We packed up and shifted the van into storage for a few days , while we headed off on our next adventure .
Out onto the road out and turned off , before long the bitumen finished , we stopped and decreased tyre pressures to about 33 psi , before heading off again . Next thing 4wd was selected , as the road was getting sandy and with some corrugations . The road was very red dirt/sand - it’s called Pindan , and it gets everywhere !! The road is reasonably wide at this point - I’m sure that will change though !!!
There is 86 klms of red corrugated sand , some sections are great 70 - 80 klms/hr , others not so great - down to 40klms/hr . After one and a half hours of driving , we found the bitumen again - hallelujah !! Fortunately all fillings were still intact , but it tried it’s best to remove them !!!
Taking a side track , we were back to dirt again , but not too far . We drove into the aboriginal community of Lombardina . Finding the office was unattended till 1pm we sat outside and chatted to another couple - up here , if you want to drive around the community , you pay an entrance fee - this one was $10 . The Dampier Peninsular northeast of Broome is all aboriginal land , so you have your hand in your pocket a bit - there are quite a few communities making money out of visitors .
The highlights of Lombardina are the church & rectory and Thomas Bay - a stretch of coastline line shaped like a banana - all white sand .
The church and rectory are made with mangrove timbers and tea tree bark , then covered with corrugated iron , they have verandahs and lots of doors , so that you get a lot of cross flow ventilation . It was 32 degrees outside , but a lot cooler inside !!
Thomas Bay seemed appealing , so we dropped tyre pressures down to 18 psi and hit the beach - well we got to the beach after about 1 klm of sand , then had the beach to ourselves - over 4klms of beach , beautiful water , with some waves lapping at the sand . Unfortunately there isn’t swimming here , there are some saltwater crocodiles around apparently !!! We had lunch on the beach under a palm frond shelter !!
It was getting on for 2pm , so we headed further up the road to find our accomodation for the next couple of nights - Cygnet Bay . They are a working pearl farm that has a camping section - you can bring your own van ( definitely off road variety only , as you would shake a normal van to pieces on the corrugations ) , camper trailer , tent or you can stay in their safari tents , or other cabins . There is a restaurant with an infinity pool and of course a pearl shop !! We checked in and drove around and over the hill and down sandy tracks to our bush campsite . Apart from a power box and a water tap tech screwed to the tree beside us, you are in the bush with lot’s of sand - grey sand !!
As we are on the eastern side of the peninsular , we missed sunset proper , but got this one down at the beach 200m away .
We organised showers & tea and then sat outside , no lights , just gazing up at the stars through the trees above us , it was a beautiful night !!
Another day dawned after a warm night , so we headed off to Kooljaman Resort at Cape Leveque . This resort is owned by a couple of communities , and charge $5 per head for day visitors , and more if you want to drive down to the beach - not on the beach , just down to it!!
The road in was again sandy & corrugated and narrow , but the view at the end is awesome!!!
Pindan red cliffs & sandstone , gave way to a white/orange beach and beautiful green/blue water . Paying our money , we toddled off down the track marvelling at what we were seeing. I will let the photos do the talking .
There are random pieces of white clay in the sandstone , a bit strange to say the least .
We walked up the beach about 2klms to the point where the cliffs turn and head east . There is an island just off the tip with a few straggly palm trees growing - not much else though !!
Back to the resort and up to the lighthouse , and a look at the eastern beach - they say you can swim here , but we didn’t go down as we had an appointment after lunch at Cygnet Bay.
We drove out and headed to One Arm Point - we thought we could have lunch there , before heading back for the tour - they wanted $5 per person entry , so we headed back to Cygnet Bay and had lunch there instead .
Our tour was the Giant Tides Tour , where they take you out in a very powerful rib boat - it has twin 250 horse power engines and can really get up and boogey !! Kitted out with spray jackets and life jackets , we got into an interesting little boat - it had 3 wheels and drove us out to the water and then out to the rib anchored in the bay . Once the water got deep enough , it’s outboard motor took over and the wheels were lifted - you didn’t even get your feet wet !!
The tour started and we headed out through the swell , Lyn was copping a lot of spray on her side of the boat , and we both were getting wet later on . They took us out and around One Arm Point and into the Buccaneer Archipelago - about 2000 islands - we got to see about 6 today !! Rounding the point , and into the channel behind a small island , we could see the current flowing very quickly , there were eddy’s , whirlpools and water moving everywhere , the channel was moving at 16 knots - that’s pretty quick and enough to carry you a long way in a short time . There was a visible wave in the water around the island - the height difference was about 500 - 800 mm - almost like white water rapids !! 60 billion ( yes , billion ) litres of water move through here in 6 hours !! That’s about 16 times the amount of water in Sydney Harbour !!! That’s impressive !!!
The high tide mark is visible on the rocks - tides here can move up to 15m from low to high !! It’s the second highest tides in the world - highest tropical tides in the world !!! Canada has a place that has the highest tides !!
One island we looked at is made of white quartz - although you wouldn’t know it by looking at it - it’s orange and red - from the pindan dust that is blown onto it from the mainland , it also is eroded strangely as well .
After about an hour and a half , we headed back to Cygnet Bay and transferred back to land again . This is the vies from the restaurant verandah .
We headed back to the tent and relaxed with a beer or two , another really good day in our journey!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment