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Written by Glenn Keating

Category: Destination Reviews

Published: 01 December 2019

Hits: 246

Standing at the intersection on a busy street in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon had me staring in disbelief at the chaos and pandemonium that was day to day life for the local citizens of this city.  To my left was a guy squatting in that Asian like manner smoking a cigarette, next to him was a compressor with a power lead casually running across the footpath and into the door of a shop, presumably plugged into a power socket.  Next to that was a tyre of a suitable size to fit any one of the 9 million scooters that are registered in the city, along with a small assortment of tools scattered about the footpath, motorcycle tyre repair shop, Saigon style.  To the sides of the footpath out the front of the hundreds of food outlets were small red plastic tables and chairs, the type you see in doctors surgeries for the kids to sit and colour in whilst waiting for their appointment, the smells wafting out as you made your way past.  Horns beeped and people walked in amongst the chaos to cross the road, we took a breath and waded in knowing there was never going to be any respite from chaos.  We made it to the other side of the road unscathed and continued our walk down towards Banh Tan markets.

The decision to visit Vietnam was an impulsive one when friends of ours invited us to tag along on their already arranged journey, the way they like to holiday is vastly different to the way we like to travel but this was their adventure so we just rolled with the punches.  It was going to be a whirlwind journey and whilst not exactly what we had in mind for our first visit to Asia it was to be a journey that provided some real insights into how people live in a country that is so radically different from ours.

So the trip came about when our friends booked their holiday via one of those companies offering mega cheap deals on all sorts of things, this one was booked through 'Deals' and entailed two nights at the 'The Luxe Hotel' in Ho Chi Minh City, internal return flights to Da Nang and six nights at the luxury Vin Pearl 4 star resort including breakfast and dinner all for $1495.00 per person (2014).  We then found return flights from Sydney to Ho Chi Minh including three nights at the 5 Star Sofitel Saigon Plaza for $990.00 per person (2014).  We also decided to book an extra three nights at the resort in Da Nang which we did direct with the resort, around $600 per couple from memory.  So all up our air fares, airport transfers and accomodation was $2785 Per Person for 14 nights.

We met at Sydney International airport for the nine hour flight to Vietnam and of course being holiday time we arrived early so we had time for a couple of beers over lunch before boarding.  The flight was un-eventful although mind numbingly boring, as are all long haul flights.  I love the excitement of being at the airport, it signals the start of the adventure but I really dislike the flight it self and would much rather spend nine hours behind the wheel, enjoying the sites as you go, stopping when the whimsical appears, but it's what you have to do to travel overseas.  We arrived at Ho Chi Minh airport and proceeded through customs and security and on to the baggage carousel to collect our bags.  Everything ran smoothly and the biggest surprise was watching the locals collecting their boxes of fruit and veg they had brought back from Australia.  With Australia's strict quarantine laws, it's a site we just don't see back home.

Part of the deal that we booked was a car and driver to take us from the airport to the hotel, we found our man dutifully holding up a sign with our name on it and followed him through the heaving masses of people all trying to escape the airport precinct, a short half hour drive had us at the hotel.  The chaos of the surrounding streets meant that the time passed quickly as we pointed out to each other all of the unusual around us.  Checking into the hotel was a relatively easy affair and the porter knocked on our door shortly after with our bags and here is where we had our first attempt at using the local currency.  I asked the lad how much of a tip would be reasonable as I had no idea what their money was worth, he politely declined to specify an amount so I handed him a 10,000 Dong note and asked how much was this, he said it was about five US dollars, so I handed him another, he smiled and left.  I later found out this was probably a weeks wages.  Now we are not wealthy people at all but compared to the people of Vietnam we were rich and it was a nice feeling to hand over such small amount of money and make such a huge difference to the weekly income.

We had agreed to meet up at the roof top bar and after getting settled we made our way up, grabbed a couple of drinks and some nibbles and admired the view from one of the tallest buildings in the city.  An hour or so later we made our way out onto the streets to look for something to eat before ending up at the Hard Rock Cafe for more drinks and some live music.  We were all pretty shagged after what was a fairly long day and the oppressive heat and humidity added to our fatigue, so we headed out and wandered the short distance up the road to our hotel for some much needed sleep.

We met up early in the dining room for the included breakfast and chatted about what we wanted to do for the day.  The consensus was that we would just amble around the city and see where ended up.  Breakfast was a very western style Bacon & Eggs which amazing, the only disappointment being the lack of Worcester sauce... heathens!  They say that New York is the city that never sleeps but I have to say that Ho Chi Minh surely qualifies for the same accolade, we were out until after midnight on the day of our arrival and when we hit the pavement shortly after eight am the streets were still jam packed. We wandered past a shopping mall and with our friends being keen shoppers we wandered in and killed a couple of hours checking out the goods on offer.  This wasn't really what we were here for though and headed out and shortly after found ourselves outside a large ornate building, the wide open doors beckoning us inside.  It was kind a small indoor style market, lots of little stall holders selling their wares.  We got collared by a girl in her early twenties asking if we were interested in a day tour to the Cuchi tunnels on the Me Kong Delta.  Yes was the answer and so we arranged to to be picked up from our hotel the next day and dutifully paid the girl for the tour.  The hand written receipt had me more than a little nervous about whether or not our driver would show up. I guess we'd find out tomorrow.

We ended up down at the Ben Thahn markets.  They were absolutely heaving with people and we had been advised to keep our wallets in our front pockets and a hand on the zipper of our bags as it was a known pick pocketing hot spot.  We had no such issues and enjoyed haggling with the stall holders, how do two dollar T-Shirts sound?  We were getting hungry but a walk past 'The Butcher Shop' curbed our appetite for a while and so we just wandered around taking in the sights and the smells.  We ended up finding a western style restaurant for a late lunch, we were still a bit sketchy on the street food that is the staple of the locals.  We'd like to have been more adventurous with our selection but we're pretty boring with our food and I always go for the snitty special at the local boozer back home.

After a good nights sleep we headed out into the steamy air and waited for our driver to arrive, which he dutifully did at the agreed time of 8:00am. Was there ever any doubt?  He had someone in the passenger seat who introduced himself as our guide.  Quiet amazing that we could easily afford a personalised guided tour to the Cuchi Tunnels.  I can't remember the exact amount but it wasn't a lot and it was just the four of us, for a full day tour for four people in Australia you'd need to take out a second mortgage.  The drive down through the Mekong Delta was fairly mundane for the most part only interrupted briefly by the site of the road side vendors selling live snakes and rats for human consumption, an impromptu butcher shop if you will.  It was an illegal stall and the vendors were nervous about us taking their pictures but I guide convinced them we weren't government spies or foreign journalists.  They caught their produce each day and here in the poorer farming communities where fresh meat was expensive and hard to get they made do with what they could, in this case rats and snakes.

We arrived at the Cuchi Tunnels and our guide led us on a walking tour through the jungle pointing out different different landmarks.  There were a series of hiding holes which they allowed you to climb into, my claustrophobia got the better of me but no such drama for Rainey as she climbed on in and they placed the lid on top.  These were used by the Viet Cong to hide from enemy patrols in the region during the Vietnam war.  A little further along stood a rusting hulk of an American tank, ambushed by the Viet Cong it's occupants presumably killed, it became a safe shelter for village locals when things got nasty.  It was a strange feeling being told about the events of the war where we were the enemy.

We were then led to an opening of one of the tunnels and were invited to head on in, our guide would meet us at the first exit, although we could choose to continue on to the next meeting point.  The extremely cramped conditions had all agreeing that the first exit was the best option.  I'm almost six feet tall and I had to stoop over quite dramatically to get through, I was starting sweat and my heart rate was increasing, imaging being stuck in here for days and weeks on end during war.  No thanks.  We moved on to the under ground hospital, kitchen and command room.  The tunnel system was elaborate to say the least.

We continued our tour onto where they had a display booby traps that were like something out out of a horror movie, imagine deep pits and sharpened bamboo spikes hidden under a loose covering of leaves that would collapse under your own weight.  It was like a medieval torture chamber.  They also had a display of foot ware favoured by the Viet Cong, predominately thongs made out of old car tyres.  They used the tread carcase to make the soles of the thongs but they cut them out in such a way that they effectively were on backwards.  This was done so that when the enemy soldiers, that's our guys, would see their footprints in the dirt they would think that they were heading in the opposite direction.  Clever bastards. 

Moving onto the rifle range where they had an array of Russian and captured American hardware, and all available to have a play with.  You basically purchased a few rounds of the weapon of your choice and then headed over to the range to fire them off.  I bought 10 rounds for the Jeep Mounted Machine gun, there was large clay pot about 25 metres in front of me, it's still there if you know what I mean.  I would've lasted long in the theatre of war.  Rainey had a go of an M1 Carbine, one round and then she handed the gun to me.  She doesn't like guns, I guess 25 years in emergency wards will do that to a person.  She still had a crack though, missed the clay pot to by the way. We stopped at the cafe for a bight too eat and a cold drink before making our way back to our van to head on down to the Me Kong River for part two of our tour.

Part two consisted of a boat ride across the Me Kong to a small island that is home to a small village of Vietnamese people.  There they would show us through their huts and our guide talked about their lives, we ate fresh honey straight from the hive and fruit the likes of which had never seen before.  We rode in the back of a rickety old wooden cart pulled by a donkey before making our way to a bunch of traditional wooden boats for a journey down through a creek back to where we would get back on board the larger boat for the return journey.  All of this occurred under the big fat heavy monsoonal rain drops, we were give yellow plastic disposable ponchos that did little to keep us dry but it's the thought counts.

We boarded our van ready for the two hour drive back to Ho Chi Minh City and I was looking forward to something to eat and a couple of cold bevvys.  Little did I know that sometime between leaving Sydney and now I had contracted some sort of Influenza virus and by the time reached the outskirts of the city I was freezing cold with a soaring temperature, man it hit hard and fast.  I got back to hotel and went to bed hoping to sacrifice a night out to recover quickly.  We had to move hotels the next day and we were on holidays so I definitely didn't have time to be sick.

The process of moving hotels the next day was a pain in the arse but I managed to make my way to our taxi and up into our room where I dutifully went to bed, only to wake up early the next morning.  I felt a little better and we managed to get out for a visit to the zoo.  There were mixed emotions about this one for me, the zoo itself is very old school and the enclosures are reminiscent of Sydney's Taronga Zoo when I was a kid before they started to make the animals enclosures a little more like their natural habitat.  Think of elephants in small enclosures with no trees or grass and concrete slabs under shade shelters and monkeys in steel cages, it was pretty distressing.  The other thing that just totally blew my mind was the fact that you were not only allowed to feed the animals, it was almost encouraged.  People would turn with bags of fruit and vegetables and hand it out to animals, I managed to acquire a few bananas from one of the locals which I dutifully handed over to one of the elephants, it seemed to be the highlight of his day, it definitely the highlight of mine.

We left the zoo after a couple of hours and spent the afternoon wandering around the city taking in the sites and sampling the local bars.  We headed to Ben Thanh markets again that night were we found an outdoor cafe that would provide us with taste of the local seafood, we ate crabs, prawns and fish for a good few hours all for just a few bucks per head.  We also invited a couple of local kids to join us for something to eat.  They belonged to one of the local stall holders and are known for harassing tourists until they put their hand in their pocket and buy some of the worthless trinkets that they carried.  Our waiter scowled at them but at the end of they they were just trying to help mum and dad make a buck.  They sat and ate and ate and ate.  We walked them back to their stall before making our way back to the Hard Rock Cafe for a good dose of live music, tomorrow would be our last day in the city and we were all looking forward to moving on to Da Nang.  Our friends had made some friends with some of the locals on their last trip so it was going to be great meet them and get a real taste of how they lived.

So our last day was a very cruisie one, we just ambled along from place to place eating, drinking and shopping our way around the city.  I had a little old man kneel down beside and start cleaning my shoes with a plastic bottle full of soapy water and a tooth brush, I told him to go away but as I side stepped he crawled around after me determined as ever to finish the job he started.  I eventually relented and let him finish the job, he un did my shoes laces and removed one shoe at a time and put new inner soles in each and carefully placed them back on and re-tied the laces.  Upon completion of the task he stood up and held out his hand, I been bloody rail roaded!  I asked how much and i can't remember his response but it equal to about fifteen Australian dollars, I eventually handed over about five bucks.  There was all sorts of this type of stuff going on, I believe there is no social security system, although don't take that as fact, so people have scratch out a living any way they can.  Like the woman selling geckos and scorpions and little mesh bags.  We asked what they were used for and she advised us that people make a drink out of them, good for the pecker apparently.

We eventually found ourselves at the war museum and what a confrontational experience it was.  Much like at the Cuchi tunnels, we were viewing it all from the perspective of the enemy, unlike when you visit a memorial in Australia or almost any other western country.  The thing that really unsettled me though was the graphic images, they didn't hold back.  Dead bodies, deformed babies, the lot.  The huge and lingering effects of agent orange got a lot of real estate with in the museum and with good reason.  The effects are still being felt today with babies that were born with no eyes, or disfigured limbs were now trying live as adults, and all of it the work of the 'evil Americans and their allies'.  We spent our last nigh back at our favourite haunt, the Hard Rock Cafe.  The house band was excellent and a great way to finish our all to brief stay in this amazing city.

The next day was all about getting to Da Nang and we rose early for breakfast before loading our bags into our transport for the drive to the airport.  Nothing really to report here, airports are airports and I would have much rather catch a train or drive but with time being in short supply the one and a half hour flight one out over an 18 hour drive to cover the nine hundred odd kilometre journey.  With our nine night stay at Da Nang there was quite a bit of relaxing by the pool so rather than a day by day account of our time there this will be a summary of places of interest and things we did.

So i was still suffering the effects of the influenza virus that had first reared its head a few days ago and after arriving at Vin Pearl resort, we ditched our bags and headed straight for the pool.  I instantly felt better and we spent a good few hours, moving from pool to pool.  It was dinner and an easy night, the benefit of nine nights in one place s that we didn't feel rushed to go and see anything.  The food was great and with a good selection of traditional and western foods we were sure that we wouldn't go hungry during our time here.  The Vin Pearl Resort has a total of five pools over looking the beach as well as tennis courts, spas, gymnasium and range of bars and restaurants, jet skis for hire on the beach was an added bonus and the lack of rules in relation to their use was welcome relief to the rigidity they face in Australia.

The real treasure of the Da Nang region is the Unesco World Heritage listed city of Hoi An.  A really well preserved former trading port Hoi An to me represented the real Vietnam, amazing architecture, amazing food and amazing people.  We spent most of our nine days in the Da Nang region at Hoi An, sometimes during the day, sometimes we would go in the afternoon into the nigh time and sometimes we would just stay all day.

Hoi An is about half an hour away and occasionally we would all just jump in a taxi for the journey, if the wait was too long for the bus or we just didn't want to jostle amongst the crowds waiting to catch one back to the resort.  The taxi ride becomes an event in itself, drivers hand resting on the horn the whole way, warning anyone with in earshot that we were on our way.

One thing that I really loved about Vietnam was vast array of photographic matter, it's a photographers dream location really, particularly if your into street style and urban landscape stuff, just point the camera and click, you'll end up with something colourful and interesting.  Again Hoi An for me was at the top of the list, the mix of different architectural styles, the street vendors or the nightly ritual of sending floating candles down the river.  I really can't say enough about the place and is definitely a must visit if your in the region.  We sat and watched the monsoonal rains come down each afternoon whilst eating and drinking in some local bar.  We wandered the streets and witnessed the locals catching fish in the storm water drains and of coursed we shopped.  Hoi An is known for it's tailer made clothing and silk industry and whilst I didn't have a suit made while we were there I came home with a suitcase full of cheap T-Shirts and jackets.  Hoi An is definitely a place that we would visit again if in Vietnam.

During our time at Vin Pearl we had befriended some of the staff and as such were lucky enough to be given the locals insights to where to visit during our stay and first on the list of 'must sees' was Cham Island.  We arranged the boat tour through Vin Pearl and included in the tickets price was a walking tour of the village on the island, lunch and a snorkelling tour of some of the reefs around the island.  It was an interesting wander through the village and there of course are remnants of the war scattered about the place, the most obvious the rusty remnants of a barge left right on the beach where the boat stopped for us to disembark.  It was touted as a full day cruise but we were back at Vin Pearl by about 2:00pm, which was more than enough time to be fair.  We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming at the resort.

We organised with one of the staff members to act as our tour guide on one of his days off whilst we were there and he took us up to the top of Monkey Mountain over looking Da Nang.  Our friend had organised a driver and vehicle and he brought one of his friends along for the day.  We visited old American military installation from Radar bases to heliports, there were lookouts on both sides of the mountain and we got see monkeys in the wild for the first time, only a couple though as though little buggers are stealthy.  We ended up heading to the edge of the bay at the foot of the mountain where we found a a small restaurant and bar where the daily ritual of eating and drinking began.  We swam in the ocean and they even had a couple of jet skis that we hired.  Again no paper work to sign just hand over some cash and go for a spin.  For those unfamiliar with jet skis they have a kill switch on the left handle bar that is connected to a lanyard worn on the wrist of the rider, the idea being that should you come off the ski the engine will cut out and stop allowing you to get back to the ski.  The kill switch on our hire skis was tied on with fishing line, no lanyard was on offer.  It gives you an idea of the lack of rules and regulations.

We also spent quiet a bit of time wandering around the city of Da Nang and found it to be kind of like lighter version of Ho Chi Minh.  Street vendors, screaming car horns and more chaos.  I love cities as much as I love rural villages and country towns and Da Nang was no different. 

We visited 'Tams Pub & Surf shop'. It was nothing more than a single room at the front of house that had been converted into this interesting mixed business, western food like hamburgers and spaghetti were on offer as cold beer and the opportunity to rent a surf board should you feel so inclined.  There was no surf to speak of at Da Nang so I'm not sure how profitable this side of the business was. One of the most interesting experiences for me was meeting Tam, the owner.  Tam was a young girl in her pre teens during the war and she told us stories of her time during the war and how with her grasp on english she acted as an un-official interpreter for American soldiers, the walls of her 'pub' are adorned with photographs of people she has met through her long and interesting life.

Another area that I found fascinating was Marble Mountain, which was within walking distance of our resort.  This ramshackle assortment of houses was the centre of a large marble carving industry largely carried in peoples front yards and on footpaths.  Some of the carvings were huge and I wondered how many people had been injured loading them onto trucks when they sold.  Marble mountain is also home to a temple set on the high peak in the middle of the area which made for a nice afternoon stroll, nae climb before heading home for a swim before dinner.  We also spent a day just wandering along the beach and checking out all of the resorts along the strip, we would pull for a drink, maybe a bight to eat and of course a swim to cool down from the strenuous endeavours of our day.  The opulence  of these resorts is an incredible contrast to the chaos and poverty of the surrounding area.  There is also the dragon bridge in Da Nang that each evening at around nine o'clock puts on a fire breathing display that is quite impressive, our local contact did warn us to keep an eye on our wallets as we walked through the large crowds though.

I personally loved Vietnam, the people were warm and welcoming, the food was er, interesting and of course it was ridiculously cheap.  It comes highly recommended if you want to experience some authentic East Asian culture.

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Written by Glenn Keating

Category: Destination Reviews

Published: 20 August 2017

Hits: 402

Airlie Beach to Whitehaven

We were rapidly approaching Hayman Island from Airlie Beach courtesy of the sub 5 knot South Easterly breeze doing it’s best turn this pristine part of the world into mill pond. We’d met up with local Jet Ski enthusiast, Arthur about two or three Klm’s before hand and we were bombing along at 60 K’s an hour. I had the video camera mounted on the bonnet of the Jet Ski so thought it would be great to get a shot of the Hayman Island Resort. I approached the entrance to the small harbour and then peeled right aiming for a nice panning shot of the exclusive resort. As I completed the turn I looked across to my right to see not only the other riders who had followed me in, but also the channel marker that we were clearly on the wrong side of. We were on a falling tide although not to far off high but it was clear to see that we were over the top of a one of the most beautiful reefs I had ever had the privilege of seeing and quickly reduced speed so as to allow time to not only enjoy the scenery but also keep an eye out for shallow water and slow moving sea turtles, for both their benefit and ours.

When we started Jet-Skiing we dreamt of riding them around the Whitsunday Islands and it was this dream which led to our ill-fated attempt to jet ski around the entire Australian coast line, but that’s a story for another time. After a few days in Airlie Beach the wind was finally on our side and we decided to head out for a run to the world famous Whitehaven Beach. Starting out from Able Point marina we made our way across towards the narrow passage that runs between Hayman and Hook Island in what can only be described as ‘as good as it gets’. For the first leg of our days journey we were heading to Manta Ray Bay for some snorkelling with the abundant aquatic life that calls the Marine Sanctuary home. Manta Ray Bay has some amazing coral formations and thanks to the local tour operators feeding the fish on a regular basis the ‘locals’ know to come over and visit any boat that pulls up into the bay and wait for the handouts. Among the huge schools of Scissor Fish and Fusiliers were a couple Giant Trevally and a very docile Maori Wrasse all eager for a free feed. We tied up to one of the available dinghy moorings, slipped on our fins and made ourselves at home amongst the fish while we admired the scenery below.

After brief but pleasant half an hour or so we climbed back on board the skis and headed around towards Whitehaven Beach. This was the choppiest part of the day but only lasted about 15 minutes and we were back in calm water and within sight of the world-renowned Whitehaven Beach. We anchored our skis on an isolated stretch of sand and took some time admiring the pristine environment in which we were able to immerse ourselves in a way in which only a fellow jet-skier would understand. They certainly make you feel like you’re apart of the scenery as opposed to being a spectator to it.

After a quick swim and a cold drink we head around through Solway Passage and onto Hamilton Island, where we paid the $21 per ski for four hours access to the facilities. We had what can only be described as a very average over-priced meal in an amazing location. For those that haven’t been before the marina fees allow you access to all of the resorts facilities including the swim up bar and pools on the resort side of the island, a short ten minute walk away. If your lazy or want to see a bit more of the island you can always hire a golf cart and take yourself on a self guided tour, whilst we didn’t do it on this particular visit we have previously and it’s interesting to see how the ‘other half’ live. There is also a fuel facility if your ski needs a top up to get back to Airlie Beach, with our long range tanks we were fine so we didn’t check prices but I think it’s suffice to say that you would be not only be paying the usual ‘Marina Tax’ but also the very lucrative ‘Island Tax’.

After lunch we made our way back out of the marina and headed North along the Whitsunday Passage and in through the narrow ‘unsafe passage’ that runs between North and South Molle Island then on towards Daydream Island. We decided not to go ashore and played a round for a bit in the calm waters before heading back to Able Point Marina to wash the salt off the skis and rinse the dust from our throats. All in all it was a great day in perfect conditions and we covered somewhere around 100K’s. Some more places of interest if you have the time are the reefs around Stonehaven anchorage on the western side of Hook Island and Blue Pearl Bay on the western side of Hayman Island. These are both accessible without deviating to much from the journey we undertook so if the weather gods are smiling and you got away to an early start it would be a good idea to add them onto your itinerary and remember, if you ride a jet ski, the Whitsunday’s is a must do destination. A big thanks is also needed for Ben from Whitsunday Jet Sports for looking after our skis whilst we were in town.

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Written by Glenn Keating

Category: Destination Reviews

Published: 13 September 2019

Hits: 81

Bullara Station

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Written by Glenn Keating

Category: Destination Reviews

Published: 20 August 2017

Hits: 1020

Exploring Lake Argyle by Jet Ski

Watching the water rush past as the speed indicator on the GPS slowly climbed towards the 95Km/h mark was exhilarating to say the least, to do it in a place like Lake Argyle was a once in a lifetime privilege. Located 70 kilometers South East of Kununurra, Lake Argyle is a man made body of water located in the beautiful Kimberley region of Western Australia. Formed in 1971 by the damming of the Ord River, Lake Argyle is the largest body of freshwater in Australia and covers an area more than 1,000 square kilometers. A volume of water equivalent to 27 Sydney Harbour’s creates what is officially classified as an inland sea and this figure can double during the wet season.

With over 900 kilometers of coastline and countless islands, Lake Argyle is the perfect place to get out on your Jet Ski, kayak or boat to explore the myriad of bays and islands. The sheer size of Lake Argyle should not be underestimated and you’ll need to have your wits about you, as getting lost would be very easy. You’ll need some basic navigation skills at least or use your GPS as we did. Don’t forget to keep an eye on your fuel gauge as well and letting someone know what time your due back is a good idea along with a rough idea of the area you intend to explore for the day.

There is an estimated 35,000 fresh water crocodiles in Lake Argyle and with their shy and timid nature it was no surprise that we didn’t see any in our time on the water whilst on our jet skis. One area in particular is referred to locally as ‘the crocodile nursery’ but we were unable to find it until we headed out on a sunset cruise onboard the Kimberly Durack. The lake is also home to a variety of native fish species, twenty-six in total so if you’re a keen angler there is definitely some fun to be had here.

The boat ramp into the lake is pretty sketchy and is effectively just a graded gravel ramp, it drops off fairly quickly when the water is low so try and avoid dropping the trailer wheels in to far. We decided to err on the side of caution and winched the skis both off and on to the trailer as opposed to riding them like we normally do. It’s also important to be aware of the amount of weed in the shallows, not to mention submerged rocks and trees, a disaster waiting for those who let there attention wane.

Seeing as how Lake Argyle is classified as an inland sea, all of the usual off shore safety equipment must be carried, flares, V-Sheets, Radios, EPIRB’s, the lot. So if your lacking in any of this gear make sure you beg, borrow or steal some otherwise you’ll get there and be a wee bit annoyed if your checked and have to wear the ensuing fine. As an aside we never encountered any authorities during our weeklong stay.

Getting to Lake Argyle is a bit of a drive regardless of the direction you come into it from. From Kununurra it’s a 70 Klm drive on good, albeit narrow sealed roads. I’ve mentioned Kununurra as it’s the closest town and whilst there is food and fuel available at the Lake Argyle resort you will pay dearly for it, so fuel up at Kununurra and bring some extra jerry cans if you have the space and the intention of doing lots of riding.

The resort at Lake Argyle is about a kilometer from the boat ramp and has everything you could ever need including views to die for, along with the most amazing infinity pool I have ever seen, although it could do with a little solar heating as it is freezing cold. There is a bar and restaurant and the food is pretty damn good. Accommodation ranges from unpowered campsites right through to luxury cabins overlooking the lake. There is also a range of tours available including 4WD, boat and scenic flights as well as a bunch of walking trails if you want to see the lake from a different perspective. As I mentioned earlier, we opted for the ‘Sunset Cruise’ as many travellers we spoke to along the way recommended it. It was great to have the knowledge of the guides pointing out some of the more interesting aspects of the lake, and yes we got to see some freshwater crocodiles, lots of them!

We also lashed out for a half an hour helicopter flight. They give you the option of removing the doors, which we went for and I have to say the only way to really appreciate the vastness of Lake Argyle is from the air. It isn’t cheap at $250 per person but if you can squeeze it into the budget, do so you won’t regret it. You can save a few bucks by booking a couple of tours at the same time, so make sure you investigate what you want to do as it saved us a hundred bucks between us. You can read a little more about the helicopter flight here.

We also spent a day on the Ord River, which runs from the dam wall at Lake Argyle all the way down to Kununurra, about 80 kilomteres. We decided to do the river from the Kununurra end as we wanted to be going down stream when our fuel was running low figuring if we got it wrong and ran out of fuel we would eventually end up at the boat ramp. Speaking of boat ramps the one we used at Kununurra is the one closest to the weir as opposed to the one in the large pond closer to town. It’s a decent ramp albeit shallow and it has no pontoon or jetty to tie up to. The was a sign posted reporting the sighting of a Estuarine, or Salt Water Crocodile a week prior to our day there, so you certainly need to keep a keen eye out when launching and retrieving your ski. The boat ramp at the Argyle dam end of the river is steep and very gravelly and the tonne and a half of tandem jet ski trailer also added to our decision to drive to Kununurra to start our tour of the   river. The river itself is wide for the most part with some spectacular red rock cliffs as the gorge narrows, the further you get up stream. We didn’t get all the way the dam wall as we spent to much time slowing down to observe the fresh water crocs that we encountered swimming near the edge of the banks, occasionally getting as close as two or three metres away before they dived and swam to safety. There is also plenty of reed beds along the Ord so again keep an eye out and be prepared to clear your intake grate or tow your skis back to the ramp. All in all the Ord River is a fantastic part of the Lake Argyle experience so make sure you leave a day in schedule to get in and check it out.

We spent a week at Lake Argyle and could have stayed longer, there is plenty to see and do and of course the opportunity to explore this vast waterway by Jet Ski is definitely a bucket list item for any serious enthusiast. When we say that we had the lake pretty much too ourselves we aren’t lying. It was peak season and with only three of four charter boats on the water doing two or three cruises a day there was no problem with trying to avoid the crowds. Throw in a couple of tinnies sitting close to shore trying to catch dinner and that’s about the extent of the waterway traffic you will encounter. We sat on about 60K’s an hour for the most part weaving around and carving up the surface to our hearts content. If your up for a jet skiing adventure you could do a lot worse than heading to Lake Argyle for some really remote ‘got the place to ourselves’ action. Living on the east coast of New South Wales means that your about as far away as you can possibly get living in Australia and it was a huge adventure just getting there in the first place but as jet ski enthusiasts we were glad that we undertook the arduous journey.

For more information on Lake Argyle you can check out their website here.

*Prices are correct at time of publication but as always we recommend doing your own research.