First week of freedom in Kununurra

Now that we are finally out of isolation we have been able to get a bit more settled and engage in our life for the next 3 months. Dave has now been at work for the past week, certainly a struggle for his poor body that hasn't worked full time for 3 months so he was pretty buggered at the end of the day. But, he is enjoying himself, especially getting his hands on some maintenance work which he really enjoys.

For the girls it has been the adventure of returning to school, again which hasn't been attended for 3 months. On Monday we had a meeting with the school about their enrolment. It wasn't until 11 so we visited the local visitor centre, dropped off our good laptop to be fixed (again) and still managed to have time to fit in a milkshake. The girls were really interested in their new school, with new subjects to experience such as music, technology and Auslan (for Elly) and the local indigenous language (for Charli). Poor Charli didn't meet anyone from her class that day as they weren't in the room at the time, however Elly did meet her teacher and then when we visited the library (which is both school and community) her class was there so she was able to make some connections before even beginning school. We had tried our best to arrange for some basic uniform items before they began school but unfortunately none of it was ready on time. Luckily the local variety store at least had some polo shirts although I could only get size 12, fine for Elly but a little large for Charli, but we managed for the week. Thank goodness the weather is so good, the girls can come home from school, we can wash their clothes and they are dry again for the next day.

Day one at school and everyone came home pretty cheerful thankfully, and the next few days they came home very enthusiastic. They were both wrecked as each afternoon they would swim for about an hour as well so by bedtime they were ready to drop. As for me I found these days a bit lonely suddenly being on my own but I found ways to entertain myself and pass the time.

We are now putting our weekends into focus and trying to use this time to explore the area. The girls and I will do a few extra things in the next couple of weeks while they are on school holidays but we are focusing on the places that are only open during the week or things that Dave is not particularly interested in.

Friday night we picked up Dave from work and headed out to the local distillery - The Hoochery. Dave sampled some of their rums and liqueurs while I enjoyed a cocktail paddle. Not a bad way to spend a friday evening. We will definitely head back one Saturday morning to sample their rum cake which sounds delicious and has a GF/DF option too

On Saturday we had a look at the Kununurra markets which just started back. They are small but with some interesting stands. We also had a look through the local camping goods stores just to see what they stock in case their is anything we need. In the afternoon we went for a drive, crossing over Ivanhoe Crossing and finding Valentine Springs, which I am sure would be more spectacular in the wet season but was still a nice spot. The girls were keen to swim but Dave was unsure about the croc situation (we now know it would be perfectly safe) so we just paddled our feet. The girls were reminded of the Bluey episode of The Creek and loved watching all the tadpoles swim around their feet. On our way back into town we crossed over the Ord River Diversion Dam and discovered the swim beach. We let Jezy get her feet wet and then she loved coming out of the water and rolling in all the red sand.

On Sunday we returned to the swim beach with our bikes to ride the bike trail to Celebrity Tree Park. We had to ride pretty slowly for Jezy to keep up but the ride was good. We let her rest at the park while the girls and I explored all the plaques indicating different people who had planted trees in this park. Elly was most excited to find one planted last year by Better Homes and Gardens after Fast Ed did a cooking segment there. We also found the chief Scout and Guide commissioners from 1985, Ernie Dingo, Andrew Daddo, Peter Brock, and children's author Alison Lester. We found an alternate path back to the swim beach which took us along the edge of Lake Kununurra which was a much nicer ride.

The next week should bring school holiday adventures, the beginnning of my Uni semester and some more adventures next weekend.