MAGGIE CREEK AND WYNDHAM

We left Kununurra and headed towards Wyndham, deciding to stop at Maggie Creek (a free camp) on the way. It is only about 28km from Wyndham. When we arrived we decided it was a lovely spot to stay for a night or two but there was nowhere we could get the caravan properly level.  The land slopes every which way. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing and digging holes for two of the caravan tires we finally were satisfied. This only took between 1 and 1.5 hours! We decided after all that effort that we would stay for 3 nights. Maggie Creek is starting to dry up so we were camped by a pool (of reasonable size). The view from our caravan was just lovely .....

We were only a few feet away from the pool and we were able to watch an egret fishing in the pool for most of the day.

As it turned out the egret was there every day, so it must have been its home turf. We had a nice cool breeze for most of the day and the only real nuisance was the truck movements. They are mining iron ore somewhere around here and the trucks are carting it to Wyndham Port for loading. The trucks have 4 trailers and they are moving through at approx 1 every 10 minutes.  On Sunday morning we got up early (still adjusting to time difference), made our cup of tea and went outside to drink it. It was a beautiful morning and while we were having our cuppa 2 brolgas landed across the creek, 4 egrets came to visit, a black kite was circling, a blue winged kookaburra landed in a tree and a few beautifully coloured parrots flew around and landed in another tree.  Simply amazing - all before breakfast!

We were visited later by some red tailed black cockatoos, a flock of corellas, some finches, a little bee eater and some other small birds. We watched a crow having a bath in the creek, which was pretty funny. He really had a fabulous time with his bath. For most of Sunday we had the place to ourselves. On Saturday night there was only one other camper and they left Sunday morning. Sunday night there was another young couple with a baby and they left Monday morning. Monday was overcast and a cool morning. We saw a wedgetail eagle and a lot more birds off and on for most of the day.

We were on our own for most of the day but others started coming in about mid afternoon and by late afternoon there were 3 other caravans and one couple tenting.  Royce threw the yabbie net in on Sunday but all we managed to catch were some very small fish which we had to rescue from the net and release.
On Monday we reluctantly packed up and headed into Wyndham. It was an easy drive and when we arrived at the caravan park we noticed a donkey wandering around. We later fed it some carrots, which it loved.

We found out that the donkey used to have a companion - a goat - which used to wander around with him but some 'kids' bashed it and, sadly, it died! That is just so awful.
When we were setting up the caravan we had another visitor .....................

We did some sightseeing around Wyndham, including the Pioneer Cemetary (where, among others, 12 men who died between 1916 and 1918 whilst building the meat works are buried); the Big Croc (20 metres long)

Aboriginal dreamtime statues (bought a carved boab nut from an Aboriginal woman)

Parry Creek

Marlgu Billabong (an amazing place with so much birdlife it is unbelievable - would have loved to put more photos on the blog but just not enough time to sort, resize and upload)

Five Rivers Lookout (where the Ord, King, Pentacost, Durack and Forrest Rivers feed into Cambridge Gulf)

then on to tea at the Wydnham Hotel to celebrate Royce's birthday!
At the back of the caravan park is a very large boab which is estimated to be 2000 years old.

Just a quick stop here at Wyndham and then heading off again tomorrow morning to the Bungle Bungles!