Parry's Creek

 

Wednesday 31 May – Parry's Creek

Another lazy lie this morning as, once again, nothing particularly planned other than to make sure we got the grocery shopping down so that we are fully stocked for the Gibb. 

We headed into town mid morning to do just that firstly stopping at the butcher for thick scotch fillet steaks for tonight but where we also bought bacon and two dozen eggs before getting to Coles seemingly at peak hour.  Much busier than yesterday – not sure why it should be so at 11am on a Wednesday?  The main concern was that all the salad and vegetable packs had ‘best before’ dates of today or tomorrow on them so not sure how well they will last for 2 weeks on the Gibb.  Oh well, once they get too limp it will just have to be frozen veg.

Another quick stop at the bakery and it was getting on for midday by the time we got back to the vans so we pretty much threw the cold stuff into the fridges and left the rest sitting on the table to deal with later.

We then piled back into Shaun’s car and drove out to Parry’s Creek Resort for lunch and the place is looking very nice and there were quite a few camping in their little caravan park.  Definitely an option for those wanting to stay somewhere a bit closer to the end of the Gibb or to check out Wyndham but not actually stay there.

The boys had tasty lamb rolls and Jen had pork belly kebab and rice which was very tasty albeit a bit grisly.  The boutique beers were pronounced passable enough to drink but not to buy a case of and, suitably sated, we hopped back in the car and had a drive around the resort to check out water levels in the creek etc.  Once again, it was interesting to see it now having seen photos from only a month or so ago where the road in was a quagmire after heavy rains.

We then drove out to check out the Old Telegraph Station and then down to the lagoon with the hide where, in 2016 and with much lower water levels, we had spotted numerous crocs lying on the far bank.  The water levels are that much higher this year that almost the entire walkway from the carpark to the hide had water underneath and there was an absolute abundance of birdlife but no crocs.  Well none that we could see anyway – not to say they weren’t lurking just under the surface of the water covered in water lilies and ducks. 

We sat in the hide for ages just enjoying the serenity and the birdlife being lucky to have the whole place to ourselves.  Shaun had his binoculars so we could get a close up view of a heron wrestling a cane toad before finally swallowing it and then standing there awkwardly with a giant lump in its throat.  Never expected it would actually try and eat it!

Having had our fill of nature we headed back to Kununurra where the final cases of ‘just in case’ beer were purchased and cars refuelled ready for the start of the next part of our adventure tomorrow.  Steak and salad consumed in front of the State of Origin rugby courtesy of Shaun’s telly and Starlink and Queensland got the win so that’ll keep Shaun happy for the next couple of weeks.  As both the Eagles and Carlton are rubbish at the moment I don’t think Larry or Darryl will be desperate to watch the AFL this weekend so the telly might stay off on the GRR!

A bit of a pack up tonight as we had got a fair amount out of the cupboards over the last few days of being in one place.  Then showers and bed.