The starting point

The starting point

Tuesday 16 August 2016

16/8/16 A forest of Boabs

  Time to get out of town for the day , so we packed some lunch & water & headed off . Todays drive was going to take us on 80 odd kilometres of gravel roads , we followed the power lines that head out to Wyndham . The road shadows the Ord River , the first part from the highway follows a ridge for quite a way , there are several creeks ( not flowing ) that originate in this range . Here is one part of it.


 From here it was further down the corrugated , rocky & dusty track to the turnoff to Ivanhoe Crossing . This is an old S shaped causeway that crosses the Ord River , on the other side is the irrigation area .



 The water looks great , so inviting - except for the possibility of saltwater crocodiles !!! Bit of a waste really !!
 Back out to the dusty track , next stop was Black Rock Falls & Pool , no more than 10 to 15 klms away . There's a 300m walk to get to the falls , they aren't flowing - they only really flow in the wet season . There is a cliff that the water drops off to create the falls - it would be at least 60m tall and has trees clinging to the edge , not sure what they're growing in !!


 The rock is mainly orange , but black where the water flows over . There's a pool at the bottom that still has some water in it and also some small fish swimming around happily !



  A section of the cliff looked interesting , like someone had spilt a can of black paint .


  It was nice and cool in the shadows of the cliff , but that wasn't going to get us any further down the road , so back out into the 36 degrees and back into the air con of the ute !!
 The road surface improved as we got further out and away from the hills & ridges . The country now was predominantly river flats used for grazing cattle . There are many Boabs out here amongst all the dust & spear grass .
 Our next stop was beside the Ord River somewhere for lunch . Finding a track down to a boat ramp , we  headed down . We were somewhat surprised to find a caravan & some camper trailers parked just above the water line . Finding somewhere in the shade for lunch was the next job , not as easy as it sounds . We headed down a track running along the riverbank about 8m above the water , it was like driving through a war zone - trees broken or dead , dirt & dust everywhere and hundreds of Euros - no not european money ,  the small kangaroos !! We found a couple of Brolgas and some Magpie Geese and a couple of Ibis - they all got a surprise to see us !!


 A bit further down there was a small shady spot for us to stand in and have lunch . It was a good view point over the river as we watched the Archer fish and some other larger fish swim around .


 We dragged ourselves away from the river and kept going down Parry Creek Road . Passing only a couple of houses and Parry Creek Station , we came across a chimney , all that was left from an earlier house . It was surrounded by Boabs .


 Boabs were just starting to get plentiful , they appeared along the flats , up the hills and down the other sides , we have never seen so many Boabs before !!




 Turning off Parry Creek Rd into Old Halls Creek Rd turned out to be interesting . The old road was built in1894 to provide access to the gold strike further south . Some sections of the track have the edging pavement stones still in place - they are about 3m apart forming a lane through the bush .
 The track itself is another story , rough , rocky , bull dust and some sand as well - 10 klms of it - took us about 30 mins to get across it !! This is one of the creek crossings , and you can see the width of the track - the edge pavement stones continue on either side of the creek .


 Coming back onto the Great Northern Highway on Wyndham side of the Grotto ( a waterfall and plunge pool ) , we headed back into Kununurra for a swim , then some salsa & a beer .
 Here's a map link :-https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-YPUBF9HcHe21vLj0H5_E4rgFew&usp=sharing









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