Day 26, Kununurra
Somewhere in Australia
Where the sun is a curse
And each day is followed
By one slightly worse ...
(Unknown)
Another hot day today (39°).I left the van at the park in Kununurra and did a day trip down to have a look at the end of the legendary Gibb River Rd. Legendary for its roughness and corrugations as well as for the spectacular country that it traverses.
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| Cockburn Range |
24 years ago I did a trip up it from Derby to Kununurra and back down the Northern Hwy to Broome. It was rough back then. I can safely say that it doesn't seem to have improved much since.
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| Cockburn Range |
I thought that I might just head a short distance down the Gibb River Rd, to the Pentecost River crossing, just for old-times sake. Well, after having my fillings loosened for a km I turned around and got the hell out of there.
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| Yellow Kapok |
It's an amazing experience. The corrugations are such that you need to sit on 80km/hr to smooth them out, all whilst avoiding rocks, potholes, floodways, road-trains, drifting around corners and so on. The car ahead of me had already ruptured a tyre in the first km!
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| Hidden Valley |
I was glad to get out in one piece.
Mind you, a part of me was thinking "I wish I was heading down that road again in an indestructible troop-carrier with a swag, a tarp, a mozzie net and a fridge full of supplies in the back!". It's great country and I'm glad that it still requires effort to see it.
Mind you, a part of me was thinking "I wish I was heading down that road again in an indestructible troop-carrier with a swag, a tarp, a mozzie net and a fridge full of supplies in the back!". It's great country and I'm glad that it still requires effort to see it.
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| Hidden Valley |
Maximum temperatures for the last 4 days in Kununurra:
40.2, 40.8, 40.0, 39.0.
See I wasn't just making it up.