We woke before dawn and decided to walk to the Creek to see some of the bird life. Surprisingly there were almost no birds around. So we drove to Marglu Billabong (Parry's Lagoon), about 20 km. Flocks of sluggish, blue-grey small doves were warming up on the road, and flew up at our approach. We had to drive slowly to avoid them. At one point we disturbed a jabiru stork, which flew gracefully over the car.
The
Lagoon was magical. We saw water lilies, jabiru, pelican,
glossy ibis, Australasian grebe, Radjah shell duck, great egret and
intermediate egret, rainbow bee-eater, little pied and black cormorant,
darter, magpie geese, black-winged stilt, a Jesus-bird walking on lilly
pads, grey heron, mudlark, swamp hen, and lots of small ducks. The
Marglu Lagoon area was protected under the Ramsar Convention (for the
preservation of wetland habitats). 
On our way back we had to stop to allow a long snake to cross the road.
Our return trip was faster as the birds were more mobile. We compiled the list of birds we had seen back at Parry's Creek Farm over breakfast, using some bird books available in the restaurant. Our breakfast of bacon and eggs was very welcome, but only instant coffee was available. So we used our stove for one last time, while breaking camp, to heat water to make plunger coffee. We drank the coffee and a tiny bottle of amoretto, sitting on the banks of the creek. By this time some birds had arrived: multi-coloured rainbow bee-eaters catching insects in flight, eagles, a jabiru flew past.
We turned off the main (dirt) road after about a kilometre
onto a 13km stretch of road marked as Old Halls Creek Road. This was
part of the road built in the 1880's by gold miners to
help them push their carts more than 300 km from the port at Wyndam to
the gold fields at Halls Creek. The edges of the road had been marked
by large flat stones, and some of these stones were still in place on
this short stretch. However the road was very rough and very narrow. We
are not sure how we could have gotten round an on-coming car.
Thankfully we no car. We did however stop while an enormous water
monitor crossed the road at one creek crossing. Some parts required us
to engage the four-wheel drive.
After reaching the highway it was a quick drive back to
Kununurra. We decided to look at some Argyle diamonds in one of the
shops, and ended up buying a beautiful ring for Cheryl containing a
burnt orange diamond (a rare colour for a diamond). John also found
there two halves of a huge nautiloid shell, a lovely instance of part
of the Data Analysis Australia new logo. We changed from holiday
clothes to travel clothes in the car park, and unloaded the car. No one
from the at rental firm was available at the airport, so the keys were
posted through the return slot. We were again given a business upgrade
and had a comfortable flight back to Perth, catching up on news in an
up-to-date newspaper. Because of the short runway at the Kunnunnurra
airport, the plane needed to touch down in Newman to refuel. What a
wonderful two-week trip!
