We woke to sound of rain drumming on our roof. Not just a little spitter spatter, but a full-on concerto of cacophony – another day of the drench had arrived. Full of optimism that it might clear we packed into Bessie and headed to Wyndham to put another tick on our Big Things of Australia map. Wyndham is home to the Big Croc, a massive model of a salt-water crocodile commissioned by the Lions Club. It essentially greets you as you enter town along a nature strip complete with picnic tables and a nearby toilet facility. It also sits almost directly in front of the local bottle shop and adjacent fast food outlet (owned by the same proprietor). As such, there were a good twenty aboriginals hanging out at the tables drinking fizzy drinks and feasting on chips waiting for the bottle shop to open. Tourists such as ourselves would filter through for a picture with the big croc then head on again without much ado. It was a rather sad state of affairs. Needless to say we didn’t stay long and after a short trip through town which appears to be in the slow process of inevitable demise, headed back down the road to the Grotto – a amphitheatre-like gorge just off the highway with a large pool at the base obviously used for swimming and cooling off on drier, hotter days. It was a great breeding area for mossies though and they seem to have an affinity for my ankles – must be sweeter blood down there. No one else seemed to have an issue – so perhaps it was just my blood they were after – must be in short supply. By the time we’d climbed back out, the rain had more or less abated so we made our way back to town stopping at the Zebra Rock Café and Gallery on the way home. The rocks were just as fascinating as at the Stoneworks with equally interesting carvings and designs. They also served mango smoothies and had a pier off which you could feed the turtles and catfish – great fun for the kids. From there we decided to hit the Hoochery – the oldest distillery in WA (apparently) and enjoyed some tasters of their standard and seriously overproof (68 %) rum as well as a touch of their chocolate and coffee liqueur (what a great combo!). The overproof did some serious chest warming and was actually quite smooth going down – would have picked up a bottle except that it would likely collect dust for years before we would likely even open it given our lack of affinity for the ‘heavy’ stuff. Besides, our closet is still full of wines we picked up in SA. As the afternoon dwindled we made our way to Mirima National Park on the outskirts of Kununurra. As we pulled up the drive I noticed something blocking the path and slowed to a halt – it was a frilled-necked lizard! Jen cautiously climbed out of Bessie to get a photo but it sensed her coming and ran on its hind legs to the adjacent fence and then up a tree. I tried in vain to get a photo of it on the tree but it continued to scamper away. We parked, found a pathway to the view point and made our way up past some amazing rock formations and natural scrub. The formations are touted to be similar to those in the Bungle Bungles but not quite as large or defined. Pleased with our efforts we finally made it back to the caravan park and settled down early for the evening. We’d booked ourselves a trip to Mitchell’s Falls in the morning and had to be up at 5 AM to get picked up from our caravan park. We were looking forward to an epic day and besides were exhausted from all our touring so sleep came quick and we dreamt of sunshine.
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