The Ord River, Kununurra

Welcome back!

Yes, that’s right, we left off when we got back to Wyndham after our failed Berkley trip. Now we are heading back to Kununurra for a short Ord River trip.

We’ve done this trip before, with our mate Robbo, who used to do tours on the Ord.

The drive from Wyndham to Kununurra and our boat trip.

Early in the morning we left for Kununurra where we did our shopping and topped up the fuel. We launched the boat next to Kimberleyland Waterfront Holiday Park where we could store the Ute and trailer for a small fee.

Pretty cool to see the water gushing out from under the bridge when you drive into Kununurra
the public boat ramp next to Kimberleyland Caravan Park

We left in the early afternoon and were in no hurry. We cruised through the Lily Creek Lagoon, where the Caravan Park is, and made our way to the Ord.

  • In Lily Pond Lagoon where Kimberleyland Caravan Park and the boat ramp are located
  • Cruising through the channel
  • that connects Lily Pond Lagoon with the Ord
  • all the way to where it opens onto the Ord
  • In the Ord now
  • the farther up you get, the more cliffs there are
  • making it a stunning scenery to cruise past

The Ord is a gorgeous place to explore! Unfortunately, the waterfalls were already dry, when we were there but it’s still beautiful with the cliffs and green bush.

We explored the creek near Elephant Rock.

  • Elephant Rock
  • even though the photos don’t show it as well
  • it does look like an Elephant when you are there!
  • a beautiful creek opens up once you get around the rock

Further up we found the creek, our friend Robbo told us about. We found the spot he suggested for a camp. I don’t know if he ever did camp there himself, but we only lasted about 20minutes – including the time bringing the camping gear ashore and packing it back on the boat. The mosquitoes were horrendous.

  • The Ord has a very healthy ecosystem with seaweed growing abundantly in some sections
  • on shallower sections I hop at the front to look out for submerged rocks
  • spotted the entrance to the creek
  • ready to set up camp on this lush little peninsula, but…

We parked up in a nice spot in the mainstream, instead. It wasn’t far from the creek entrance and the mozzies were bearable. We finally cooked burgers on the boat, we always wanted to do that!

  • escaping the mosquitoes we left the creek
  • all clear
  • what a spot to camp
  • and finally, we are cooking
  • burgers on the boat!

Waking up in the middle of the Ord River was like heaven. Finally we got back to where we love it most – the outback, bush, serenity, you name it.

  • that seaweed causes a bit of trouble when it collects around the propeller …

We kept cruising up the Ord until we got stopped by a group of people informing us that there is a swimmer coming down the river. We saw the ultra-marathon swimmer Andy Donaldson conquering the Ord River for a world record. That was quite a bonus on our already fantastic trip.

A bend later we hit a big rock and then a submerged pebble bank, it literally shredded our propeller of the main motor to pieces. We cursed ourselves for deleting our tracks on the sounder a couple months ago (the log was full), as it wiped out the track from two years ago when our mate instructed us to go wide in that specific bend. The prop was damaged to an extent we had to call it the end of the Ord trip.

Anyway, from here the trip would have continued all the way to the dam at Lake Argyle. We did this in 2024 with Robbo, some photos from back then:

  • therer is a walk to rock art
  • first time we had a dog on board
  • the dam – Lake Argyle is on other side. Waterlevel in Ord is 90m to top of dam. Lake Argyle water level is 45m down from the top of the dam. 300m across the dam
  • there is a croc, very hard to spot
  • a Darter (a bird) dashing into the water when we approach
  • The spillway releases 13-16 thousand megalitres daily. During wetseason it can be as much as 110-700 thousand litres per second!
  • she is as excited and curious
  • a hidden, now dry, waterfall

After we wrecked the propeller we made our way back towards Kununurra. We stopped in a nice little bay, out of the current, for a break.

From there we headed further towards town, trying to locate the little waterhole we’ve seen some people swim in on the way up the other day.

We overtook the marathon swimmer on the way. He’s only the second person to swim from the dam to Kununurra. Simone Blaser was the first in September 2024. Simone conquered it in 16 hours and 13 minutes, Andy Donaldson in 11 hours and 51 minutes. Bear in mind, Simone did it after the dry season with a lot less water running down the 55km stretch, while Andy swam it after the wet season.

Andy Donaldson has a kayaker close by plus two boats either side. Its mainly for support but also to keep an eye out for crocodiles.

Soon after we found the waterhole, thankfully I marked the spot on the sounder on the way up, and we climbed up for a dip.

  • we found the water hole and parked up
  • tying up the boat
  • the pool is a little climb up the rocks
  • beautiful little pool
  • it even has ropes to help climbing up

The last bit was over too soon, and we were back at the caravan park.

back in the Lily Creek Lagoon, here you can see some of the caravan park

We checked in at the caravan park and had a big sort out. We enjoyed the sunset over the Lagoon and spotted some Lili-Trotters (also called Jacana).

  • out of the water the damage to the prop is overwhelmingly bad
  • as it goes with sorting the mess, first it turns int o a bigger mess
  • the Lily Trotter
  • or Jacana – its feet have extremely long toes which allows him to walk on the lily leaves

Experienced in April 2026 and September 2024, written in June 2026

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