Whilst we were at the Fitzroy Visitors Centre (not open at weekends btw), the helpful woman there helped to crush our dreams of visiting the King Leopold Ranges and instead motivate us to drive all the way to Broome and reignite plans to travel to the Dampier Peninsula. As luck would have it, our Maui 6 Berth Campervan was limited as per the rental agreement to only travel about 15km on unsealed roads to provide reasonable access to tourist locations. No surprises, I already wrote about this in the previous entry.
We set off nice and early towards Dampier Peninsula up the Broome-Cape Leveque Rd. Now this road was advertised as having the first 30km sealed and the remainder sealed which is why we scrapped our plans initially. Turns out the middle 14kms were unsealed (and only due to road works and the remaining was (mostly) sealed. By the time I post this blog, the entire road I expect will be sealed.
The turnoff to cygnet Bay was a windy, narrow, undulating track not at all designed for the campervan. Before we connected up to the camp-site we decided on two quick tours.
The first one was a walk to the beach for some information on the coastal ecosystem and oyster industry and history. The booking agent at the reception advised us that trainers would be appropriate footwear. Then we found out that that trainer were not appropriate footwear at all as we waded knee deep in the warm tropical waters. RIP discarded trainers.
Our guide Terry concluded the tour by cooking some fresh oysters using some spinifex he had collected. I abstained. I've had violently bad reactions to oysters in the past. Anyone that knows me knows I’m not exaggerating. Terry also explained some aboriginal culture and family history regarding the oyster tear drop shells.
A quick lunch and then tour number two. A demonstrating of the oyster pearl 'planting' process, followed by a some oyster appreciation and valuation.
The powered camp site was approx 1km away from the resort base and restaurant. As we drove away, we were reminded of the fact that we hadn’t secured everything inside the van. Evidenced when the fridge door flew open on one of many bumps in the road, spilling our bottled cider all over the place. It was total carnage. We would later, days later, find out that it had pierced one of our cartons of milk in the cupboard.
The next day we had booked ourselves onto a two hour boat trip, further east towards Sunday Island. There, between tectonic plates, a number of currents collide to create water vortexes, whirls and seemingly unnatural waves. This provided the perfect playground for some boat hooning, with the equivalent drifting and burnouts on the water surface. We saw some turtles and one hat overboard.
We stayed for a total 2 nights, and found the place to be lovely, food ok, ablutions…well, I met my first Huntsman spider in the shower block, and finished the trip off with a quick drone flight around the area.
OH
MY
GODWTF
We left Cygnet Bay for Broome with an intended quick tour at Kooljaman Bay. Except the road here is sandy, and we were in a motorhome and well. We gave up half way as the motorhome wasn’t doing too well in the sand….
