One of the quiet perks of living in Darwin is what's on your doorstep. A day's drive west and you cross into the Kimberley — and into some of the most remote, ancient, downright humbling country anywhere in Australia. In 2022 we made the trip out to Kununurra and Lake Argyle, and it's stayed with us ever since.
An inland sea in the middle of nowhere
Lake Argyle doesn't make sense until you see it. It's an enormous body of water sitting in the red heart of the Kimberley — vast enough to have its own horizon, ringed by ranges that turn impossible colours at sunset. You stand at the edge of it and your brain quietly refuses to process the scale.
Kununurra, the little town that anchors the region, is all boab trees and big skies and the kind of frontier calm you only get this far from a city. It's the sort of place that reminds you how much of this country most people never see.
Out here, the land doesn't care that you came to look at it. It's been doing this for millions of years. You're just passing through — and it's good for the soul to remember that.
Why we keep chasing the remote
We could have spent that year doing easier, closer trips. But there's something about the remote stuff — the long drives, the no-signal stretches, the places that take effort to reach — that does something to a relationship. You're stripped back to just the two of you and a horizon, and you remember why you like each other's company in the first place.
The Kimberley is the best of the Top End's neighbourhood. If you ever get the chance, point the car west and go.
