The next part of our journey was to Cape Leveque/Dampier Peninsula from Broome, as shown on this map.
Broome, for the first stop, was a catch up / stock up time – work on the blog, laundry, phone calls, fix the water pump in Belle and lots of shopping (apart from groceries and beer, they have a very nice swimsuit and dress shop, and of course a Bunnings!). Then off to Cape Leveque.
Our three stays at Cape Leveque basically featured beach walks, amazing sunrises and sunsets, plus lots and lots of wind. These pictures tell the story (apart from the wind).
PENDER BAY ESCAPE
Campsite on the point between two beaches – sunrise shot at Pender Bay Escape.Sunrise reflected on the cliffs.Enjoying the beachside cliffs and caves.Quite fun just exploring a beautiful beach which we had to ourselves.Returning home after a beach walk.Couldn’t resist a kiss at the loveheart rock.
MIDDLE LAGOON
Middle Lagoon was more like a regular campground, ideally situated on two beaches; one for the fishermen and one for swimmers.Daytime at the swimming beach.I enjoyed a couple of swims at this good beach (except for the sandflies that appeared at 4pm). While I was swanning around on the beach, Dick was helping the guy that managed the place with some computer issues. We noticed his sign saying ‘Computer Geek Wanted’, so Dick offered to see what he could do. In the end (ie after about 3 hours over two days), Dick successfully resolved the problems. The guy was very grateful and offered to pay but Dick said just help out the next person who needs help.Vicki and Neil (friends from Sydney) were in the area so joined us for coffee at the cafe at Middle Lagoon. As he sat down Dick broke a table vase with a plastic plant. A bit later the cafe manager came over and asked if Dick could have a look at their computer, to make up for breaking that vase! They had some issues that Dick managed to help them with quite quickly. For that he was given an ice cream, which he happily accepted. I realised that we needed to leave or Dick might have a new volunteer job at Middle Lagoon.
Sunset at Middle Lagoon.
KOOLJAMAN CAPE LEVEQUE WILDERNESS CAMP
When we checked in here, Dick asked if we could get a beachfront shelter camp (normally booked out months in advance) and to our surprise we got one for one night and its the same one we had five years ago. The ownership has changed and the Native Title land is now owned and managed by the Bardi Jawi, two aboriginal communities. That is the aboriginal flag in pride of place at the entrance.Our beach shelter camp right on the Eastern Beach, complete with shower, table and bench, fire pit and fire wood.They brought us fire wood – what else could we do!!!Sunset views – a beautiful sky in one direction and last light on the beach with the campfire in the other direction.The next day we moved to a regular campsite on the cliff near the office and overlooking the Western Beach.The indigenous communities have developed the facility in line with the communities’ aspirations and their inherent knowledge of the land. I took this photo to illustrate some of the changes that are now operational; lots of restrictions on where we can go. In this case, areas we could previously drive to are now only accessed by walking. This reflects the Aboriginal values of caring for land and country.The owners promote the natural wonders, wildlife, marine life and coastline as part of what makes this a unique experience. Here is a prime example. On a rather dull day, we waited for sunset and saw a stunning display, just two minutes after the top photo was taken.They also offer cultural tours and want to be respected as custodians of this country.It was truly magical to see the cliffs light up like this.A fitting sunset photo to end the Cape Leveque experience. Although we did not participate in any of the cultural experiences, we did appreciate being in such a special environment and we respect the indigenous owners’ approach to managing their land. Their willingness to share their country and culture with others outweighs any objections to how they decide to manage it, and potentially their less sophisticated management skills in doing that.
The second stop in Broome was another catch up time, with loads of errands and repair jobs to do in addition to the regular shopping and laundry BUT this time we added some treats for us
Dinner out at the Sydney Cove Oyster Bar which has relocated to Broome.Such a treat to indulge in two fine dining restaurants, for the first time since Sydney.AND, I didn’t want to be in Broome and not see the famous Cable Beach at sunset. As you can see here, it looks like a car park and apparently there are traffic jams as everyone tries to leave at the same time. We saw enough so didn’t need to wait until sunset, especially after all the wonderful beaches we had just visited.
So glad we revisited this beautiful part of Australia. It was interesting to see how aboriginal land rights are being practically implemented. That said we were only able to visit commercial operations and could not visit any aboriginal communities, due to covid restrictions. $50,000 fines were advertised if one took the wrong road and ended up in communities, so there was a big incentive to follow the rules. From here on we start heading south, and basically say ‘goodbye’ to the hot weather.
The Gibb River Road (GRR) is one of the iconic 4WD’s routes in Australia. We’d enjoyed it in 2016 so were keen to revisit and explore new parts of it.
This map highlights our stops. Dick is becoming a very good map-maker for the blog.
Although our time in Kununurra was primarily for shopping, communicating (with internet and phone), laundry, groceries and trip planning, we did manage to visit the town lookout and do a walk. We both quite liked Kununurra (in spite of all the shops closing at noon on Saturday), and think it would be a good place to fly to and then have a week’s holiday there. Its well-positioned for trips to the Bungles, Lake Argyll and Wyndham, so lots to see in the vicinity. We met people from Perth doing just that. By the way the shopping improved on Monday so I managed to buy a dress and we visited some nice aboriginal galleries, and even found a cafe open for lunch at lunchtime (just).
We stayed at Hidden Valley so had easy access to the 5.5 kms Nature walk in Mirimar National Park, which took a long 2.5 hours in the heat. Good lookouts of the town and nice rock formations, again with some of those beehive-type rock formations.The sunset view from Kelly’s Knob Lookout gave us a good view of the town plus a beautiful sunset. Just after our photo was taken, the sky turned on much more striking colors as shown above.
Our first official GRR stop was El Questro, 700,000 acres of vast, diverse and stunningly beautiful terrain including rugged sandstone ranges, broad tidal flats, rainforest pockets, thermal springs, gorges and permanent waterfalls. It is one of Australia’s iconic tourist destinations and caters for high end travellers (the ones that arrive by plane) as well as 4WD adventurers and humble campers like us. For those with an interest in such things, El Questro was recently bought by the G’Day group so is now back in Australian hands.
In one of those fortuitous coincidences, engineered by our friend, Chris Lowe, we were at El Questro when Ros and Don’s tour took them there. We got ourselves booked on the Chamberlain Gorge tour that was specially organised for their group so we got to spend a lovely afternoon together. On the cruise we were known as “the other two” since everyone else was part of their tour group.At 150 kms long, Chamberlain Gorge is the longest gorge in the Kimberley and it was lovely to cruise along it.The gorge is home to extraordinary geological formations and sheer cliff faces such as this.It is also home to a variety of flora and fauna. We saw a large saltwater crocodile, a rock wallaby, sea eagles, and barramundi, but we missed out on the olive python, which was fine by me. We did however see the striped archer spitting fish in action. The boat stops at the same place every day where they give the tourists food to feed the spitting fish if they spit. You can just see Dick’s hand doing some feeding. The catfish were also keen to get in on the act.From our previous visit we knew the roads to most of the lookouts were ‘SERIOUS’ 4WD tracks so we headed for the easiest lookout, Pigeon Hole, and that was a rough enough drive for both of us, but a good view of the ever present Pentecost RiverNear our camping area, they had a lovely little swimming hole that was apparently safe from crocodiles so I enjoyed a couple of swims there, after some very hot days.An early morning visit to Zebedee Springs, with its water temperature of 28-32 degrees celsius. The surrounding cliff faces and scree slopes are up to 1800 million years old. It is a special place but was very crowded!The famous Pentecoste River crossing – Dick took a photo of the top picture in the Kununurra Visitor Centre and we took the bottom picture after we did the crossing.Driving along the Gibb River Road involved lots of river crossings, corrugations and meeting road trains or should I say pulling over and letting the road trains go by and then waiting for the dust to clear……There are not a lot of free camps on the Gibb River Road, but we found this lovely spot on the Hann River for a quick overnighter. Not anyone close to us so we could play our ukuleles as much as we wanted!Manning Gorge was our next stop and that turned into a bit of an adventure. To walk to the gorge, one first needed to swim across this river pulling along a barrel with our clothes and hiking boots inside. I did the swim when we arrived so I knew what we’d be doing when we did the gorge hike in the morning.In another strange coincidence, a friend of mine from Sydney, Vicki Hartley, and her husband, Neil, were camped almost next to us at Manning Gorge. We got back from a swim and Vicki walked over to say hello. Had hoped to see them somewhere along the way so an unplanned catchup was a bonus. Enjoyed spending the evening with them.
Manning Gorge was an adventure day! We were advised to start the walk early because of the heat and the crowds. Everywhere is much more crowded than normal, so it was a half hour queue for the barrel to take our stuff across the river. Fortunately for us, we chucked our gear in a barrel and someone else swam it across, so we just had to swim ourselves to the other side.It is a beautiful gorge. I enjoyed a few swims and Dick spent some time sitting in the water. After a couple of hours there, we did the hike and swim back. It all felt harder than when we did it five years ago, and it wasn’t as hot as we remembered either.During our time on the Gibb River Road we saw lots of wildflowers, so I made a collection of the favorites. Still looking for the Kimberley Rose…..
Next stop was Charnley River Wilderness Camp, which is managed by AWC (Australian Wildlife Conservancy), an independent, nonprofit organisation that works to conserve Australian wildlife and habitats. We visited their sister property previously. Here we learned a lot about their fire management, EcoFire, their scientific research and their partnering with indigenous communities and local stations (ranches). It is very sobering to learn about mammal extinctions in Australia and the damage done daily by feral cats.
Charnley is full of gorges and pools to explore. Both the driving and the walking is over rough terrain, and there were lots of gates all over the property. Apparently according to the terms of pastoral leases, properties must maintain a specified number of cattle as part of the lease. It was an hour’s drive to Grevillea Gorge (above) and a very rocky 200 m walk to see the gorge. No way to get down those cliffs!Lily Pools was reached by another very rocky/tough going 150 m scramble. So fed up with the terrain I decided not to swim there.Another hours drive on rough roads, another gorge-Dillie Gorge, and another challenging rock climb 150 m down. I cautiously crawled in over the slippery rocks and had a little swim. Others jumped right in! By the end of that day we were both fed up with all the rock climbs and a bit disappointed that we found them so challenging.After doing an eco-tour with an AWC Ranger, we went to my favorite spot, Donkey Pools, where I had a lovely swim/relax in the water with my noodle.It really was a beautiful place. This was on the walk to Donkey Pools, three pools in a row. The social side was also good. Not so many people there and everyone was friendly. A nightly campfire, an AWC presentation and a good camp host all contributed to a nice atmosphere. We even met a woman who joined us for a uke session and then played her guitar and lead a campfire singalong. Strange coincidence-she went to my university in Canada just after me. A bit of small world scenario…….Had to get a photo of our Belle at Bell Gorge and Silent Grove, now known as Dulundi. We’ve noticed that most of the places here are now being identified by their aboriginal names. The names are not always easy to pronounce or remember but its just a matter of time and practice, and long overdue recognition of the aboriginal habitation of this land. Better late than never!!!This is Bell Gorge. Five years ago we were swimming down in the gorge under the waterfall. This time we were not game to tackle the difficult climb down and the water crossing to get there. We found the 1 km walk in to the top very rocky and rough. As we are earlier in the season, and after a big wet season there is a lot more water around.Mt Hart Wilderness Lodge was another new adventure for us. The 109 km drive there took 2.5 hours. On their 50 km driveway we crossed 30 floodways, 20 had water like this one and 10 were dry. It features a range of accommodation, a restaurant, and comes complete with their own airstrip.This is Dolerite Gorge – another very rocky walk in. We felt like we have had enough rocks to last us for a while so we didn’t go too far into this one.Another drive took us to Barkers Pool where I had a lovely swim and Dick even sat in the water up to his waist. At Mt Hart we treated ourselves to dinner in their restaurant both nights, and chatted with lots of other travellers there.Bandilngan Windjana Gorge is a spectacular 3.5 km gorge through an ancient Devonian reef.It is known for the freshwater crocodiles that live there. We didn’t see as many this time, but they were there.The gorge is very beautiful and we were glad we revisited it. Also our friends, Neil and Suzanne, arrived so we had another catchup over pre-dinner drinks.
That effectively ends our time on the Gibb River Road. This route was 1250 kms, and now we’ve done about 6000 kms since we left home. We enjoyed the mix of seeing old favorites and exploring new places. Good to see that places were busy – harder for us as tourists needing to plan and book in advance but great for the businesses that have done it tough due to Covid.
