Kununurra was not the next planned stop but while we had little choice we may as well take a look around. Kununurra is typical of a medium size semi-remote WA town, with a reasonable amount of shops and other touristy stores, camping supply shop and town parks with numerous local hard workers laying about. We quickly planned a few out of town visits to a Sandalwood factory and Lake Argyle on the Ord River which is also home to the mega Ord River Dam, Wow! What a lake,
but first the trailer.I woke early Monday morning heading out straight to the RAC station. I won’t say much about that as service wasn’t their best point and the only information I could get from the guy behind the counter was ‘oh that trailer’ ‘yeh go around to Metaland, that’s where we dropped it off’. Just as a point of interest we were lucky to have upgraded our RACQ membership as the 300km tow would have cost us $2K+.
Well after arriving at Metaland it was quickly established that little info had been provided to them as they were thankful to finally know who the owner of the trailer was and the reason the trailer was sitting in the middle of their yard. With repairs underway it was back to some sight seeing.
The Sandalwood factory provided an opportunity to check out a few products, soaps, creams and various smelly stuff however after a short drive Lake Argyle provided us with beautiful scenery and parkland to sit and ponder for a while.
The trailer was fixed rather quickly and all things looking good again we were back on the road. Wyndham seemed now the better choice allowing us to start the Gibb River Road from the east after a visit to the Boab Prison tree.
On the way to Wyndham we stopped by ‘The Grotto’, strange name but a great short walk into a gorge to a billabong. Cold water but the sun at least warmed the rocks enough for the resident Goanna.
Now Wyndham claims to have the biggest Boab tree. Well as Louise often says, every place we travel too brags of having the biggest this or that, although I have to admit it was bloody big.
The Boab was actually located within a carvan park and while we were in the park we met on of the local characters (Jack).
The road out to the Boab Prison tree was heavily corrugated and when we arrived at the prison tree we sighed in relief that the trailer had held up to the track.
Our relief was short lived as on the return trip back to Wyndham the spring hanger let go again. Hard to believe as the weld had looked so good and as a passing local farmer stopped to inquire if help was needed we simply said ‘No thanks we’ve done this before’. So again it was out with wire rope pullies and ratchet straps.
As the sun set we commenced a slow drive back to the caravan park in Kununurra and back the next day to the welder. Repairs completed and with renewed confidence we’re off to Broome and Cape Leveque. Footnote: The guys at Metaland were astounded and could not find a simple solution to why the new section of steel had fatigued so quickly but their policy being no returns they simply got about fixing it and got us on our way.
By Lou: The drive from Bungle Bungles to Kununurra on bitumen was a welcome reprieve from the corrugations and it just felt liberating to be on the road again. We stopped at Turkey Creek roadhouse for dinner, and had a choice of roast, roast or roast (Sunday night is the chef’s night off). We chose roast and it was delicious. As we pulled out at about 5:30pm the sun was starting to set and we enjoyed watching the colour of the sky change from the orange and pink and purple twilight to starry darkness. In the distance we could see bright orange flames along hilltops, possibly some planned burns. We had rung ahead for a campsite so when we arrived at 8:30pm a map was waiting for us and we quickly set up camp and dossed for the night.
Next day while the trailer was being welded we hit the shops to stock up on supplies. We got a couple of books for Sam from an op shop and I noticed how upmarket the two op shops were. Not a lot of clothing items for under $10 an item. What is the world coming to when you can’t pick up an op shop bargain for $4? I thought the books Sam chose were beyond his reading ability but he was so keen on the idea of having his own books to read I didn’t want to quash his enthusiasm. I think he observed the oldest boy Josh, from the Bungle Bungle campground, often immersed in a good book and thought that might be a cool thing. Hallelujah, praise the Lord. Finally, an interest in reading something other than comic books! One of the books, the classic Robinson Crusoe, I discovered to be rather violent and savage, so my eye rolling and tut tutting delighted Samuel even more. He actually made a fair crack of reading it out to us in the car but without being able to see all the words I think he made a bit up. Never the mind, praise, praise, praise!
We had originally intended to do the Gibb River Road, a popular 4WD trek, in a westward direction from Derby to Kununurra as we had been told the gorges get progressively more spectacular from that direction. However, now that fate had pushed us to Kununurra we figured we would just do it from east to west. And anyway, there was a lovely family from Queenscliff Victoria camped next to us who would also be heading that way.
So we thought we’d start by heading to Wyndham, famous for its crocs (largest we saw was 20m long and 3.5m tall) and checked out 5ways, the meeting point of 5 rivers. 
I’d also read about a boab tree that was reportedly so huge it was used as an overnight prison for chained aboriginal prisoners so towards the end of the day we headed 23km out of our way to see that. It was around 4:30pm not long after we left there that we started to head to El Questro but lo and behold the trailer springs failed again. The weld was not even 24hours old! So again, thanks to Craig’s bushman’s skills, within an hour he had us back on the road and crawling…back to Kununurra.
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