Wyndham is the northernmost town in Western Australia and is surrounded by some of the most spectacular landforms, wetlands & birdlife in the Kimberley. The region is also famous for the Argyle Diamond mine, the world’s key source of rare pink diamonds. Argyle Diamonds is the world’s largest supplier of diamonds, producing over 30 million carats, accounting for around 25% of the world’s natural diamond production.
One option was for us today was a flight over the famous geological formations known as the Bungle Bungles, which are a part of Purnululu National Park. These extraordinary shapes were eroded from Devonian-age quartz sandstone over 320 million years ago by wind and water, and it’s one of the most striking and vast examples of cone-karst geology in the world. Even though Aboriginal people had been widely utilising this land for thousands of years during the wet seasons, the Bungle Bungles were not very well known to the rest of the world until a documentary crew filmed the region in the 1980s. This sparked public interest and resulted in the Purnululu National Park forming in 1987 and then later in 2003, it became world heritage listed.
Others chose a wildlife cruise up the Ord River, a perennial watercourse which winds for 55km downstream of Lake Argyle, the largest man-made lake in Australia. We boarded our fast boat in Kununurra, and within seconds of being underway we were spotting numerous bird species as well as reptiles and mammals. The Ord River system attracts over 300 bird species, including the Comb-crested Jacana, Green Pygmy Goose and Nankeen Night Heron. Freshwater crocodiles were also numerous and easily seen as they sunbathed on floating mats of vegetation and fallen gum trees. We also spotted a large marsupial, the Antilopine Wallaroo which is usually quite elusive in this region. Short-eared Rock Wallabies were also seen resting amongst the shade in the sandstone escarpment. Even between wildlife sightings, the cameras kept snapping as the scenery we dashed past was breathtaking.
Returning to the National Geographic Orion this evening we were greeted with a fine opportunity to retell our stories of birds and bungles, over a cocktail as the ships lines were thrown and we sailed off with yet another spectacular sunset on our way to the Timor Sea…
