Cruising in Kununurra

As our little sojourn in Kununurra will be our last one near a major waterway for some weeks, Team Turtle thought it best that as much time as possible was spent on the water.

A scenic cruise up the Ord River (towards the Ord Dam and Lake Argyle) was to coincide with a Red Claw hunting trip.  Red Claws are similar to a small lobster, have red claws and are usually found in impoundments (dams).  On our previous visit to Kununurra, we found some literature that mentioned the fact that even though Red Claws are very prolific in Queensland and the Northern Territory they are a feral species in Lake Kununurra and the Ord River and there are very few restrictions to their capture.  On Sunday, we prepared our five traps, popped Tuf Cat into the water and went in search of a few good red claw spots and to spend a couple of hours on the river.

We did that and then returned the next day (Monday) for what we hoped was going to be traps full of delicious crustaceans.  Well, we did get one!

Lonely Little Red Claw

Without being daunted by our initial lack of success, we reset the traps (but in a different place) and continued on up the river.  Some beautiful rock formations along the banks kept us engrossed until we found a nice little spot for our picnic lunch and swim.

Island in the Stream

After lunch, we continued upstream for a short while and then decided to return home as it was getting a bit late in the day!

Today (Tuesday) we had to collect our new spare tyre, purchase some more supplies and have a quick lunch before we could go and find some more friends for our little red claw.  All started off well - The Deckie managed to get Tuf Cat into the water without any trouble and was just nudging her into the jetty when The Captain started making a mad dash towards them.  'Strange' thought The Deckie as The Captain leapt aboard.  Oops, he cried, the bung plugs aren't in!!!  Hmmm, that's what all that funny noise was - the water gurgling into the hulls.  The Captain jumped into the chest deep water, retrieved the bung plugs and managed to insert them into the holes all within a matter of minutes.  The bilge pumps were started and we managed to save ourselves from being bum down in the water and dying of embarrassment!

We continued out into the river without further incident and headed for our red claw traps.  Oh well, it was a nice afternoon on the river and we returned the lonely little red claw back into the river so that he could try and find some friends!

We gave Tuf Cat a wash down and headed back to base to start packing up for our next leg of our journey.

Lilly Lagoon - part of Lake Kununurra

Back on the road in the morning (Wednesday) as we head further east where our next major town will be Katherine in the Northern Territory.  Might take two days, might take a week...........