September was a very full month spent mostly in Darwin, flying home for a week for James’ and Alex’s wedding, then down to Katherine and finally heading west. So the last day of September heralded the end of the month, the start of October and a new state, Western Australia. For Rob it was the first time to set foot in W.A. and had now been in every state and territory of Australia. Jo had been there decades ago for a work trip. Lake Argyle is only just over the border but W.A. none the less.
After the incessant heat of the Northern Territory buildup, it was quite strange to see dark grey clouds as we approached the Quarrantine Station at the W.A. border. You cannot take a large range of fruits and vegetables across the border and the Quarratine Officers actually do inspect inside your van and car to ensure that you have fully declared everything you should.
Believe it or not… it started raining at the same time we pulled in under the quarrantine shelter and the air temperature dropped from 34oC to 24oC as soon as we crossed and continued on our way. It seems that W.A. really is another country! It didn’t last too long and we eventually made our way down to the Lake Argyle Resort and Caravan Park where the temperatures resumed their climb to the mid 30’s and above.
Lake Argyle is the country’s second largest freshwater reservoir after the Ord River was dammed in the 1970’s. Despite it’s immense size you don’t really see it until you actually approach the resort, which is perched high above the lake on one of the many cliff tops surrounding that end of the lake.
Apart from the resort, there is no other development anywhere else around the immense shoreline of the lake and it’s quite weird that such a massive body of fresh water has only one tourist location and a handful of boats at the boat ramp. It is eerily desolate around the lake in contrast to the resort itself where everybody is congregated. We were surprised that there weren’t dozens of houseboats and pleasure-craft cruising the deep blue waters; only a few tinnies and a couple of houseboats.
The resort was fairly large and our site was quite comfortable and reasonably sized with a bit of shade. The amenities were ensuite-style, combined toilet/shower. No issues with water obviously! Turning the shower on full cold resulted in a wonderful tepid shower instead of the icy blast we’d get back home in Royalla…
A small helicopter operated flight-seeing trips of the lake and the Bungle Bungles from only 100m or so away and there was an infinity pool not far from that where you sit in the almost cool water overlooking the lake below. We didn’t do a heli flight… too expensive for what it offered but we did book the Sunset Cruise operated by the resort.
We also took a day-trip into Kununurra (70km away) to stock up on groceries after throwing out our veges at the border. This was also to do a quick check of Kununurra to see if we wanted to stay there given the reports of crime and anti-social behaviour. We decided that the reports seemed a bit overblown and some other campers recommended staying at a particular caravan park, which we chose to do after our stay at Lake Argyle.
So apart from the Sunset Cruise we didn’t do much for seven days other than a drive down to the lookout and over the dam to see the spillway into the Ord River, which was quite a sight in itself. Even with only two of the three pipes jetting out the raw power was mesmerising.
For our last night we ate at the resort and both had the Lake Argyle Silver Cobbler special. Silver Cobbler is the commercial name given to the Lake Argyle Shovel Head Catfish. It is commercially harvested from the lake and is a beautiful eating fish. The resort’s cook panfries a thick fillet and then places it on a bed of wilted spinach over which he pours egg that scrambles over the fish and the spinach. It was absolutely brilliant and so different to the usual battered, crumbed or grilled fish.
The Lake Argyle Resort and Caravan Park operates a Sunset Cruise on a fairly large catamaran motor cruiser spending around three and a half hours on the water. It was a great way to cap off out stay at Lake Argyle and was well worth the price of admission. Jo was pleased that she got yet another Senior’s discount!
The cruise starts with a bus trip from the resort down and over the dam to the spillway and hydro power station and then back to the catamaran which is down a steep, rocky road to the boat ramp. The driver was at pains to explain that the boat ramp road is a privately ‘maintained’ road by the hydro power company and is the only access to the lake… Turning the bus after dropping us off did look a bit precarious to say the least.
Once on the catamaran they explain that the part of the lake that we can see from the resort is about 1% of the total lake and that Lake Argyle contains anywhere between 18 and 21 times the volume of Sydney Harbour…
Side Note: Still wondering why bodies of water are measured in ‘Sydney Harbours’ or why asteroids are measured in ‘Buses’ or ‘Refrigerators’?!?!
Anyway… the cruise take you past the main dam and explains that:
- The dam is 300m wide and 100m high;
- It is made from clay and rock to enable it to flex if their are earth movements;
- The hydro-power jets below each release 1 domestic swimming pool of water each second;
- That the Ord River has largely been a white elephant project but is slowly starting to create an economic benefit through irrigation farming and hydro-electricity.
The Argyle diamond mine, which is closing down over the next two years, was the main benefactor of the hydro-electricity from Lake Argyle by not burning millions of litres of diesel every year to run generators…
The cruise continues onto the lake’s open water and heads to a place called ‘croc cove’. It is a low saddle between to hillocks on an island. Two freshwater crocs obligingly crawled out of the water and up the slope to bask in the day’s last sun and the clicks of twenty or thirty cameras.
Before Lake Argyle was created a freshwater crcodile census was taken. They found around 350 freshies. Fifty years on and there are now estimates of around 35,000 freshies in the lake largely due to the large number of islands in the lake resulting in less egg predation.
After ‘croc cove’ we move onto another island with a small population of wallabies that come down to greet the boat. The cruise brings along some food for them so the three that we saw were quite happy to come to the waters edge for another photo opportunity.
From their we head to the fish feeding area where stale bread is hand out for us to break up and drop overboard. Before long their is a large school of archer fish darting in amongst the bread crumbs. They’re obviously well fed because a lot just swim around the bread ignoring it. After a while some of the bread begins to sink and then the shovel head catfish (silver cobbler) come up from underneath and start feasting. It at this point that Rob wishes he had fishing bow with him.
After a bit more cruising around the lake we head back to a mooring buoy. The shoreline is kilometres away in all directions. The boat captain and his assistant invite us all to grab a pool noodle and jump into the lake for a refreshing dip. After jumping into the body temperature water they offer up plastic glasses of bubbles or cans of beer. The beers are thrown into the water near you for you to scoop up and carefully open so that you don’t unnecessarily dilute it by accidentally lowering it below the waterline.
This takes place about 30 minutes before the sun goes down and is the highlight of the cruise. Everybody (in the water) suddenly becomes friendlier and chattier… You realise that you are floating in the middle of an immense lake some 50 metres or more deep, the sun is going down and there are 35,000 freshwater crocodiles sharing the lake with you… It is absolutely magical!!!
Whilst we were floating and enjoying our drinks a large float plane buzzed the boat doing a low fly-by and skimming the water about 100m in front of the catamaran. Not something you see everyday… and at water level as well.
After a couple of drinks, and a wonderful float, the cruise heads back to the resort as the sun finally sets and the lake turns from a deep blue to shining silver. The sky fade to pale and the clouds become tinged with fiery orange . At one point the sky to the left was still daylight blue and to the right it was dusk grey and orange split by the wake of the catamaran trailing behind.
All up, this was a memory that we will hold onto for the rest of our lives… We expected a pleasant evening cruise but ended up with a unique, soul filling experience. We would do it again in a heartbeat…