Over the Bungles

Today was a very special day. We started by watching as the light first started to hit the night sky while we waited to board the coach at 5.15am.

Out in front of our very smart hotel is a row of very dramatic Boab trees and they were perfect for my early morning photo! After checking in at the little Slingair terminal and subjecting ourselves to being weighed we trouped out to the planes we had been allocated to.

According to the weight of each passenger we were arranged inside the plane and off we went. This was a trip that has been oh-so-high on my “bucket list” that I was almost trembling with excitement! I heard about the flight over the Bungle Bungles many years ago and never thought that I would ever get the chance to do it myself and yet here I was, along with ten others in this little plane, actually flying over the Kimberley outback. The Bungle Bungles are a long way (even by air) from Kununnurra so our flight took us over some glorious scenery. The pilot gave an excellent description of the places we flew over and I learned a lot about Lake Argyle and how the irrigation was managed and I also managed to take dozens of photographs (200 +) as well as video. Of course the absolute highlight was when we eventually reached the Bungle Bungles and I could see them for myself. I can hardly wait to put the video together properly!

Before the flight finished we flew over the impressive Argyle Diamond Mine in which the best pink diamonds in the world are found. Of course from where we were the hole in the ground did not look to be very large!

The flight over we had a look through a couple of Argyle diamond selling jewellery shops and drooled over the beauty of the stones and gasped at the price tags. Then hopped back into the coach to see a much humbler rock which is also found here in the Kimberleys. Zebra Rock.

The price tag is much less than the price tag on the diamonds but Zebra rock is actually quite rare and it only found in one small area on the edge of Lake Argyle and then only when the water level is really low!

Down in the waters of the river at the place where we viewed the Zebra Rock was a jetty from which to feed the fish. What fun! The cat fish were HUGE and they certainly were keen on bread. That was great to watch, the fish almost climbed over each other to be the ones to get the bread!

Our final visit was to Wyndham where the coach first climbed up to the top of a rise to a lookout from where we could see the five Rivers and the port of Wyndham. The trucks moving iron ore down below looked like tiny toys. We drove down from our perch and visited Wyndham which is only a small town – but it had a unique attraction. I believe it is the largest crocodile in the world!

Apparently it was made by students at Halls Creek TAFE college from mesh and concrete. It is really impressive!

AJ