Unfortunately it was time to leave what was now unanimously
voted out #1 stay so far this trip, which after nearly 150 days is nothing to
be sneezed at! We woke to cloudy skies and I dragged my somewhat dusty head off
the pillow and rushed around outside trying to get everything packed while the
lightest of sprinkles dampened everything. The local kids all went off to
school early and rolled out before most of the other campers had arisen.
We bounced our way back to the main road covering the 30kms
in just under an hour! We headed north with the goal of going to the one place
that accepts caravan at the end of the cape dropping it off having a look
around and then heading back the next day. We pulled into a small community, Lombadina,
to buy a loaf of bread as they have a bakery there and it had been a few days
since we tasted some of the fresh stuff! We bought some fresh curry puffs for
morning tea and De was a tad surprised at the price of @ $2.50! The community
also had a cute church that had been built from mangrove wood, which I am
imagining after my crab hunting experience it isn’t the easiest stuff to harvest.
We headed north and tried to drive into Kooljaman, which is
the fancy camping/resort at the end of Cape Leveque but the road was decidedly
wetter and after talking with the first person going the other way decided we
should do a U turn, which is never easy with a 17’ 6” van on the back, and head
off.
Optomistically we headed to Gambanan community right near the end of the
cape but the dirt track in looked like a massive puddle so we decided to drive
to the end of the cape and then head back to Broome today....the best laid
plans of mice and men!
One Arm Point is home to a large Aboriginal community and on
the other side of it was my/our goal. Our van the Investigator or The Gator was
named after the ship Mathew Flinders first circumnavigated Australia in. From
half way up Queensland the next sighting he made of Terra Australis was Cape
Laveque so we bumped up and down until we got to the point where we could go no
further, got out, took a photo and headed back towards Broome. The things we
do!
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| Beagle Bay Church where the Altar is made from Mother of Pearl |
The next hour was nice travelling along at 100km/hr on a
sealed road, but I knew what awaited us; 90kms of some of the worst road
around! There are some OK patches where you can sit at about 50 or 60km/hr but
a lot of it requires you to be darting from one side of this expanse of semi
flat area to the other chasing the path of least resistance. If you imagine
what your car feels like when you drive over a speed bump, then line a few
thousand of them up one after another them you are starting to get an idea of
what this road is like. Oh, that doesn’t sound too bad I hear you say. Well
then throw in 20 – 30cm high sand ‘mountains’ that run between you wheel ruts,
which aren’t to bad until you have to move over to the next set of ruts.
Without the Gator it would be bareable but she made me work pretty hard as she
swayed from side to side as she relocated herself. About 2 hrs later and we
were back on sealed road again, thankful that everything appeared to be in one
piece!
We flew into Broome and rushed around the 8 or so places we
had to get to in order to stock up. Derby is the just up the road but it is
supposed to be a bit light on stores and the next decent town is about 1000 kms
away!
We drove out just as dusk was hitting, getting calls through
to our two mothers as it would be a while before we will get reception again. On
the outskirts of Broome we essentially did our 3rd right turn and we
have now gone from heading north to heading east, essentially we are heading
for home! Just after dark we rolled into a rest area, set up and slumped into
bead tired after a long and exhausting day on the road!
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