To Broome and Back!: Day 53. Kununurra. 03/07/2015

John was up early to get the Prado to Toyota for the 120,000 service. We have now travelled 8,300 kms since we left the village. Rod, Don and John bit the bullet and advanced booked the Horizontal Falls day tour from Broome. The bank balance took a severe hit but it is something we must do.
Our site here is in a great position with "water views" but lots of dust from passing traffic. a good wash coming up.
Don and Heather kindly offered to take us with them today and our first stop was a return visit to the Mini Bungle Bungles in Mirima National Park just a short distance from the caravan park. We were here yesterday but only ventured in a short way. We took the "Lookout Walk" which was quite a gentle climb that took us to the top of the range and provides spectacular views over the Ord Valley and surrounding sandstone ranges. We certainly got a better appreciation of the Mini Bungle Bungles from the top of the range. The "Looking at Plants" walk was just a short 400 metre loop walk that included a universal access boardwalk with signage along the way to indicate some of the local plants and their traditional uses by the Aboriginals. The park features 350 million year old sandstone, and the striking colour changes due to sunlight variances gives spectacular photo opportunities.
Our next stop was at the Sandalwood Factory. Sandalwood has been used for thousands of years in traditional Chinese, Ayurvedic and Australian Aboriginal medicine to treat many conditions. Native Sandalwood is sourced from outback Western Australia and is harvested to make many products from facial cleansing creams and lotions to perfumes and even mosquito coils.
We then drove to the Hoochery Distillery to sample the rums and liqueurs and to have a light lunch. The Hoochery was a very interesting building that featured an eclectic decor and as we pushed our way through the swinging doors we felt like we were entering the hotel in High Noon! The rums and liqueurs sampled were different and some were very high in alcohol content up to 60 per cent proof. Our journey further on took us to the Agriculture region of the Ord Valley. The Ord River Irrigation area currently occupies around 15,000 hectares with the dominant crops being melons, mangoes, pumpkins, sandalwood, chia and other seed crops. There are also trial crops of rice, wheat, sugar cane, soybeans and cotton and the whole area is very lush and productive and most of the produce is sold in WA.
Before dinner tonight we spent some time at the waters edge waiting for the resident croc George to appear at his usual time of about 5 pm. He made an early appearance today but could not be coaxed to eat a Frankfurt that had been tossed in the water, his preference is for a more tasty morsel such as a Pilchard. It is completely dark now at 6 pm. but we will be woken up at about 5 a.m. when the sun comes up here.
Off to market tomorrow.