Trevor & Jonathans Cruise & Trip to the Far East and Australia 2016

Day 81 - Friday July 29th 2016 - Kununurra, Western Australia

Well we had a super lazy start to the day, even having two cups of coffee before going off to the bathroom. Again we had made no real plans for the day other than a 140km round trip to a lake up the road and to visit one of the lookout points in the town that apparently has really good views especially at sunset.

With no rush to get anywhere fast we even headed into town to find a nice coffee shop and have one that wasn’t instant! We found a real gem of a place in The Kimberley Café, great coffee, really strong just as we like it.

Post coffee and we headed along the road that we will travel tomorrow towards Katherine but turned off after 35k off out towards Lake Argyle as it is called. It took us up a long narrow tarmaced road with hills and canyons either side of us until eventually we saw sight of the lake itself.

It’s a huge waterway. The lake is actually Western Australia’s largest lake

and Australia’s second largest freshwater man made reservoir. Yes, it’s actually man made as was before a serious of rivers that formed the lake once the Ord dam was constructed providing a much needed irrigation system for the area.

We first drove up to a high vantage point to look over the lake and the many canyons that formally would have housed the river beds.

Driving around the lake was a really twisty turny affair but our little van seems to have more power than it should have to be honest, it just never even stutters when you throw a hill at it, up it goes. We drove over the actual dam itself, stopped and gazed over the lake some more it was so picturesque. On the other side of the dam the vast lake turned into a winding river with canyon walls either side. There were people down here fishing and swimming even though the sign all said clearly not to do so. We walked down to a rather beautiful shaded grassy picnic area where the road ended. There was not much to see as the fences were set far back from the canyons edge so all views to the water were lost.

We had undoubtedly driven out along way to look at a lake but it was pretty and we did not want too much of a strenuous day so this was just about right.

It was on the way back to the main highway that Trev reported a stomach ache so we drove back to camp to set up again, hoping that it would clear. Trev put himself to bed (he had been yawning quite a lot this morning) whilst I sat outside and wrote up blogs. The peace was shattered when our new neighbours for the night arrived with their huge rig and caravan. They had been travelling up the Gibb River Road in the heart of the Kimberley’s so the caravan was thick with red pindan sand and soil. Not their fault but Trev was trying to sleep ! Trev stayed in bed for the rest of the day and night only waking briefly to try and eat some beans and toast but after about two mouthfuls he just wasn’t into it so laid back down again.

Jonathan? Well he sat outside until he started to get bitten to death by the many bugs and mosquitos flying around in the air and then retired to the inside of the van when I had no choice, trying not to wake Trev up.

Around seven at night Trev suddenly starting throwing up, not very nice I know but in a way this was a good thing as whatever it was that triggered it was on its way out of his body so hopefully by tomorrow he would at least feel ready to face the drive ahead of us.

As Trev tried to sleep next to me Jonathan sat with his iPad and started to watch Peaky Blinders and got I nice cold beer out of the fridge to try and balance out the fact that the inside of the van felt more like an oven. After a couple of swigs I was convinced that this must have been what made Trevor poorly as to me the beer tasted off, I’d already glugged down over half of the bottle before the taste hit me but the rest went straight down the sink.

It was lights off in the van by 2200. Trev seemed to have settled after being sick so I really had my fingers crossed that tomorrow he would feel well enough to travel.