Kalumburu

We had stopped to check out the campground at King Edward River,70km from Mitchell Falls and agreed that we had chosen the better campsite at Mitchell Falls. At the Falls campground you were closer to the Falls walk, helicopter and you could swim not far from the campsite.

The road from Mitchell Falls to Kalumburu was surprisingly good. We were expecting the worse road ever as not many Graders make it up that far but it was pretty smooth and a few corrugations but it was a much better road than the previous days. The last 20km or so were a bit haphazard with finding a road but we just took it slow. 

There are always burning off up here in The Kimberley and they do it every year via aircraft. It's called a sentry burn where a ping pong ball type is released from plane and starts a low grass fire. Not quite sure how they don't get out of control as it's so dry and hot. This was not the place to get a flat tyre!

Our rest stop for a quick cuppa along the Kalumburu road.

This photo doesn't do justice as to how bad the road was on the last 20km.

We are the blue arrow on the top left. The end of the road when it comes to the North Kimberley.

We arrived at Kalumburu and bought a few things at the Mission store. It was fairly cheap but we found out later when we bought our permit to enter Kalumburu that the community store was a far better stocked store. We then bought some fresh fruit and veges there to keep our supply topped up. In Kalumburu (town) there are some WW2 aircraft ruins as well as a very grassy Mission Church area that is still in operation.

We camped at Honeymoon Bay for 2 nights and were very happy that we made the trek up there.It is perched up above the bay with great views and a little walk down to water. You can swim there if you really want to but only if you have a lookout person and only in the shallows. The people camped there were all so friendly and very community minded. 

That night, George (lived at Honeymoon Bay for 20years) was going to be watching the State of Origin in his shed so we joined him. We got chatting to the people there and one of those watching was Brian. He was moored on the luxury yacht in the Bay (pictured above).  Both girls fell asleep in our arms as we watched the Origin game and chatted with the locals and not so locals. As we walked back to our camp we noticed a really bright star. We got the IPad out and looked up our "Nightsky" app and it appeared to be the star/constellation "Deneb". We still couldn't quite believe how bright and low it was until we realised it was the light off the top of the mast. Time for bed!

Our next day was spent just chatting to other campers. It was very relaxing. Rubes and Olive made friends with a little local girl "Ruth" and they had a wonderful time playing together, playing puppies and colouring in etc. There was going to be a funeral at Honeymoon Bay for an indigenous lady, who died in January but it was only happening now as the deceased lady was from One Arm Point but lived here at Honeymoon Bay. Her resting place is a big issue when it comes to land claims. Her funeral was going to be attended by lots of people but even the day before, it was still undecided if it was going ahead.

A lady who camps here for 3 months every year asked if we were staying another night as they were going fishing in their boat and would bring us back some fish for dinner. Okay! 

We went down to the beach with the girls and Ruth. Michael threw out his line but we didn't step at all in the water as there are "Salties" there and one was spotted that day about 3.5m long. There were people lying in the water but we decided against it, and Rubes was adamant that none of us could go in. Ruth had told us a story about her close brush with a croc on the beach and was only saved by the quick thinking of her cousin.

Ruby with Ruth and Christina. Ruth is the one posing like in Sports Illustrated!

We returned to camp and our fisherman friends had arrived back, with Ruby Emperor all filleted up for us. We were pretty excited again about having our beer battered fish that night. We thought our trip couldn't get any better when we were asked if we wanted to go for a sail on the yacht.

Yes please!!

You can imagine how excited we were as we pretended to walk slowly back to our camper, put on some sunscreen, get snacks out and get down the beach to wait for the tender before they could change their minds.

It was a 43 footer and it was beautifully furnished. We got the full tour and the girls and I liked the downstairs bathroom hatch the best, where you could watch the water go by so closely. It was like watching an aquarium from your own private seat.

Brian and Julie, Graeme and Marie were wonderful hosts and we sailed for about 2 hours. It was a magic way to see this far North Kimberley Coast.

We all got to lie down on their front "trampoline" which was great fun. Michael got to wind up the main sail and put into practice his early years of sailing. How great was the day and could the trip get any better was what we were thinking!

The fish was great shallow fried and as I sit here in bed I can still see "Deneb"!!

Michael has just read this piece and would not classify the Kalumburu road as "fairly smooth!"