Stop #30 - Lake Argyle

We had a great time at Kununurra with our friends Wayne and Caroline, but were excited to head to Lake Argyle to meet up with grandpa.

The drive to Lake Argyle was short, approximately an hour, all on bitumen.  The mountains becoming sheer as we approached the lake, the river just before the resort barely had water in it, putting a dampener on my hopes of catching a Barra at Lake Argyle.  There are no Barra in the Lake itself, however the overspill river runs into the Ord river, which does contain Barra, but this late into the season was no run in the overspill.

 We arrived at the resort to be greeted by men riding around on push bikes, ushering the caravans to their spot.  We'd booked a site many weeks prior to arriving to the resort, on the advice from others that it would be booked out.  Sure enough, there were caravans parked on the side of the road, waiting for spots to become available.  

Grandpa had also previously requested that our caravan site be located close to the cabin where he would be staying, to limit the commute between the two.  As we are ushered to our site by our pedal powered friend, we see that we are heading further and further away from the cabin, and to our bemusement, the caravan site was actually at the far end of the resort, possibly the furthest it could be from the cabin.  No bother, it would mean more exercise for us :)

Whilst setting up the caravan, I hear the kids arguing and Jai storming into the caravan, slamming the door behind him.  Moments later I hear shouts of "I am stuck" and crying coming from within the caravan. I pause my setting up to see Grace at the door trying to console Jai, on the other side of the door, who by now, was hyper ventilating.  Upon investigating the door, it was truly jammed, my son having closed it so hard, the door had been pushed past the point of perpendicular, wedged on the other side of the latch casings.  Gentle nudges would not move the door, and I was reluctant to force it back into place, for fear of breaking any of the plastic casings.  With Jai's breathing becoming louder and more laboured, I looked at what options were available.  I couldn't unscrew any of the casings, as the jammed door did not allow me to get to all the screws from the outside.  Windows were too small, and would not open up large enough for me to climb through.  Only option was for me to scale the caravan and climb through the flyscreen  within the pop-up section. 

I move the car next to the caravan, and scale it to jump onto the top of the caravan, having opened the flyscreen, I enter the caravan feet first, facing upwards, very awkward and dangerous, with the risk of me flopping the caravan ceiling down, as I climb through the flyscreen.  After a few precarious minutes, I manage to enter the caravan, much to Jai's relief.  I was then able to unscrew the door from the inside, taking out the lock and inside mechanisms.  After 2.5 hours of mucking around and putting back together the door and locks, the saga is over, and I continue unpacking the caravan.  I wasn't a happy camper, daylight had passed and I'd spent the whole afternoon setting up, without a chance to scope out the resort and the lake. 

That night Grace stayed with me in the caravan, whilst the rest of the family stayed in the cabin, eagerly awaiting the arrival of grandpa.

Next morning I woke up to a bright morning sun, rising over the mountains surrounding the lake.  The orange soil and mountains accentuated by the glowing sun, a brilliant sunrise.

Grandpa came and visited us whilst on his morning walk, much to Grace's delight.  We head back to the cabin, and plan out the next week, to ensure we are able to fit in the activities we all want by weeks end.  Top of the list was a flight by grandpa over the Bungle Bungles and the diamond site, followed by a cruise on the lake.  We'd book those two activities and work the rest around the bookings.  

Unfortunately the reception and booking areas of the lake were packed, so we headed down the road to a boat hire place, to enquire about hiring a boat on the lake.  As it turned out, the hire place also did bookings for flights, lake cruises as well as the boat hire.  With a lot of the cruises and flights already booked out, the lovely lady was able to ring around and find the flight grandpa wanted, and get us on a half day cruise on the lake.  We were also able to hire a boat for the afternoon, at $125 for the afternoon (including petrol), I thought it was a bargain.  They would launch and retrieve the boat, we'd have to provide the rest.

We jumped onto the boat just after midday, and after a briefing from the guy and guidance on the map, we were off.  Jai, as always, was apprehensive about our little adventure on the boat, especially as I opened up the 40hp tiller steer and got her on the plain.  

Cruising past the dam wall, and through the "heads", the size of the lake was stark, as there was water as far as the eye could see and mountains everywhere, each one looking similar to one another.  It's hard to imagine how large this lake is, supposedly 21 times the size of Sydney Harbour, teaming with an estimated 30,000 Johnson crocodiles, birdlife and fish.  It is indeed a great lake, pure and pristine.  Being on the tinnie allowed us to connect and engage with the lake, an experience we would not have been able to have walking along it's shore.

Without a GPS, and only a navigational map, I thought it safer to not venture out too far.  Luckily we were able to find deep water up to 35 metres just past the heads, as we dropped our baits, drifting over ledges - using fillets of the tarpon that I had caught days before at Kununurra.  It wasn't long before we had taps on our line, and the rods buckled over with weight.  The circle hooks ensuring the fish were self-hooked, and mostly on the side of the mouth.  We were after the locally acclaimed Silver Cobbler, essentially a catfish dressed up as a table fish.  To the trained eye, there is a difference though, with the Silver Cobbler having a large flat head that was tough as nails on the top. 

As we brought up the fish, the familiar whiskers on the fish remind us that the fish is, at the end of the day, a catfish, but a Lake Argyle Silver Cobbler.  Supposedly this fish is table quality, and exported as fish to many outlets.  The fishing was steady and certainly kept the kids and even Jackie entertained for the next hour or so.  It was time to return Jackie to the resort, and switch over with Grandpa.  We'd kept 5-6 Silver Cobbler to taste, which were all bundled into a pillow case for Jackie to take back to the cabin and refrigerate.  Little did we know, the trek from the pontoon to the top of the resort was mountain goat territory, the track zig zagging it's way to the top.  It took Jac a while to get to the top, carrying the load of fish, but the trooper got there in the end, she needed the exercise anyway ;-)

With grandpa onboard, we set off towards the heads, and try a different deeper spot for fishing.  We only catch small silver cobbler, so we head past the heads to the spot we caught our previous fish.  Again we only caught small fish, with light fading and time running out, we cease the fishing and jump into the fresh water.  With the temperature still pushing past the 30s this late in the day, the dip was refreshing and just the tonic we needed after a long day.  Jai was a little apprehensive of jumping into 30m+ water in the middle of the lake, the girls had no such inhibitions.

We cook the silver cobbler the next night on the BBQ, with the skin left on.  The skin did not peel away when cooked, instead sticking to the meat, causing it to curl up.  When cooked the flesh remained firm, nothing remaining on the hot plate.  The fish did not have much of a taste, certainly not fishy, but the texture was interesting, very lobster or crab like, without the sweetness.  People staying at the caravan park had been telling us that they served the fish on some of the cruises, and they were delicious, so it was disappointing that the fish was tasteless.  Perhaps it was the way we'd cooked it, the kids did not mind it. 

With the firm texture of the fish, I decide to make a curry the next day, and it certainly was tastier and it well down a treat with the whole family.  The flesh remained intact, and the sweetness of the curry enhanced the fish.  We had a winner.

We had a rest day the next day, whilst grandpa had his flight over the lake and Bungle Bungles.  I did go out on the lake again, with one of our neighbours wanting assistance in catching a silver cobbler, he asked if I wanted to go fishing on his boat.  I reluctantly obliged, and we spend the afternoon fishing.  We only caught one keeper, with many undersized fish caught.  At least the neighbour was able to taste the fish and I believe I taught him a thing or two about fishing.

The next day we went out on the half day "best of Lake Argyle" cruise.  The guide was very knowledgeable and humorous, providing us insight into the history of the lake, the pioneers that discovered the Kimberley region and how the lake came to be.  Also interesting were the facts about the lake, and what it was used for.  I marvelled at the Dam wall, which was made from millions of locally blasted rocks (the local kids were given the day off school to witness the explosion, which was felt hundreds of miles away) and a clay backbone.  No cement was used in the construction of the dam.

We venture off on the boat to the various islands, wetlands, and open lake.  We witness Johnson crocodiles, plenty of bird life and all types of fish (there are other fish in the lake, not just silver cobbler !!). 

We are taken to an island called Remote Island, which sits on the fault line that produces the famous Zebra rock that is found only in this region. Those that know Grace will know she loves shells and collecting rocks, we'd tried to go into the Zebra rock mine previously, but the road was too dusty to take the caravan in, and the gallery was closed when we tried to visit.  And so Grace was desperate to find a good piece of Zebra rock on the island.  As we were unleashed onto the island, the guide informs us that we are to only take a small sized Zebra rock each.  

With Grace and Emma on a mission to find a Zebra rock, Jai casually walks around in his nonchalant way.  Soon, we find enough Zebra rock to meet our quota, and then some.  Jai had not found anything at this stage, discarding anything that did not resemble his idea of the perfect rock.  Our half hour was up, and we are corralled back onto the boat.  Luckily the guide was kind enough to let us keep the rocks we found, we had one very happy Grace.

We continued on our cruise, sighting further Wallaroos, feeding bird of prey and general sightseeing. At the end of the day, the guide turns off the engine in the middle of the lake, whilst some have a dip in the water, and we all have nibblies watching the sun set over the hills.  A perfect way to end the day.

We thoroughly enjoyed our half day on the water, and would certainly recommend to all those visiting Lake Argyle that a cruise of the lake is a must do.  If you also possess a boat license, hiring a boat from the people next to the resort is highly recommended.  Our time spent on the water we magical, with magnificent views and lifelong memories.

To top off our Lake Argyle experience, Grandpa had surprised us with a 25 minute helicopter flight over the lake.  It's not something we would normally do, but the views of the lake from the helicopter was literally breathtaking (open air helicopter) and it was great just to ride in one.

We had a great time at Lake Argyle, and the resort was fantastic.  The staff were very friendly, the atmosphere vibrant, and there was plenty of entertainment and movies being shown on a nightly basis.  Certainly this has been a highlight of our trip so far, as we reluctantly leave the lake to head further west.