Kununurra is an ideal place from which to base a side trip to Whyndam. The back road, which I mentioned last time, is actually the route of the original track to the coast from Kununurra. The Ivanhoe Crossing was built to facilitate the route across the Ord River. Ivanhoe is the locale not the river.

But we can’t take it because too much water is still flowing across. So we have to travel further west from Kununurra crossing the main bridges and take a side track on the west side of the Ord which meets up with the old road (fingers crossed). Sounds easy and the 4WD track was quite good.

We passed by the Valentine Springs, fancy name for a waterhole fed by a couple small waterfalls. Here we encountered the first of something like twelve shallow creek crossings on the journey to Whyndam. All through them without hic ups.

After rejoining the old road we tracked along relatively close to the Ord, catching a glimpse from time to time. We pulled into a couple of other Indigenous sites along the way, Middle Spring and Black Rock Falls, down some rough side tracks. Black Rock Falls was the most impressive.

Back on the main track, known as Parry Creek Road, we took a break at the Mambi Island Boat Ramp on the Ord. Croc warning signs abound.

This would be a challenging little ramp for the inexperienced, the river bank is very eroded and the little patch of concrete is now in the wrong place. But I suspect only experienced boaters venture to these parts. The Ord is impressively wide here as it meanders towards the Cambridge Gulf.

We took a hard left here away from the River back towards the Great Northern Hwy, the ‘new’ sealed road to Whyndam which is the way most nomads go.

Another side track takes us up Telegraph Hill where the remains of the old telegraph station and its staff lived many moons ago, pre and during WW1, before it was moved to Whyndam. It is here we have our first encounter with an AAT Kings tour bus with thirty or so souls aboard. Mostly Aussies, Kiwis a couple of Canadians and four Americans (as we later found out). Some great views from this hill overlooking the Ord flood plain and the large Marlgu Billabong, which we were all making for to see the pond and associated wildlife. The bus beat us there for their 15 minute gaze and photo stop.

Great spot, we pulled up as they were getting ready to go, had a brief chat with the driver. They were headed for Perth from Darwin, 21 Days. We said hoo roo as they headed off and we stayed on for a longer look, lots of ducks in the shade. No crocs sighted.

On the track again we set off eager to get to Whyndam as time was getting on and we hadn’t had lunch.

We were now down on the flood plain getting along nicely when around a corner and with the track straightening out there it was! The bus up to its belly almost, in the bog. It was about 2pm. Allthego pulled up gingerly and undertook an inspection, plenty of action going on scrapping mud away by hand and putting levelling wedges behind the driving wheels.

Numerous attempts were made to back out, just made it worse. Seems the bus carried little recovery gear. The driver a little inexperienced too, just powering ahead into the mud. Now Allthego is not getting too cute here, he too has dipped the toes into black soil mud but got out relatively easily. A big bus is a different proposition. At least our spade was useful in a hopeless situation. Our Max Traxs ineffectual. The bus was stuck big time!

The bus driver was able to make a call for a back up bus and also a tow truck. It was now 3.30pm (it gets dark around 5pm). Some of the 30 were getting anxious, but were calm. We turned around and backtracked to try to intercept the tow truck and get it to the right place. Never saw the tow truck but we did see the back up bus speeding to the rescue! So, I suppose the people got out ok but the driver might have had a long night minding the bus in the bog! We will never know, but AAT gave us a nice bottle of red for our spade use and company!

We didn’t get to Whyndam that day and had to do it all again the next day. Taking the ‘new’ road.

Whyndam is a town in decline and with the countdown to the end of live cattle exports one wonders what will happen. Curiously, after WW1 and pre WWII the town operated a frozen meat works that exported beef to the UK. It closed down and the infrastructure was removed. Could it return?

There are a couple of memorable touristy things in town; the big croc, the indigenous statues and the great view over the Cambridge Gulf. There is the ever present museum too, if you are into those.

We headed back to Kununurra and along the way checked out the Gibb River Rd road conditions billboard where it branched off the highway for El Questro, our first stop along the Gibb in a week or so. Looked good!