The Big Twelve Monther originated from the desire to see more of the world, in our case Australia, NZ and China, however I have to admit this was largely due to the Big 5; Uluru, the Great Barrier Reef, the Great Ocean Road, Sydney Harbour and the Whitsundays. Other places were added to this list through research on the net and speaking with others so Fraser Island, the Daintree rainforest, Broome and Cable Beach, the Bungle Bungles and Karijini National Park, Margaret River and crossing the Nullabor were all scheduled stops.
The majority of these places are placed at conveniently massive distances away from each other! Typical!
The beauty of this, however, is that there’s so much in between that you tend to stumble upon places that really make you pleased with the distance you’ve got to travel. When I say stumble, a signpost will take your fancy and you commit to it without really knowing how far away it is!
One of these places is Parry’s Lagoon, located 30kms from Wyndham, in the North Kimberley region. It was a mission to get there through single tracked road that brought us to a natural lookout over the Ord River near ex-WW2 telegraph station that aided navigation into Wyndham.
In the distance huge columns of cloud billowed high into the sky as a result of the managed burning of the land to keep the area clear from unwanted natural fuel that could cause problems when one of the many lightning strikes hits later in the year. It was possible from many kms away to see the flames lick the bottom of the cloud. It was a surreal sight but one that is commonplace across Northern Australia.
Amber acquired a boab nut from a nearby tree after a hilarious attempt at throwing stones at a tree to knock one down. Fortunately my aim was a little better otherwise we’d probably still be there :)
The Lagoon wasn’t far but the ground alongside the road was deeply charred from a recent burn. One side of the road was black as night with the other struggling for water in the constantly high heat.
Upon arrival it was definitely worth the trip. All manner of migratory birds, some coming from as far afield as Siberia, use Parry’s Lagoon as a holiday destination which forced the WA Government to declare the area as a designated Nature Reserve in the 70s to protect them. Special treaties are in place with China, Japan, Russia and other central Asian countries to protect the birds en route.
Within the hour or so that we were there, we spotted pelicans, white bellied sea eagles, darters, many types of duck including plumed whistling and wandering whistling varieties, brolgas, australia white ibis, pied herons, purple swamphens, magpie geese, star finches, white-breasted woodswallows, comb-crested jacana and a black, white and red mitsubishi delica.
As with all bird hides it was a peaceful setting to watch all these birds go about their everyday business especially as for the majority of the time there we were alone.
The 20m drive on to Wyndham was equally impressive through dried tracks with grasses but nothing else for many kms around us. It was like being on an African plain just without the lions!
Wyndham was an unspectacular town largely due to a lack of main industry but is home to both the Five Rivers Lookout and the Prison Boab Tree. The lookout affords views over the meeting of the Pentecost, King, Ord, Forest and Durack rivers from a high vantage point on the Bastion Range. It wasn’t the best day for photos but was an impressive sight unlike anything else that we’d seen.
The Prison Boab Tree also required a mission to get there through a dried river bed and crocodile breeding ground but along deeply corrugated and windy roads. It was about 20kms from the main road, so perhaps not the best use of fuel, but was good to say that we’d done it.
What else will turn up that we’d not expected…
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