Lake Argyle

We arrived to a long line-up of vans, campers, caravans and any other sort of form of accommodation that you can think of, and a lot of them were lining up for sites that that may be spare ones, as they had not booked!! We had booked our sites here in November last year. All good. What a lovely park right on the shores of Lake Argyle.

Checked out everything (including the laundry, as you do) including confirming our booking for a sunset cruise the next afternoon/evening. The guys even checked out the 'Infinity Pool' that overlooks the lake and appears to be part of it.

To fill you in on a few statistics of Lake Argyle, I believe it is some 70 kms long and has approx. 90 islands in it. It is an old cattle station that was established by the Durack family after spending 2 1/2 years herding a mob of cattle from Queensland to the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia. The lake was created in 1973 and forms the storage reservoir for the Ord Irrigation area. The result is a massive expanse of freshwater on average equivalent to 17 Sydney harbours. It is also home to quite an array of wildlife including 25,000 freshwater crocodiles and 26 species of native fish.

Now for our sunset tour - we were picked up by bus around 2pm and taken to the area where we got on the boat, so help me, from where the bus dropped us (around 3 ft from the waters edge) to the ramp to get on the boat, was all of about 4-5 steps - piece of red carpet included! 

We buzzed around on a small portion of the lake (approx the top quarter I would say), before coming to a stop, in the middle of the lake, for people who would like to have a swim with champagne and nibbles on a small floating bar. Peter of course was all for this, however decided that when he felt something under his feet, it was time to get out. It was possibly a croc, and of course freshwater crocs are not after humans for their supper. The rest of us enjoyed champagne and nibbles on board the boat.

It was just after this  (oh around 5pm) that the sun began to sink into the west and we were given the most glorious display of natures' colour palette imaginable. Because we are so far west from where most of us come from and closer to the equator it was a lot earlier than we are used to for a sunset, and a lot quicker for the sun to go down too. What a sight!!

I think this is going to be one of the highlights of our trip - it was so awe-inspiring, and the details about the dam were mind blowing to say the least.

With these scenes floating through my brain as I head for bed, I shall finish off for now, and say goodnight.

'Til next time,

June

PS Sorry for the delays in posting to the blog - the internet connections are not all that good up in this part of the country.