Off to See the Wizard - Our Last Day in Kununurra

Sunday was our last day in Kununurra and was to be a day of domestics and not doing very much at all.

The sun rises very early here compared to Darwin, so we were up and about and the washing on fairly early.   The other job was the groceries.

Before we did the groceries we went for a little drive to Ivanhoe Crossing.

We had heard a little of it, but didn’t know much.  

It is a causeway across the Ord River, which has water over it all the time and is therefore closed for quite a bit of the year during the wet season.

It is open now so we watched a few vehicles go across, but didn’t see the need to do so ourselves.

After we completed our domestics we went for another little drive.  This time to the Mirima National Park - all of 2 kms out of town.  It is described as a mini Bungle Bungles, as it has similar rock formations.  There are three walks you can do, so we did a couple of them. Of course this was in the heat of the day.  Silly move, but you get that.

In town you have no concept that this is so close.  The first walk we did was on a very new boardwalk.  

Check out that little rock on the top.

There is an offshoot that climbs to a lookout.  It was quite steep.  Some was over natural rocks and there were also some stairs.  It was worth the effort, despite the heat.

From there you look back over the national park.

And also across town.  Imagine having this at your back door.

Remember that little rock I pointed out.  Yep, we were right up near there.

Some of the rocks looked like they were just hanging there, waiting for a tiny push to send them to the bottom of the gorge.

I have been seeing these “pink fluffy bushes”, as I’ve called them, since Kakadu National Park.  Now I have finally learnt that they are called “Turkey Bush”.

It was nice to get back down to the base of the gorge and the shade.  We were amazed at how this tree is clinging to the side of the rock face.

The second little walk we did was down another gorge.

This little guy was on the path and quite happy just pecking around and letting us quite close.  It is a white-quilled rock pigeon, according to the information board.

We had been umming and aaahing as to whether to do a trip into the Bungle Bungles, but were having trouble contacting the tour operators.  Their answering machine says they don’t answer the phone as they are short staffed and to send an email.  They don’t reply to those either. After this little walk into very similar formations we have decided not to worry about pursuing the tour.

So much for just hanging around the caravan park.  We never are very good at staying home.

So that is the end of our time in this part of the world and in our shady campsite.  We have really enjoyed it, with much more to see and do than we expected.

The highlight of the day for us both was the Miriam National Park.