, which included lunch and a swim with 30,000 freshies!
Lake Argyle is the largest reservoir of fresh water in Australia, equivalent to 21 X Sydney Harbour. The lake was formed by damming the Ord River in 1973, which forms storage for the Ord River Irrigation Area. It was the brainchild of Kimberley Durack, grandson of Patrick Durack who staked the first pastoral claim in the East Kimberley’s back in the 1880’s. The lake is massive and we cruised for 3.5 hours, only seeing about 10% of the total area.

We all enjoyed a swim off the boat, although we were all a little concerned over the number of freshwater crocs we had seen on the banks while cruising out. Although we had to sign a waver to swim, we were assured they were far more scared of us then we of them … not so sure there. But the water was a lovely 24 degrees and we did thoroughly enjoy the experience – with a glass of bubbles while swimming with a noodle to boot!

That afternoon we shared a beautiful cheese platter and our last Sydney bottle of Logan’s sparkling whilst reflecting on our great day.

Day three & four at Lake Argyle involved swimming, hiking, bike riding to the Durack Homestead, watching the sun setting over the water and listening to great live music at the bar. Andrew & I both decided we could very easily do a few more days here – but alas we will be moving on tomorrow. The Gibb River Road is calling.