After the rather hectic activity or our Kununurra visit, we were looking forward to a few days of sitting around at the Lake Argyle Resort. I have already spun my tale of woe about the plan to blog there, but as it transpired, there was actually more to see and do there than we had expected.
This was to be one of the shortest day's travel we had enjoyed for quite some time, and after the unavoidable long hauls up the WA coast, a luxury.....a mere 72 kms. But even on this short journey, the spectacular East Kimberley scenery continued to impress and delight us.
The road to the resort runs south of the Great Northern Highway, and understandably we were there in no time.
The drive in along this 35 kms stretch demanded some concentration. The bitumen strip is narrow
and oncoming traffic was surprisingly frequent. Passing another large van along here does not leave much room for error. The temptation to gaze at the increasingly rugged surroundings was something which had to be studiously avoided (from the driver's perspective, that is....Liz snapped away with gay abandon)
Despite our early start, we soon discovered that we were not the only ones to have done so. This was but one of three vans in front of us.
Ah, the 80 kph sign....we must be close. What a backdrop!
Notwithstanding my particularly conservative approach to towing along this stretch of road, some in front of us were taking caution to an annoying new level. Patience Pedro, The Navigator is beginning to mutter about closing distances!
And then our first glimpse. The blue waters of Lake Argyle at last.
Past one last towering roadside cliff
and we were there, and,
despite the early hour we were not alone! We soon discovered that this is a very common sight here at the Lake Argyle Resort, at all times of the day.
So were where we exactly? This aerial, courtesy of 'caravanandcamping' shows the resort complex high above a narrow arm of the lake. Before arriving here I had mistakenly thought that we would be on the water's edge. I suppose it could be said that we were, albeit 100 metres above it! But as this shot demonstrates, this is a stunning spot.
Which is why it is so busy, particularly at this time of the year. Not only do tourists (and locals from Kununurra) flock here, we later found out that many arrive and, once here, extend their stay (as we did). This can cause real headaches for park operators, and here at the Lake Argyle Resort the staff have developed a very smart management system.
Whilst most parks prefer advance bookings, here it is different. A month or so out from the beginning of the high season, the park will not accept more than ten bookings per day. We had been lucky. We had one. Despite this, the park management pledge that they will never turn anyone away, and that those wanting a powered site will be given one within a day or so of arrival. Given that over the busiest two months, up to eighty arrivals, yes eighty, per day can be expected here, this is no mean feat.
So how do they manage this? That is the obvious question. Impressively efficiently is the answer. In a nutshell, those without bookings are redirected out of the arrival queue, initially to a holding area and later to the unpowered, overflow sites (we'll look at these shortly). Here they stay until a powered site (or unpowered if that is their preference) becomes available.
Unlike any other parks we had come across previously, here at Lake Argyle a staff member actually greets each arriving van, a booking sheet in hand. "Name, please....do you have a booking?" "Marshman, and yes we do." (this was obviously not actually us..I took this later) Our man was very pleased to hear this and asked me to edge forward when I could as those in front without bookings were moved out to the waiting area.
This can be done very quickly because the entrance roadway is a duel carriageway, with the resort office buildings lying on the exit side, so those who have to wait are told to do a U turn and head back past the office to the van 'waiting room',
Here they sit tight until called, some literally. This lot had just received their call-up..the folding chairs were being hastily packed away as your roving reporter strolled past.
But we were set. Liz went inside to the huge booking desk and did the necessary.
Once the formalities were completed, one of the members of staff who congregate expectantly at the fuel bowser under the direction of the 'head bookings man'
mounted his trusty treadly (slang for bicycle...that's for the young readers!) to lead us to our site.
We had already turned left off the entrance roadway and made our way, as directed,
to the new arrivals holding point where our park guide met us.
From here it was another left turn, up the hill
and right into our site roadway.
Here 'our man' even backed us on. What a luxury that is, although our man was not quite as good at this as he should have been. Once he had left I did make some last minute adjustments, but we were soon set.
Unlike the far end of our row, where shade was a constant,
our allotted site was somewhat exposed, particularly to the afternoon rays. This was something of a drawback in the heat of this time of the year, so out came our rarely used (but when it's needed, vitally important) fridge side shade cloth. This made the world of difference to our internal temperature and the potential need for air-conditioning (which I hate using).
Apart from the shade problem we were very happy with where we had been put. A pathway on our door side (I should point out here that all who use vans refer to the 'fridge and door sides' rather than left or right) meant that we had oodles of 'elbow room' on that side.
Herself was more than happy with the situation and had no trouble fitting into the laid back Lake Argyle lifestyle.
At the front of the van we looked out over the impressive and very well tended garden beds which formed a barrier between the park and the highway and here we were treated to a real surprise.
Not long after our arrival we had heard a great deal of rustling in the garden area not too far from out site. This demanded an investigation and lo and behold...our constantly busy neighbour was none other than a Great Bowerbird busily attending to his bower.
What a masterpiece of construction these bowers are. Masses of thin stalks are jammed into the ground to form a curved archway through which the ever busy male parades....when he had time that is. As you can see, the pathway under the arch
and the immediate surrounds of the bower are strewn with pebbles and other bits and pieces, invariably white or green. Where on earth, or more to the point, around Lake Argyle, this industrious bird garners these goodies is a mystery, but there they are.
And these extraordinary birds are never satisfied with their handiwork. They make one tired watching them (we had another near us in Katherine a week or so later). They are constantly strutting and chattering around the bower moving bits here and there, rearranging the display. And the real rub? This is not even the nest......all this effort has but one ultimate purpose....to attract a mate. We often saw a prospective beaked bride arrive in the branches above the bower and cast an appraising eye over the male's presentation, after which, with her departure and his nibs still a bachelor, he would launch into another frenetic frenzy of redecoration. To this day we are unsure if he ever lost his single status, but I can tell you if his quest to father fledglings remained unrequited, this was not for lack of effort on his part!
To my great chagrin, and despite many efforts, this was the only photo (and a fuzzy one at that) I managed of this frantic feathered fellow, a bird I initially mistook for a curlew.
But back to matters more mundane.....our amenities block, which was very conveniently close...down the path and across the roadway
housed showers and toilets which were decidedly rustic but reasonably functional. I must comment that, compared to the standard of all the other park facilities, the heads were surprisingly below par, but far from the worst we have seen.
At the opposite end of our row to that which is shaded, we could look down on the 'overflow' area
which is in two sections and which is, for obvious reasons, expansive.
Strangely, the camp kitchen is quite some distance from this area
and from the unpowered section of the park, but when surrounded by so much grass, and,
in most areas, oodles of shade, a bit of a walk to the facilities is a mere bagatelle.
But I could not help but wonder whether or not the fact that there aren't BBQ's dotted throughout this park may not have been a deliberate strategy to encourage patrons to dine at the park restaurant, but then these could well be merely the thoughts of a cynical old man.
In our next we'll have a look at all else which is on offer here at The Lake Argyle Resort, a place where the reality comes very close to matching the hype!
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