From the Bungle Bungles we headed into Kununurra – our first major centre since Alice Springs a couple of weeks before. We were in need of a big shop and enjoyed relaxing at a green grassy caravan park with a flash swimming pool. Some time was had at the Hoochery Distillery tasting rum and getting ideas about future brewing projects.

Kununurra from kellys knob lookout

Mirima National Park from kellys knob

Kununurra is a pleasant, attractive and liveable town with nice green spaces, a lake, good shops, plenty of choice for eating out, heaps of activities and tours for tourists and delicious local rum. Wyndham has none of that and it’s awesome! It feels like you’ve stepped off the edge of the earth when you come into Wyndham. It’s hot, arid, inhospitable, dilapidated, surrounded by mudflats and nearly deserted yet we had a really great time there.

Before Wyndham is the Grotto – a deep, cold waterhole that’s fun to climb down into and great for a brisk cold swim.

Heading into Wyndham we first checked out the Wyndham prison boab tree then drove up the Bastion (big hill overlooking town) to Five Rivers Lockout. The view across Wyndham Port, Cambridge Gulf, the rivers and the vast country is really impressive.

View from Five Rivers Lookout with King River top left. At the top centre of image is a part of Cambridge Gulf called The Gut and is near the confluence of the Pentecost and Durack Rivers. Out of view of this image is also the Ord River and Forrest River.

After the lookout we stopped at the big crocodile.

Then we checked into the Wyndham caravan park and headed off to the social club for beers and pizza. We enjoyed chatting to the friendly locals, many having interesting stories to tell about life around town and how they ended up in Wyndham. Both the beers and pizzas were delicious and we had an excellent night.

Next day was spent wandering around exploring the various attractions, enjoying food and coffee at the one remaining cafe in town and fishing off the jetty. The pub and various other eateries have all closed down along with a mine that used to export iron ore at Wyndham Port. There’s an old video store / convenience store that’s still open where we went for icecream and enjoyed listening to the owner’s stories of being in the circus and touring the outback with Slim Dusty and local gossip about why the pub has closed. Unfortunately we missed the museum because it was closed for roof repairs.

We visited the Warriu Park Dreamtime Statues, a couple of old cemeteries, some historic buildings and the jetty. We fished the sunset off the jetty but had no luck, then headed out of town for a dodgy side of the road camp on the way to Parry Creek Road along the Ord River.

Relaxing under the gazebo at the pristinely maintained Warriu Park Dreamtime Statues in Wyndham.