Kununurra

Sun, sun, and more sun…Autumn weather is magnificent when it’s a glorious 30º everyday here in Kununurra…we feel for you guys down south suffering from the cold blustery conditions, but someone in the country has to have a bit of cold weather!

Ok, enough of that…where do we start as there’s so much to share….

With the amazing Ord Valley Muster happening in Kununurra these past 12 days, it’s been a fun filled, action packed time!  No, we haven’t been rounding up a herd of cows (well not yet anyway!!), but the muster is more like a series of events to entertain the tourists and locals alike.  The highlight of the muster was a concert, so armed with picnic rug, some nibbles and wine, we headed down to the park one afternoon for what’s called the Kimberley Moon Experience which was 9 hours of music and entertainment.  We bopped along to music from a local indigenous band, the Walkabout Boys, saw the Pigram Brothers again with Alex Lloyd (who we had already caught up with in Broome), and later in the evening we rocked to Jimmy Barnes and Vanessa Amorosi who were fantastic.  A fabulous time was had by all.

Continuing the muster experience, a must visit was a tour of Argyle Diamond Mine – home of the extremely rare pink diamonds.  Over the past few years, the amount of these diamonds found has severely reduced that only a champagne glass full of the stunning pink diamonds is found each year.  Compared to the amount of the other coloured diamonds found which would fill an average sized bedroom, it’s easily understood why the price of the pinks is extremely high.  Looking at a display of various diamonds in their showroom, it was tempting to just “borrow” one or two :-), but with a billion security cameras on us, we unfortunately came away empty handed!

Next, the diamond dig.  Yes that’s right, digging for diamonds, but not at the diamond mine, but at the local park!  One of the muster activities included camera film cannisters being buried in three different man made sand pits.  One pit was designed for kids 5 years and under, the second pit for 6 years – 15 years, and the third pit for adults.  In the adult pit, there were 125 cannisters to be located, 10 of which had major prizes of a pink diamond.  Participants (Grant included) were provided with a kids sized beach shovel where they had to scramble and dig for one of these cannisters.  Luckily for Grant, they had run out of shovels so he had no other choice but to use his hands.  Well as soon as they got started, it was almost like a like a rugby scrum as over a couple of hundred adults madly dug for their lives.  There were so many adults in this pit that I was honestly surprised no one got hurt.  There wouldn’t have been room to breathe! (see photo!)  Anyway, Grant was almost pinned next to the fence at the start of the dig (in blue singlet in pic), so didn’t have a great deal of room around him.

Hot and flustered, Grant told me he was just about to give up when he moved back a bit to dig where he had been sitting and before you know it, wellaa!  He pulls up a cannister! Woo hoo!  Leaving the pit and lining up at the prize collection stand, he patiently waits for his turn.  Just imagine both of our surprises when he’s informed that he has won a major prize…………a pink diamond!!  Unbelievable!  When we worked out what the odds were for him to have won (especially when he didn’t even want to participate), talk about lucky!

Our last activity for the muster was heading to the rodeo.  It was a night full of bull riding and buck riding – those boys from outlying stations are definitely talented.  And with special guests Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward prepared to stop for a photo or two, Grant had a good introduction for his first rodeo.

Well, that’s it for now…everything we’ve done for the muster has been great, but we can now finally begin preparing for our trip on the Gibb River Road.  We’ll be offline for around 4-5 weeks as we head back around to the Bungle Bungles, Geikie Gorge and up to the Gibb River Road, and get to visit those amazing gorges and experience some more Kimberley magic.  I’m sure we’ll have lots of stories and photos to share upon our return to Kununurra.

Keep safe,
Grant & Linda.