The caravan park also had an "infinite pool" which although cold had a breathtaking view.
A short hike down into the gorge was a pontoon which was great for swimming in the lake.
Lake Argyle was formed when the Ord River was dammed in the 70's and is the largest man made lake in Australia holding on average 10,000 GL of water. That's 10,000 billion litres or 19 times larger than Sydney Harbour. Given our time spent camping on the shores of Lake Michigan we also found it interesting that Lake Argyle, immense as it is, is only 1/246th the size of the Great Lakes and they hold 6 quadrillion gallons (whatever that is)!
As well as supplying water and electricity to Kununurra and the ambitious Ord River Irrigation scheme it also provides an beautiful oasis and a home for a multitude of wildlife.
In order to see more of Lake Argyle we went on a sunset boat tour which allowed us to see a tiny portion of the lake from water level and see a lot of wildlife including freshwater crocodiles.
The tour finished with a sunset swim in the middle of the lake and us jumping off the roof of the boat.
The sunset over the lake was amazing.
We also did an interesting hike to Durrack Homestead which was painstakingly dismantled and reconstructed on higher ground prior to the valley being flooded (the original site is now 18m under Lake Argyle). The Durracks were one of the first families to set up a cattle a station in the Kimberley. They drove 7000 head of cattle from Queensland, a trip they planned to take 6 months but took 2.5 years. They arrived with less than half the cattle, horses and men surviving.
Travel Log:
Kununurra to Lake Argyle: 70 km
Total Trip: 11,958 km
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