Saturday July 2 Perth - Lake Argyle
After a delicious family breakfast at the new coffee shop in
Hampden Road, our son Tim drove John and I to the airport for our
flight to Kunnunurra. We were pleasantly surprised to be given an
upgrade to business class seats for the flight, and didn't mind that
the plane left 30 minutes late, having waited for some passengers on a
flight late into Perth. It was a lovely flight, not too high so we had
a good view of an enormous crater and mountain range some 40 minutes
before landing. We wondered if the crater might have been the Wolfe
Creek meteorite crater, but it turned out to be the McIntosh Intrusion,
South West of the Bungle Bungles by 50 Km. We spent much of the flight
reading about the Kimberley.
On
arrival in Kunnunurra we picked up the hire car, a four wheel drive
Toyota Landcruiser, and were about to leave the airport when Cheryl
discovered that her spectacles must have slipped from her bag and been
left on the plane. She was just in time to ask the ground staff to
rescue them for her before the plane took off again for Perth. We did
some shopping in the town in what turned out to be the smaller of the
two supermarkets, and not finding a large choice of meat, bought some
chilli beef sausages, thinking to barbecue them at the campsite. We
then drove 80km to Lake Argyle. As we got close to the hills around the
lake we were dismayed to see how quickly the sun was sinking behind
them, and indeed the sun set before 5pm and we just managed to pitch
tent in the fading light. The next task was for John to work out how to
use a new camping stove bought the previous night in the Paddy Pallin
store in Perth city. Our difficulties in lighting the stove brought an
offer of a gas lighter from the children of the family camping beside
us. Soon foot high flames from the kerosene stove increased the
children's interest. Eventually the sausages were cooked and we ate
some, and then discovered a communal barbecue 10 metres from our
campsite, that would have made the food preparation much easier. Never
mind. After we'd finished eating we went for a walk in the warm breezy
dark night to a lookout to view, above the blackness that hid the water
of the lake, the most amazingly beautiful sight of the Milky Way in a
clear moonless sky. Neither of us could remember seeing the Milky Way
so clearly, not even in the southwest of WA.
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On
arrival in Kunnunurra we picked up the hire car, a four wheel drive
Toyota Landcruiser, and were about to leave the airport when Cheryl
discovered that her spectacles must have slipped from her bag and been
left on the plane. She was just in time to ask the ground staff to
rescue them for her before the plane took off again for Perth. We did
some shopping in the town in what turned out to be the smaller of the
two supermarkets, and not finding a large choice of meat, bought some
chilli beef sausages, thinking to barbecue them at the campsite. We
then drove 80km to Lake Argyle. As we got close to the hills around the
lake we were dismayed to see how quickly the sun was sinking behind
them, and indeed the sun set before 5pm and we just managed to pitch
tent in the fading light. The next task was for John to work out how to
use a new camping stove bought the previous night in the Paddy Pallin
store in Perth city. Our difficulties in lighting the stove brought an
offer of a gas lighter from the children of the family camping beside
us. Soon foot high flames from the kerosene stove increased the
children's interest. Eventually the sausages were cooked and we ate
some, and then discovered a communal barbecue 10 metres from our
campsite, that would have made the food preparation much easier. Never
mind. After we'd finished eating we went for a walk in the warm breezy
dark night to a lookout to view, above the blackness that hid the water
of the lake, the most amazingly beautiful sight of the Milky Way in a
clear moonless sky. Neither of us could remember seeing the Milky Way
so clearly, not even in the southwest of WA.