We got to Timber Creek about an hour on, and stopped at a shaded grassy area near the roadhouse to have morning tea. If we felt that it hadn’t been warm enough on our travels yet, that was certainly changing now – big time. It was well over 30degrees that day – there was definitely no standing in the sun. Timber Creek was also close to the Victoria River and we drove down a side road to get a view of the river and take some photos – but were then glad to be back in the air conditioned car. We continued on the further 250km to Kununurra.
We had forgotten about the fruit and vegetable quarantine going over into WA until a couple at the caravan park that morning had asked us which way we were travelling – they had wanted to give away some fruit they had, rather than throw it out. I realised that we still had quite a bit of fruit and veg that we wouldn’t be able to use up that day. We ate as much as we could for morning tea and lunch that day, but still had a bit when we got to the border. Before going to the quarantine station, we stopped to have our photo at the WA border sign (defying the heat again as we stepped out of the car). We then drove over to the quarantine station, which at least was under shelter. We found out that we also couldn’t take honey over the border – so had to give up our almost full honey jar plus the completely full spare. I had thrown out fruit already, but wasn’t sure about veg. The quarantine officer came into the van to check our fridge and pantry. I found out we could keep sweet potato and mushrooms bought at the shop. We could also keep carrots as long as we cut off the heads (which we then did). The officer said there are about 100 diseases that they are trying to keep out of WA. He admitted that they know they won’t be able to keep them out forever, but the longer they do, the better. He also reminded us we needed to turn our clocks back an hour and a half now. So it went from 2pm to 12.30pm as we crossed over.
It was then only another 50km to Kununurra. We only came into 3G range about 5 mins out of Kununurra, so i didn’t have much time to research caravan parks. But we ended up at a park near the Lily Pond Lagoon called Kimberleyland. It suited us fine. We set up quickly in the stifling heat and put the aircon on in the van as soon as we were hooked up to power. Then stayed in the cool for a little while. I then took the kids over to the pool, while Michael went and saw the Toyota dealer (about having the car serviced) and picked up some groceries.
For dinner that night I cooked up the cherapin we had caught at Katherine and had them as an aside to a prawn stir fry. We were all a bit disappointed in how little ‘meat’ there was for the effort put in to catching them. We would have had to improve our hunting techniques to survive like the aborigines!
We put the kids to bed a little later than their usual bedtime as we had to adjust to the time change. We knew they’d be waking up early for local time, but thought this would be a good thing, since we wanted to get out and do some sightseeing before the main heat of the day.