Scones and Search and Rescue

Katherine to Kununurra

Our flight today took us out of Katherine and up over the Victoria River towards Bullo River Station, (Sara Henderson fame) (P- A beautiful Station homestead that we have previously visited and dined at) then north to Lejune Station before heading to Kununurra. We left Katherine about 8 am and arrived in Kununurra about the same time after a 90 minute flight, due to the time changes. After picking up our car we headed into town for a drink and a wander. Peter met up with Bevan, a guy he knows who offered to take us on a tour round stage 2 of the Ord River Scheme. We checked into our accommodation, a beautiful apartment at the Freshwater, before meeting Bevan and his wife for lunch and then heading off. (P- stage 2 of the Ord irrigation scheme consists of 10,000ha of land that the government has established an infrastructure of irrigation channels, dams, roads and electrical supply. When completed the land was put out to tender, some existing local, successful farming families tendered for some land, a predominantly Aussie consortium bid for it and the Chinese— Yes the Chinese were the successful bidders @ a total of $5.00 yes $5.00 a year rent with a 75 year lease – sure there is millions to be spent laser levelling and internal farm infrastructure but surely some of it should have been retained by or for Aussies.. well done to our politicians!!)

Back at our unit after the tour we relaxed for a while before going to the Pumphouse restaurant (a restaurant in the original irrigation pumphouse complete with pumps etc still in place) for dinner.

Peters daughter and son-in-law and granddaughters were staying in the caravan park across the road so we organised for them all to come over for breakfast before we each headed our different ways.

(P- I was very fortunate that by time we returned from our tour of the irrigation area the Argyle Diamond Store was CLOSED – so I guess Judith has missed out -AGAIN! Maybe just maybe some other time!!)

Home Valley Station

Today is just a short flight about 20 minutes, it took us and hour and a half as we side tracked to the north to fly over Berkeley River Lodge at the head of the Berkeley River. We decided not to land there for lunch as there was a $350 landing fee and a $50 per person fee to drive us from the landing strip to the lodge, less than a kilometre for lunch. Just a bit excessive.

(P-Judith omitted to mention the $2500.00 per night accomodation charge, plus dinner, flights, breakfast, fishing guides and whatever else you may require! Little wonder we just flew by!)

We landed at Home Valley Station and were picked up from the airstrip by Alfie, a very exuberant indigenous young man who had a love for this country and gave us a running commentary as we drove to the homestead. We have a lovely Cabin here overlooking the river and they have two pools which we made use of during the afternoon. Dinner was in the open air dining area and was very nice.

(P- some of the film “Australia” was filmed at Home Valley and the pastoral lease was once owned by the Durack family famous for their pioneering of the Kimberley Cattle Industry. It was awesome to see and experience an indigenous managed and operated enterprise where they take such pride in their properties and business. A huge contrast from many of the other communities we have visited that are littered with rubbish, trashed housing and unkept people. )

Ellenbrae Station to Derby

This morning Philip and I were up early to walk to the Cockburn Range Lookout to watch the sunrise. It’s a lovely morning, clear and warm and the sunrise was gorgeous. Back to the room and then over for breakfast before organising our ride back to the airstrip for the short hop over to Ellenbrae Station for morning tea. Ellenbrae is well know for its Scones and jam and cream and we couldn’t pass up this opportunity. Logan, the manager of the property picked us up from the airstrip and delivered us to the homestead where we enjoyed our drinks and scones. After a quick run back to the airstrip we took off for Drysdale Station. Logan had rung them to see if we could land, but on our way we decided to continue on to Derby without stopping. As we flew over we had no phone range at all. By the time we reached Derby, Search and Rescue had been contacted because we hadn’t landed at Drysdale and they had rung Logan to see if we had left and they hadn’t heard us fly over so they were concerned for our safety. We were totally oblivious to this until we landed and Peter had several missed calls and Rad had been contacted. It took a few minutes to sort out but all was well.

(P- the Scones, Jam and Cream May well be the most expensive morning tea we have ever had if you took into account fuel, plane running costs and of course the $24.00 for the actual morning tea)

Tonight we are in a motel catering for the mining industry, a slight downgrade from Home Valley and lacking the special charm of Cape York). We have a “mine ready” Toyota Hilux rental vehicle so Philip and Peter decided we should backtrack and drive some of the “Gibb River Road “ in it whilst we have it. There is always an adventure around every new dawn!!!!