Well, after a very long day of treacherous driving on skinny winding roads with no lines (a Western Australian specialty) through spectacular scenery with huge arid mountains, I’ve found myself in Kununurra — where I will probably hang out for a few days. Not that there wasn’t anything to see between Fitzroy Crossing and here, but you did need a Four Wheel Drive for just about all of it. It’s unfortunate to have missed out on the Bungle Bungles, on the one hand, but there is still plenty left to see around here that I will barely have time for, anyway.
I did drive past the world’s largest diamond mine on the way here today. It was a bit odd because it is pretty well known in Australia and listed on all the maps as “Argyle Diamond Mine”, but when you drive past it, there is just a little sign saying “The Argyle Project.” I hope they can’t possibly think that would make it more secure. Not that there was much to see from the road, anyway. It’s an open-pit mine, and you could see a bit of dust being kicked up from the highway.
Kununurra is the last town before the Northern Territory border on one of only two paved roads heading into and out of this giant state (the other being across the Nullarbor Plain on the south side). It’s the most north-eastern town in Western Australia, built in the 1960’s to support a massive dam that is used to irrigate large agricultural areas up here (making use of the summer rainy season).
It’s actually quite beautiful around here. I’m camped next to in a place called “Hidden Valley”. There are lots of spectacular mountains around with big rocky outcrops and many shady trees (which are always a relief to find in sunbaked Australia). But it is HOT. It is like Perth in January right now, but it’s the dead of winter.
A short drive north of here towards the coast will take you through huge agricultural regions that resemble California’s San Joaquin Valley with huge fields of sunflowers and other crops. To the west of here is Wyndham, which is a pretty tiny place, but with some really spectacular views out over the Cambridge Gulf and Joseph Bonaparte Gulf in the Timor Sea.
Another problem with this place is its time zone. It’s actually in the same time zone as Perth. The problem is that it is about 3200 kilometres northeast of Perth. I find that it is getting dark at 5 PM, and I’m trying to get to sleep by 6 PM – lying there in my hot, sweaty tent in these humid tropics. Ugh! I would hate to think what this place is like in the summer. Like the other hot states in Australia, Western Australia doesn’t use Daylight Saving Time. The result is very early sunrises and very early sunsets in summer. Not only would this place be even hotter, but the sun would probably start coming up around 2 AM or 3 AM (since it seems to start getting light in Perth around 4 AM in December). I’m looking forward to getting across the Northern Territory border for the time zone change as much as anything!
