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29th September 2008.
Kununurra is a reasonably new town and was established in 1960 to service the Ord River Scheme. The River was dammed in 1971 which formed the biggest man-made lake in Australia, Lake Argyle. Also nearby is the Argyle Diamond Mine which is the world's largest supplier of diamonds, producing approximately 30 million carats each year and accounts for approximately one-quarter of the world's natural diamond production.
Kununurra:
The Diversion Dam and Lake Argyle provides the water supply for the Ord Irrigation scheme and the major crops are Sugar cane, Mangoes, a wide variety of melons, Sandlewood and seed crops.
It's actually quite weird seeing this oasis and all the plantations in the middle of the outback. The Dam not only keeps all the plantations irrigated, it is the main social activity and tour operators offer various nature based and BBQ boat cruises.
Lake Argyle:
This is the largest man made water storage structure in the Southern hemisphere and holds, in water volume, the equivalent of 22 Sydney Harbours.
It's huge and there are plenty of boat cruises and scenic flights to choose from.
Ivanhoe Crossing:
The infamous Ivanhoe Crossing and once again, Tinkerbelle had to get into the action.
The marker poles along the crossing are 400mm high and the water was flowing quite fast. Our biggest water crossing so far and it was a bit scary at first coz I could feel the force of the water flow pushing against the car and the steering. I ended up doing the crossing 4 times so we could film it from various angles. The outside camera attached to the lower part of the front door got a good soaking and I'm surprised it was still working. Awesome footage though. Then Marlene says she wants to go across. Couldn't believe it coz she's not that adventurous when it comes to the off-road stuff, but she enjoyed it.
Went back later in the afternoon to toss a line in chasing the elusive Barramundi. There were already 26 people lined across the crossing, so I just sat back and watched and not one fish was caught. Went back a little earlier the next day, secured a spot and tossed the lures for over an hour and once again, not one fish was caught by anyone.
Life on The Road:
It's back up to 40 degrees and after 5pm, the mosquitoes come out in force and you can hear the kamikazes homing in on every bit of flesh they can find. Repellents and sprays didn't help much so spent most evenings inside the air conditioned protection of the caravan.
Well, that's our last stop in WA and tomorrow we're heading into the Northern Territory.
What an awesome and diverse state Western Australia has been, from the lush southern beaches and winery regions through to the unforgiving and remote outback north and there's so much in between that we didn't see, maybe next time round :)
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Our Trip 
