Kununarra

Middle of the night toilet run, as Ella & I step out of the van in the pitch black, Ella “Mum, a dingo!” we take a closer look and laugh, the shadow is of a slow, chubby old dog. The massive trees in the daytime are just beautiful, but by night the are infested with hundreds of squawking bats we have to run under and it feels like they are swooping us (they so aren’t). Get back into the van and just get back to sleep when Charlie’s voice rings out clear as a bell in the darkness “Dad..what does keep your eyes peeled mean?” I have to admit it is a strange expression.

We set off on the way to Kununurra and come across a sign to the “Gregory Tree” which is on the tip of the Gregory National Park. It’s a huge boab tree that marks the camp of Augustus Charles Gregory who led an expedition across North Australia 1855-56. It is on the banks of the Victoria River and the dates of the expedition are carved into the tree. The boat they used to sail there was damaged and they repaired it with timber from Timber Creek where we stayed last night.

Continued on to the Border of WA and the quarantine area. Kid’s had spent some time this morning collecting these big, round seed pods that had split open and looked like heads with mouths. They made them into various funny little characters with faces etc. The first bit of natural craft they’d done and I had a bad feeling they were gunna have to go... We could tell the quarantine man was struggling with his decision..(African mahogany seed pods) but the kids took it pretty well and handed the offending matter over.

Got into Kununarra and into a really pretty park overlooking a lake. Sorted some stuff out then went for a drive to get some takeaway (yay!) Mark remembered that Ivanhoe Crossing was a nice spot. It was closed , but at the spot we had to turn around was...the annual Kununurra Motorcross Event. Samuel fixed his puppy dog eyes on us, we just couldn’t refuse him, so stayed and soaked up the fumes and dust for a few hours.