We were woken just before dawn by a pack of dingo’s howling up on the escarpment. With the early start, we continued west through one of the most spectacular stretches of road yet. Very dramatic escarpments of rich red rose up from the plains and it was hard to keep my eyes on the road!

We stopped into Gregory National park which offered a 4wd track as the only access. Again, with no real walks offered, the hour each way detour wasn’t really worth it. However the one short walk offered did lead to a prehistoric shelf that was remnant of an ancient reef. It was pretty cool to touch the fossilised coral rements and to imagine the desert as it once was, underwater!

We continued West and visited the ‘Gregory Tree’ which marks the location along the Victoria River at which the explorer Augustus Gregory and his team set up their base camp for 9 months in 1855 – 1856. During their stay in the Kimberly they had supplies delivered by ship up the Victoria river, they dug trenches around their camp to keep the Aborigines out and my favourite story of all, Gregory himself accidently rode his horse right on top of a saltwater crocodile as they crossed the river! We have found ourselves talking about explorers a lot on this trip. Many brave people made tremendous journeys through the harsh land and it’s very hard to imagine how difficult their journeys must have been and how smelly the explorers must have been. Most, were in search of a promised land of grazing and of course, the inland sea.

We made it across the border into Western Australia by early afternoon and set up camp for the night at Lake Argyle. The only accommodation at Lake Argyle is currently in transition from a caravan park to a resort and lucky for us, the infinity pool was the first addition towards their new resort and we got to enjoy it for a cheap tent rate!

Lake Argyle is a man made lake in the East Kimberly and is Australia’s largest body of fresh water. It is so big in fact that it is classed as an inland sea and boat users must abide by open water marine regulations! We couldn’t afford a flight over the lake to see the real size of it, however we took a walk to a bluff that offered a view of about 1% of the lake. Luckily we have big imaginations and it was an incredible sight to see.