Postcards from Cape Leveque, a place of surprises

We've just got back from Cape Leveque and are enjoying a sneak preview of 'Staircase to the Moon'. Cape Leveque was a sensational place to spend a few days and if we'd taken more provisions and hadn't been booked back in Roebuck Bay caravan park tonight we'd probably have stayed a little longer. That said, the park here is now packed as it offers a gun view over the bay for the lunar phenomenon so we might have struggled to get a spot.

Half of the road up to Cape Leveque from Broome was unsealed and sandy which seemed to deter most people without 4WD, so there are no pesky Wicked Campers crowding the place out. We're hoping the same will apply to the Gibb River Road.

Cape Leveque is one of the few places we've stopped at where you can watch the sun rise and set over sea. And there were plenty of other pleasant surprises in store.

We found a beautiful shady spot away from the cliff top next to Mark and Jen. Jen was busy waxing her legs as we pulled up but didn't seem too phased and immediately struck up a conversation. A conversation that continued, broken only by sleep, until we left this morning. They had recently spent time on Elcho Island off Arnhem Land working as nurses within the remote aboriginal community. Plenty of stories in there and it was fascinating hearing about the intervention.

* The local Bardi calendar. We were here for the King Tides and also the traditional time for moving camps down to the beach to avoid the influx of mosquitoes. We'd finally remembered to pick up some mossie coils and they seem to be doing the job.



















The Kooljaman Resort is owned by the local aboriginal people and has won numerous eco tourism awards. As is typical with places like this, the accommodation rates vary from our budget ($16 per person per night), through to $250 per night for Safari tents, although they get to call on the 'Bush Butler' room service. And if you really can't face the road up, then the Coral Princess drops anchor at Cape Leveque for cocktail hour. Prices in peak time are around $9,000 for a 10 day tour. Helicopter rides are an optional, and expensive, extra.














Some shots from the Western, sunset, beach. Also the closing fishing beach from camp.














On our second day, I booked myself on a fishing tour with our neighbour Mark, and also Sam and Belinda from Gosford who were in Broome for a wedding.

It turned out that Dr Belinda is good mates with our good mates Russell and Paul from Dangar, as well as the infamous Dr Brad. I'd spent many late nights with Dr Brad during the six months he'd rented my place on the island while he was on secondment to Sydney with the rural fire service, which included drifting off each night to his amazing bird calls of Australia collection. What a small world.














I was hoping our skipper would be a local aboriginal fishing legend who'd teach me how to catch and gut fish, but it turned out that Wongy was a chef by trade and it was only his first season out on the boat. He was much better at catching fish than driving the boat and it was quite an adventure getting on and off. I suspect that the Normandy landings would not have gone quite so well if Wongy had been driving.

Belinda caught the most fish, Mark caught the only eatable fish (supplemented with a couple from Wongy), and I can't remember what was wrong with Sam's but at least he caught something. I hooked a shark and was immediately faced with the prospect of being a hero on the boat but being in serious trouble when I got back to Ness. After making a fairly alarming jump towards the boat, the shark thankfully bit through the line. We were both off the hook.

Luckily, and in spite of a desperately blunt knife, Mark had the fish cleaning skills to fillet the three fish we took off the boat, and shortly afterwards we were settled down for lovely lunch.


Next surprise was the Channel 7 Getaway crew, including Tom the Chippie, arrived for a film shoot, along with a sizeable chunk of the Australian Girls Choir and the National Boys Choir to film a new 'Still call Australia home' video for Qantas. The crew certainly left their impression on the resort, including bringing down a huge branch in the campsite when the driver reversed their 4wd coach through one of the trees.

Ness was too embarrassed to ask Tom for his autograph, but I did go over and grab a couple of shots while they were trying to film. You might hear the my shutter snaps over the audio when it hits the airwaves.

* Tom 'on camera' raving about the western beach to a local elder.















Yesterday, Mark & Jen kindly took us for a day trip in their Patrol to the aboriginal community at One Arm Point. While they enjoyed coffee and a chat in the Health Clinic, Ness and I trudged around in the midday sun to see the sights.

There's not much shade at One Arm Point, but it does offer some awesome views of the Buccaneer Archipelago which cuts across the entrance to King Sound which runs down to Derby.

At almost 12m, Derby has the second largest tidal range in the world. Thanks to the interweb we're able to check claims like that. When I looked it up, the River Severn also has the second largest tidal range, at 15m. Nevertheless, a 12m tide is pretty cool, with the water level falling or rising 2m per hour. You could see the current ripping through the islands.














* Sunrise over the eastern beach








After packing up camp we stopped at the Western Beach so I could have another fish. I'd caught a couple of very small fish the night before which Mark had kindly taken a snap of. Unfortunately he still had the camera in his pocket when an outsize wave came in, drenching us both. The camera was dead on arrival back at the camp.

I landed a couple of nice fish which someone further up the beach identified as Long Tom. They didn't look like good eating fish and had a massive set of sharp teeth.

I was a bit worried what sort of results I'd get when I put 'Long Tom' into Google (what with it being work internet and all, and having just completed a mandatory online harassment training module), but the initial identification had been correct. Turns out they're related to flying fish, and Garfish, and therefore if you can get past the green bones they are apparently five star eating. I also discovered that they're quite aggressive fish and have been known to attack anglers edging into the water to get a longer cast. Some things are better found out after the fact.


On our way back to Broome we stopped at Beagle Bay to check out the Catholic Church built by locals under the instruction of missionaries in the early 20th century. The first missionary was here in the late 1880s for five years without converting a single person. Apparently though he did create a good impression with the locals which laid solid foundations for the future. The locals made the church out of shells and it must have been a tough gig.

I've not been into a church for a while, especially a catholic one, and I don't suppose I will for a while, but it was worth the visit. The altar was especially beautiful, but it all looked particularly out of place out here. While we had low expectations after our Santa Theresa experience outside of Alice, we were both impressed by the tidiness of the communities we visited and the relative industry of the locals.

Bugged out in Broome

I'd not been freaked out by any bugs the whole trip until last night.

It would seem we picked up some passengers at the Barn Hill station (we were camped under some wonderful shady trees). Short gestation period, and then WHAM, BAM, tent with hundreds of little shield bugs in when we went to bed last night. And then thousands just now when I was brushing for my life to get the little fuckers out. They don't bite from what we can work out, but they fly and probably crawl up our noses when we're asleep. Yuck, yuck and yuck. I'll be going in search of a decent spray at a garden centre if they're still around tomorrow.


Other than the bugs, there's not a bad word to say about Barn Hill. It even had it's own one lane lawn bowling green, in similar nick to lane 4 at Dangar Island, which is pretty impressive as we don't have cattle wandering around in search of a meal on Dangar. Or seasonal cyclones coming through. Come to think of it I'm not really sure what Freddy does to ours to keep it so challenging.





























Having the two nights at Barn Hill gave me the opportunity to catch up on some moustache maintenance and once the heat had died down a bit, another couple of hours fishing. I was a little reluctant to get too far into the water in case of crocs, but the only wildlife I saw was a passing turtle, and a fish flying after a smaller fish rather than my lure. No one else on the beach seemed to be having much luck either, but I didn't hear any complaining going on. Such a beautiful spot.



We ran out of beer on the Sunday so really had to push on up to Broome to restock. It was such a relief to finally get here. The drive from Port Hedland to Broome is apparently 610kms. It felt like the Nullarbor all over again.

First port of call was Maccas (I know, but it was the first one since Perth, and we couldn't stomach another Chicken Treat so soon after Port Hedland), followed by Beaurepaires for a new rim/tyre. We've given up on trying to get to the second spare under the Troopie and really need to have two spares for the remote Gibb River Road which we start next week. Luckily they had exactly what we wanted in stock and it also now means that our main spare is now exactly the same as our other wheels (75R16). Fitting the old spare into the back of the car took some work, and some cursing, but in she went, with the dives tubs stacked on top.








* Not many chances left for sunset over sea shots, so please indulge me. I just hope we get one more cracker before we head inland.

After stocking up on some beers and a few other provisions, we headed straight back out of Broome, and headed up the coast to a free campspot at Prices Point. Not much shade, but we at least had the place to ourselves (if you don't count the shield bug plague, clouds of diease carrying mosquitos, and the flies).













The fairly stiff breeze this morning didn't keep the flies away so after a hurried breakfast inside MDT we made a sharp exit and came back to Broome.

First stop this time was the famous Cable Beach, for a coffee and a swim. Air temp was about 35 degrees, water temp around 30 degrees. Main local news story was a new resident in town (a 3m saltwater croc) but with lifeguards on patrol we both felt pretty safe. Next stop was a well earned relaxing lunch at overlooking Roebuck Bay, where we are now camped. I thought we were meeting up with Rob & Woo tonight, but turns out they get here next Tuesday (oops), so we're heading out of town up to Cape Leveque for a few nights at an aboriginal run 'resort' and then back to Broome on the weekend for Staircase to the Moon.

Dampier to Broome - almost

After leaving the amazing Millstream-Chichester and Karijini National Parks getting back to civilisation was always going to be a bit of a come down. We'd met some friendly half locals (used to live in the area, now south of Perth) who'd told us that the Dampier Transit Park was THE place to stay in Dampier. It was really the only place for caravanners etc. After a quick and delicious burger-with-the-lot at the Roadrunner Cafe we checked in. I was quite nervous as we had also been told that the park manager was a ferocious lady who called a spade a spade. She had been a drover and a truck driver among other things in her past life and certainly looked scary enough. It turned out that she was friendly and helpful provided you didn't mess with her sprinklers.
*Dampier Port - a 24/7 facility very close to the Transit Park. The noise and associated flood lighting did not make make for great sleeping.


To be true one of the main reasons for going to Dampier was to see the Red Dog memorial.This wonderful life size memorial is on the road on the way in/out of town. For those unfamiliar with the story; Red Dog was a kelpie/cattle cross who moved to Dampier in 1971 with his family. He quickly cut ties with this family and began his wanderings. He befriended a Hammersly Iron bus driver and the seat behind the driver belonged to Red Dog. He soon became well known and was a regular companion on the buses. So well known, that when a new bus driver refused Red Dog to board the bus a strike was imminent with other bus drivers threatening to walk off the job until the situation was remedied. Red Dog enjoyed this nomadic life in North West W.A until 1979 when he was reportedly fed a strychinine bait in Karratha and died.

*Red Dog Memorial.
He is buried in an unmarked grave somewhere between Karratha and Roebourne. Red Dog made many friends in his time on the road, he even had his own bank account and was rarely short of a place to kip. He was also made a member of the Transport Union. Red Dog's story has reached far and wide thanks to Louis de Bernieres (of Captain Corellis Mandolin) writing the story after a visit to WA and hearing this dogs tale.


We decided one night in Dampier was enough and decided to push on. A little place on our map called Point Samson took our fancy along with descriptions in our brochures of great fishing, beaches, swimming etc. On the way we stopped in at Karratha for some supplies and the much talked about solar panels. Point Samson turned out to be a gem, a holiday oasis in a sea of industrial towns.
*Beautiful frangipani at Point Samson - the smell when the warmth of the sun hit the fowers in the morning was gorgeous.

The tiny caravan park for two nights was perfect for us as we still had reception so Andy could get his work done. The gardens were lovely and fragrant with lots of butterflies and birds and we were close to the Samson Beach Tavern.




*Andy and the brand new solar panels. I will let Andy do the technical talking. We have been talking about solar ever since the fridge battery ran out of puff at Redbluff after three consecutive scorchers. They are just little ones but we really only want them to help the fridge rather than running a TV and air conditioner. It has a 12V plug which charged up my phone in no time as well as alligator clips for the auxiliary battery. As we've been town hopping up the coast with a few long drives in between to charge up the battery we haven't needed them but I'm sure they'll come into their own in a few weeks time. We are very pleased with this new addition to our kit. We are sure that by the time we get back we'll have everything you need for a year camping.
We partook of the Wednesday night half price T-bone at the Samson Beach Tavern along with everyone else in town. Lucky for us our tummies demand a fairly early dinner these days which ensured an ace table. The view from the deck over the ocean was lovely and it all would've been perfect if it hadn't been for the sandflies. The little bastards nip and pee, nip and pee. Even Andy got munched although he just looked a bit spotty. It would seem I am allergic to them and it takes antihistamine to take the sting out cos if you itch them they just get itchier and then it feels like your arms and legs (or wherever the bites are) are on fire. In this climate there is real potential for them get infected once you take the tops off.


As Payniac's work load was reaching a crescendo we were committed to at least one more night in a town with coverage. Port Hedland was the obvious choice as we make our way slowly to Broome. We found a choice caravan park about 4km out of town (thankfully) which also turned out to be one of the most $$ caravan parks we've stayed in! And they didn't even have a jumping pillow!
*Dusk over Port Hedland.
Needless to say we didn't spend much time in Port Hedland. It was however the site of our first Chicken Treat meal - I wish I'd made sandwiches.


It's only 615km from Port Hedland to Broome but we'd heard it was a punishing drive so we thought we'd break it up with a few nights camping after a week in caravan parks. We're also a little ahead of schedule and didn't want to arrive in Broome too early as it's all about timing for the 'staircase to the moon' phenomenon.


The same couple who'd told us about Dampier told us about Cape Keraudren about 140km east of Port Hedland. It turned out to be a lovely spot run by the East Pilbara Shire (the largest shire
in the world FYI). The ranger had perhaps been in the game a bit too long as he showed vehement intolerance of the two carloads of backpackers of mixed nationalities ahead of us. He completely ignored them while he gave me a nonsensical lecture about treatment of sandfly bites.We were also given a quick refresher on how to deal with snakes crawling over your feet (we didn't see any) and pesky roos. We'd been thinking if it was a nice spot we'd stay two nights. This lunatic quickly put paid to that notion.

*VJ in anti-sandfly garb looking out to sea, Cape Keraudren Nature Reserve.

We had a lovely afternoon of reading and yahtzee and beer drinking. We had a visit from a curious joey who hung around for ages.


*Curious joey.











*Curious Joey in camp.

As I said a lovely afternoon until Ranger Crazy was doing his rounds. Instead of just checking our rego against the list he was in the habit of calling into every camp and having a chat. After asking us where we were from and telling him Dangar Island he launched into a tirade about an Egyptian hieroglyph site on the Hawkesbury River. A significant site (him being an Archaeology PhD) he said, proving ancient trading with the Egyptians, along with great bounty of sapphires and sulphur. He had also met Douglas Adams who told him how the Hitchikers Guide was born!

*Camp Keraudren/Krusty.
After a little research the hieroglyphs turn out to be a hoax (Noooo!) and were done by some other loony who was caught in the act by a NSW Ranger and the Douglas Adams story is readily available on the web. More lecturing about sandflies - most of what he said made little sense although he spoke with such authority on the subject that I could make no comebacks. We decided to move on.


We must've been keen to get out of there as we had one of our earliest departures to date and were on the road before 830am.

We stopped at 80 Mile Beach briefly. There was a lovely shady spot to camp but we wanted to get a little closer to Broome and so pushed on.
*80 Mile Beach

This stretch of road between Port Hedland and Broome has tested the podcast collection again. We are rapidly running dry of BBC podcasts and we both happily anticipate the Country Hour on Radio National from 12 Monday-Friday with Skye Shannon. We're both learning a lot from this program; mice plagues, wool prices, about the new beef processing facility in Esperence, tomato growers levy and of course swine flu. Si and Charl had warned us that you get into all sorts of stuff on a trip like this and it's true. We especilly love the regional news and weather.

*The view from the low tide water line back to shore at 80 Mile Beach.











*The Sandfire Roadhouse. We were both pretty excited about this stop. Besides needing fuel we were going to treat ourselves to a cold drink or an ice block - alas no shop.
This was an anti climax and we still had a long, long way to go and it was hot and we had been in the car a while already...need I say any more?






*Broome here we come. Not far now.
I'm pretty excited about Broome. We're planning to have night there early in the week before heading up to Cape Leveque for a few days. Things have really worked out for us as the Mailers and the best little brown dog (Champy) arrive on Tuesday and we're looking forward to some catch ups with them as they embark on their new life in the tropics.





*Barn Hill Beach.
I'm writing from Barn Hill, a small caravan and camping facility on the 430,000 acre Thangoo cattle station. It is really beautiful. There are lovely shady trees (not so good for the solar, but they're powered sites anyway) and lots of birds. It's a bit of a fishing destination although I've only heard of the ones that got away so far. I haven't had a swim yet (I know, unbelievable) as I'm scared of the snap-snappys. The locals seem more worried about the sharks - maybe they ate all the crocodiles? There was no one in the water when I wanted to have a swim so I stayed out. It's hot today (again) and I would dearly love a dip so will try and time it with some of the nomads looking like they're going swimming.
*Eucalypt blossoms at Barn Hill
*Red wing parrot



We'd love to stay here an extra night but we are very low on XXXX so will move on tomorrow to a camp site north of Broome after picking up the beer and calling at the VIC for some much needed information about future adventures.

It's time for breakfast so I'd better run.