Kimberley Trip 2017 – week 6 – Cape Leveque
Thursday 1 June 2017. Day 36. Drove 220km to Kooljaman at Cape Leveque. First, into Broome for supplies and fuel then the left hand turn Cape Leveque. An early 90 plus km of the road is dirt – first half not too bad but later very rough. You would have to be insane to take a van along the road, but we did see a few – as well as a few things shaken off along the way. At Kooljaman, we are at 16º23’S 122º56′ E. We are in a beach shack with open walls that looks down towards the swimming beach about 200m away.
A magnificent setting. This is as far as we drive away from Wagga. We have driven 6,000 km since Wagga. We’ve left the little van at Broome Gateway van park while we are up here. It felt very strange to leave her behind and not include her in our travel – but she would not have liked it.
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| Sunrise, Kooljaman |
Friday 2 June 2017. Day 37. At Kooljaman. Up before dawn to see the sunrise which was spectacular and a walk along the beach before breakfast. There is a considerable midden here indicating that people have lived here for quite some time – at least since the last sea-level rise c12,000 years ago. We have no or little telephone signal here, and hence no internet access. Good or bad? We are in Cabin 1 which has a magnificent view over the sea to the SE. A few campsites near the reception/office/restaurant have a magnificent view to the west.
Saturday 3 June 2017. Day 38. At Kooljaman doing not much. Up well before sunrise to see it develop and then a walk along the East beach in the early morning light. Very easy to do nothing here. We have a constant breeze mainly from the south. The cabin we are in has a concrete floor (made from local sand by the look of it); no windows – but shutters all the way round that are left open all day and night; a double and two single beds; a fridge; a table and four chairs outside in the concrete floored ‘verandah’ that overlooks the sea; a bbq; and a tap. The shower/toilet is a little above us on the hill (it has the best view) and we share it with Cabin 2.
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| Kooljaman, West Beach |
Sunday 4 June 2017. Day 39. This is a very lazy place and we are very glad that we found it. Kooljaman sits right on the end of Cape Leveque and we have water on three sides (east, north and west). In Cabin 1, I think we have the best view to the east and sunrise. I’m very glad that part of the road to here is classed as atrocious – which classification has prevented the hordes from overtaking the place. Over the weekend, Kooljaman and the rest of Cape Leveque is popular with Broomites who come up for the fishing and beach.
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| Cabin1, Kooljaman at Cape Leveque |
It is a beautiful place. For sunset, we walked over to the west beach and the sunset was magnificent (more photos of sunsets), The light against the west cliff is also pretty special. The west cliff itself is a chunk of Cretaceous course-grained sandstone with one layer having prominent cross-bedding. It also has a few white, salty, soft (about fingernail hardness) inclusions.
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| Goombaragin, Dampier Peninsula |
Monday 5 June 2017. Day 40. We’ve relocated 50 or so km around and down the west coast of the Dampier Peninsula. We are at Goombaragin in an eco tent (ie canvas walls). The road to Middle Cove is pretty bad – deep sand and quite narrow – which makes it difficult with oncoming vehicles of which there were many. At Goombaragin, we look over the northern side of a spectacular coast with cliffs to the sea. It looks like an old gibber plain that has had a change of vegetation added to it and the sea encroaching from the north. We do have phone and internet here but very variable phone from none to weak.
Tuesday 6 June 2017. Day 41. Went for a walk along the fire-trail that runs parallel with the road – very interesting plant community to the south of the firetrail (several grevilleas). Uncontrolled fires are a problem for the resort with one a year escaping from ‘controlled burns’ to the east. More a problem than cyclones. Every year, the owners dismantle the site and escape for the wet and then return and rebuild. We spent the day reading.
Wednesday 7 June 2017. Day 42. We went down to the beach. I have to say that it is one of the most spectacular beaches that I have seen. To get to the beach involves a descent of the Cretaceous cliffs (down a well build path). The top of the cliffs (that we look over from our ‘eco-tent’) are bare of vegetation. The cliffs have several layers of red sandstone – some are very iron rich. One (about a metre thick) is like an old gibber desert plain.
At the beach, are several ‘stacks’ of a paler sandstone riddled with a hard white substance that looks to have filled worm tracks or tree roots. The sand is very white and fine. The combination of red cliffs, blue sea, green vegetation, blue sky and white foam is remarkable. Had a good long talk with the owners on our return. This is another excellent place to stay. Highy recommended.
