After leaving Darwin we headed for Litchfield National Park. We had two full days to explore the park and enjoyed the many waterfalls. It was busy though! Lots of places to swim and people were making the most of it. Buley Rockpools were so popular with swimmers that someone we met described it as the Ganges!

Then it was time to head west.

Our first stop was Kununurra. Kununurra was built to serve the Old River Scheme with Lake Argyle it main water supply. Lake Argyle is 18 times the size of Sydney Harbour and if full over 70 times! I can remember reading somewhere a long time go that it could almost be categorised as a small sea as there are places on the lake where you can’t see the other shore. I loved the sign below the dam wall – ‘Faith in a pile of stones’!

We visited the old Durack homestead while at the lake. The homestead was relocated prior to the lake filling but is the original homestead of the Durack family. The Durack’s are famous for droving cattle from near Quilpie in Queensland all the way to the Kimberleys. Took them two years. When they finally arrived one of the stockmen found out his mother was ill so got on his horse the next day and started the long ride back! Have a read of the book ‘Kings in Grass Castles’.

The Bungle Bungles (Purnululu National Park) was our next stop. The last time we had been here was 31 years ago on our honeymoon. We loved the place then and enjoyed it just as much this visit. Last time we camped in the park but decided to stay at the van park just off the highway this time. The road in was 53 Km of corrugations with several water crossings. It took just over 90 minutes to drive in. Everything in the park is spectacular and you can see why it’s a world heritage area. Hot though! We were lucky when we got to Cathedral Gorge as we had it to ourselves. Stumbling over rocks on the path up to Echidna Chasm wasn’t much fun but the Chasm itself was well worth the effort.

Next stop Broome!