Cape Leveque, Tag-Along Tour

Monday 26^th May 2008

We tried to be a bit organised this morning but still didn’t really manage to get much breakfast into Holly. She was engrossed in yet another book so was barely aware of what was happening around her.

We’d booked to do a tag-along tour this morning but there was a minimum of four adults required and early yesterday evening the camp staff had told us that it was cancelled. We were just considering whether it was worth paying for the girls as adults so that the tour could go ahead when they came back to tell us that it was on again following a last minute booking by four ladies who didn’t have a vehicle?! As it turned out, they were to go in the tour guide’s car – an interesting proposition since one of his back doors didn’t open at all and the other only opened from the inside (not too much of an issue since it didn’t look like his windows could be wound up so reaching in to open was easy enough!).

Paul got out our new gadget, as recommended by Grant, for letting down our tyres and measuring the pressure at the same time. It seems we have a dodgy one. The gauge read down to 20psi but then didn’t change and Paul didn’t notice and remove the deflater until the tyre was seriously squidgy. Luckily the resort has a workshop with air pump which remedied the error. Don’t know what was wrong with the clever gadget – not so clever after all.

The tour was guided by Eric Hunter who comes from the area, and indeed our first stop was Hunter Creek – named after one of his ancestors. Before that tho’, we had passed a big burnt patch that used to be his home – apparently it was deliberately burnt down by his ‘enemies’. We heard most of this info secondhand from the ladies who were in the car with him. I think he kind of forgot about us and, having told his stories once to the girls in his car, felt he had discharged his duty. We didn’t really mind too much because we were still going to places we would never have been able to visit otherwise and Paul got to try his hand at some serious 4WDriving.

Anyway, after scaling a fairly serious and sandy hill on our second attempt (had to give it a good run up), we looked down over Hunter Creek which still had water in from the tide and saw a couple of sharks gliding around so decided it wouldn’t be such a good place to have a swim. Eric took us on to a beachside spot just over a sand dune from what looked like a desert – only sand and small rocks to be seen for a couple of miles. Eric set off with his snorkel and spear gun and the rest of us were left to snorkel over some reefy areas. Paul and Holly went out but Katie preferred to prance around in the shallows. The report was that there were plenty of little fish and Holly spotted what looked like a leopard fish.

Eric didn’t have any luck catching anything here so we moved on to another spot where we got out the handlines with squid for bait. I had trouble even getting my hook to reach the seaweedy patch where the fish were supposed to be lurking, we all got our hooks caught on rocks at some stage and none of had even a nibble. Even Eric couldn’t tempt anything – not even with his massive throws out into the deep but he was determined to get a fish for our morning tea with damper so we headed off again.

We stopped at a cliff top to look out over a swirling tide between us and an island and saw three turtles basking below us and Eric told us this was the most northwesterly point in WA (and therefore Australia, I suppose). However, our GPS told us otherwise – it may not be able to tell us any of the roads (we’ve been driving in the wilderness for weeks now, according to it!) but it does know where we are, which direction North is and it where the outline of Australia is and there was definitely more land north and west of us. Let’s not let the truth get in the way of a good story!

Eric had one more beach lined up for us so everyone (except Katie and me) went in for a swim and one of the ladies actually caught a tiny fish with the hand line – she made sure she had her photo taken before flinging it back.

Just as we were all beginning to get bored the Hunter nonchalantly returned with a fish hidden in his pocket that turned out to be a Yellow Striped Emperor. Our next stop was for billy tea and damper so he wrapped the fish in foil (guts and all) and stuck it straight onto the grill on the fire. This certainly cooked it to perfection but to me it tasted a little too oily. He also brought out the damper (apparently made that morning – I was disappointed because I thought we’d be making it ourselves) in a big round (flat) loaf which we toasted and ate with honey – yum. I got out the marshmallows which I’d been saving (all the way from Perth) for a campfire and the girls were in seventh heaven turning them into melted, sugary delights.

The way back wound through some more mangrove style beach areas as well as some savannah but no deep sand or anything that troubled the landcruiser.

Back at camp the girls actually managed to knuckle down to some school work but only with a promise that we would return to the beach once they had finished. The sky was clear this afternoon and the beach was much lighter and felt warmer but it did mean that the sunset was distinctly un-spectacular compared with last night.

The girls were almost in bed when Holly remembered that I’d promised her a visit to the lighthouse once it got dark. So they were both out of bed in a flash, head torches on and we wandered through the campground and up the hill where it was remarkably warm – sheltered from the light breeze that surrounded our trailer, I guess. The lighthouse had four windows of light that caused a light to shine every twelve (or so) seconds and it was good to show the girls up close.

Once the girls had finally gone to bed I was very studious and managed to catch up with five or six days’ worth of blog posts. It would be a whole lot easier if I didn’t feel compelled to write about every little thing (probably better for you readers, too!) but if I don’t write it, I’ll forget it and that would be no good at all.