Weekly roundup - Week 7

It's the end of the week, Sunday night, and we are in Cape Leveque.  It is a most wonderful place that is still largely untouched by development.  The road here from Broome is 4WD only and is a  deep sandy track with some corrugated sections - nothing on the Gibb River Road though so we felt we were almost on a super highway.  It takes about 4.5 hours to get from Broome to here over 200km's but although the road needs to be driven with care, the rewards when you get here are well worth the effort.  Endless beach with hardly another soul on them.  There are three places you can stay here - Middle Lagoon which is very popular, Cygnet Bay which is lovely and where we are at the very tip at Kooljaman.  Tonight I can hear the waves on the shore as I type.  It is warm - tropical warm - and we can see the stars.  We know there are others around us but here they are very careful to spread you out so you feel you are here all alone - you have to book to come here and you need a permit to enter the area which is now all designated Aboriginal Land.  Beagle Bay on the way here is an amazing place too - there is a church there that was built in the 1890's by the Monks who were here as missionaries and the whole inside is inlaid with Mother of Pearl.  It is not a museum and is used every week as the local Catholic Church.

 This afternoon we headed to the beach on the east side of the point and drove along it for a bit.  Then we headed to the west side where the girls played in the sand and eventually and inevitably got wet to their middles and then just ran around in t shirts.  Mal threw his line in with the larger of his two rods and had fun trying to catch dinner.  I sat on the beach and watched the numerous whales and their calves frolic around just off the coast - lots of tail slapping, fin flapping and breaching.  This is the closest I have ever come to whales or to seeing them so it was a fairly momentous afternoon for me.  We stayed and watched the sun go down and I took many many photos - I am no photographer so I am hoping at least one might be OK.  Mal has just cooked a huge feast on the BBQ and we have even had dessert tonight. 

Tonight marks the half way point of our adventure.  We have seen so much and learnt about so many places, met lots of people and had some challenges along the way.  From here the bonnet points south - a funny thought after always heading north till now.  We are staying some extra days in Broome and will roll out of there on Thursday next week making tracks for Eighty Mile Beach and then Port Hedland.

Last night we took the girls to the Sun Outdoor cinema in Broome to see the movie Red Dog.  We sat in canvas chairs under the stars.  We all really enjoyed the movie and will see the Red Dog statue in Dampier when we get down the coast that far.  It is an excellent movie and if you get a chance to go and see it, we highly recommend it!  We caught up with Lynwen and Michael, Carys and Brynley (I met Lynwen in Rachel's mother's group/playgroup) and had pizza on Cable Beach as the sun went down and then we all went to the movies together.  It is amazing to meet people on the road that you know from home.

The Good, the bad and the ugly awards this week are - the good would have to be that we are in Cape Leveque.  It is one of the very best places I have ever been to in my life and I would love to come here again another time.  The bad this week goes to the cough that got the better of me at the start of the week and forced me to seek medical help.  Thankfully I had started taking some antibiotics which helped a lot and the doctor that saw me at the Derby hospital gave me some wonder drugs to supress the cough which allowed me to get some sleep (and everyone else in the trailer!) and I got better fairly quickly after that.  The ugly needs a bit of explanation.  Some people travel around in what they call fifth wheelers - not sure why they are called that but they are huge motor homes that attach to a truck cab by way of a massive tow ball that is in the middle of the tray of the truck.  They are huge - bigger than some people's homes and they tend to be "moored" in van parks for several months at a time.  A lot of the people who own these monstrous things feel very much like they are the king pins in the park and that they own the jolly place.  We happen to be camped opposite from one such rig.  It is the big next to the small.  When we pulled into Broome, the 5th wheeler crew sat in their reclining chairs, beers in hand and watched our every move as we hammered in pegs and got ourselves set up.  We gave them a wave, but were snobbed off.  We persisted each day for 3 days to say hello on the way past, or when we went to get something from the car - but were greeted with complete indifference.  So, the next day, Mal got jack of all that and as he came back from the bathrooms, all clean and shiny, he waved and sang out a cheery hello.  No response.  So he had a laugh out loud at their expense.  That managed to ilicit a response - the fellow puffed out his chest, snorted, cleared his throat, tried to speak and went red in the face.  Mal sauntered along towards our humble digs and said in a loud voice, "hey Jane, they aren't statues over there, I think they are real people."  The very next day, the lady of the party said hello to me as I went past to the bathroom!  They still carry on like they own the place (they have even comandeered one of the bins as their very own - and guess who puts rubbish in it.....) but at least they say hello to us now.  Their call sign on the back of the rig doesn't say "John and Sue, UHF 18 or 40" but "King and Queen of the Road, UHF 17"  If we meet them on the road anywhere Mal is sure to call them up for a chat.  "Hey King of the Road, are you on channel.  This is the Tonka Toy crew here.  Are we right to pass.  We have a clear stretch of 5kms in front.......

Love and starry skies,
Jane and Mal and Rachel and Eloise