We awoke to more screeching but not so terrifying now we know what it is. Bacon and Eggs for brekky at start of a long day ahead, raced the caretaker to the eco-toilets (hand pump flush like on a plane) to go before he completed the morning maintenance procedure (consisting solely of hosing out the entire structure for 10 mins with a fire hose). I really wanted to check out the rock art on the way out and managed to persuade our driver to stop. The rock art was a strange place not far off the road that was strewn with enormous boulders, there must have been some serious seismic activity around the Kimberleys, so many of the landforms here are extreme. The rock art was beautiful featuring faces which I’ve not come across before.
We trudged back to the car in the dirt for our bumpy trip to Kalumburu. Only 100km but we knew it was going to take at least a few hours!
We came across a few grading crews, who had done a great job, this road must have been a mess straight out of wet season. Last 30km or so into Kalumburu was pretty atrocious as we’d known it would be, we were averaging 30-40km/h. Big signs announcing crocs in river (these be the salty variety now) and the upcoming dry community- or ‘No Grog’ as one official sign announced.
As soon as we pulled up in town the local copper parked alongside us for a chat. We weren’t sure how to answer his enquiries about the status of the alcohol sign on the way across river- he said he didn’t want to have to go out 20km and see if it had been knocked down as the people before us hadn’t remembered seeing it. Apparently it goes missing quite frequently.
The main store was closed until 1 so we sampled the takeaway and wandered around the mission museum for a bit. Didn’t know this area had been bombed, made sad reading, would have liked to have stayed longer as much to read, a lot of it sad inside this place - from many viewpoints. Made me wonder where my Grandpa served in the air force during the war in WA. Chatted to Fran (from the inner west in Sydney who is a retired teacher) now working for the Govt up here convincing families that their children need to go to school. Sounds like a very difficult job. One little girl is driven and picked up everyday from Honeymoon Bay which is a bone rattling half hour drive, not much in relation to some outback kiddies but in this context a huge commitment from her family, not the least the fuel cost. School finishes at midday on Fridays due to an early start each day and she was looking forward to a weekend at Drysdale to break her dry spell. The store once it opened was great, the fruit and veg was amazing, although other things like $15 for a box of 20 snack chips (which my kids were not getting) was pretty steep- everything perceived as junk food is very expensive. Our reliance on snack food is decreasing by necessity which is good! The permit we pay to enter this land is used to subsidise the freight on the FnV to encourage healthy eating.
30 mins more on a dodgy road before we finally arrived at McGowans. Pulled up and met Matt the caretaker here, quite a character who has put a lot of work into promoting this area on Facebook and making the campsite very comfortable. Everything is an honesty system, you just say how many times you used the washing machine and connected to the WiFi and pay when you leave. Both the words ‘washing machine’ and ‘WiFi’ had mummy salivating. Caretaker Matt lectured us about the need for vigilance around the beach regarding the 5m salty croc and his two slightly shorter mates that turn up every few days, as well as using torches at night always to avoid treading on the king browns often seen around here. After making sure Stu paid suitable attention to this chat we were given a nice shady site and went about setting up. Our average for useful participants in setting up is about 50% and today no different with the offending parties being banished to the car for everyone’s safety. We wandered down to the low tide beach for sunset- you have to be quick this close to the equator as sun disappears swiftly, is such a novelty for us seeing it dip below the water, feels like we’re upside down. Beautiful despite our lack of beer for Daddy and our buzzing friends who are a bit more abundant here than we’ve had so far. The lovely breeze we’d had suddenly dropped and we were left to wilt somewhat for the next few hours. Tom and Cam in the tent, so more room in the trailer for other two, can’t believe they’re fighting over who gets to sleep on the ground vs the cushions in the trailer, but after deciding on a fair system for the next few nights everyone happy. Am looking forward to a bit of chill time after a lot of bumpy driving and a bit of anxiety over whether we’ll make it up here in one piece!