From our overnight stop at Spring Creek, it was a quick hop to Kununurra. The countryside certainly was unusual, after the generally flat terrain for thousands of kilometres, the ripped and folded hills of stark metamorphic rocks provided an interesting contrast. Perhaps it was these conditions that had produced the gold that had been extracted and the diamonds that were still being mined at Argyle.

On the way we stopped for a snack to be closely observed by a dingo.

Our campsite at Kununurra (Ivanhoe Crossing) was well supplied with grass and trees along with a shaded swimming pool, which tempted us to linger. As well we had some pleasant company. On the first night we chatted to a Merv who had a by-pass but did not suffer the problems of a damaged pectoral muscle I was still enduring, supporting my belief the surgeon had made some mistake. We also met up again with Jeff and Karyn from Eleebana (almost next door) whose path had been criss-crossing ours for thousands of kilometres since Karratha. We enjoyed some amusing conversations with them, particularly about the conflicts they were experiencing trying to travel with parents and relatives. Indeed we were finding that multiple night stops tended to lead to far more contact than the one night stands of the earlier part of the trip.

We joined Jeff and Karyn the next day for the tour by boat up the Ord River to the dam that held back the huge area of Lake Argyle. On our route again through a "gorge" this time of red quartzite we encountered small crocodiles, flying foxes and assorted birds (e.g.Jabiru). We were given a superb commentary by a local part time mango farmer.

Although the area had struggled in the past with major crop failures, it was now producing $50M worth of produce a year and perhaps justified the two $20M dams. He was not impressed by the burning that was an established aboriginal custom to keep the grass levels down originally to facilitate hunting. His concern was that the methods used "dropping matches from air conditioned Land-cruisers" and the failure to take into account new foliage patterns was killing off too many trees. His comment that in areas protected from burning, rain forest still remained was a reminder of the destruction of the magnificent forests that covered much of Australia by repeated burning. Certainly to our eyes the devastation of the fire and the apparent lack of supervision when burning was a blight on the countryside.

Our tour also included an encounter with an old Durack homestead, a family that had been influential in establishing pastoral leases in the 1800s, ("King in Grass Castles") though now all their properties seemed to belong to Packer.

Still lacking confidence to walk long distances especially on uneven ground or in the heat, I opted for domestic duties while Genny took the flight into the Bungle Bungles. It was an impressive trip to see an unusual beehive formation of striped sandstone. Included was a trip over the local diversion dam and its farmland as well as the impressive Argyle mine and Lake Argyle (20 Sydharbs = 'Sydney Harbours', an Australian unit of volume (ed)).

The formation of beehive shaped striped hills were very unusual and quite striking. The area had not long been open to tourists and was now on the world heritage list. The formations of layered sandstone protected by silica were very fragile so perhaps access could become limited in the future.

A guide provided information to a small group about local geology and vegetation.

The large cathedral gorge was a feature.

On the return flight the Argyle diamond mine was seen as well as some of the local farm areas that only survive with irrigation. Unfortunately despite the volumes of water available no profitable crop could be found to really take advantage.

Even in the local area there were some interesting sights including a very small national park with some formations similar to the bungle bungles and a park where famous people had planted trees, though amusingly some had died.