Lewis's Travel on the Gravel: September 2021

Cape Leveque return to Kooljaman 25 September Brian Lee Hunter tag along tour

Tag along tours with Brain Lee Hunter 27th September

Monday we had booked a tag along tour with Brian Lee Hunter a local Bardi man who is one of the Traditional owners of Kooljaman. A tag along is when you take your own car and basically tag along. We started our trip behind the dunes where Brian showed us all the little things like, what makes those tracks in the sand.

He explained some of the lethal things in the ocean like cone fish and how they can stick you with their barb sideways as well as end ways and shared a story where he got stung by an Irukandji jelly fish ( a very toxic jelly fish that can cause death) and his new wife had to pee on him (this helps with the pain) in front of his daughter which he said was a sight to behold. LOL. He did receive proper care once in hospital.

He taught us how to whistle using a shell.

We then drove along a magnificent beach and were treated to swim at the end and the boys tried to catch us some fish ( no luck)

After our swim we headed down the river for some mud crabbing.

You can only go crabbing when the tide is right as it comes in so fast you can get caught out in less than 5 mins.

Nash was keen to catch a crab so he grabbed a rod and headed off with Brian into the creek and the mangroves.

Woo hoo success.

The tide changed and a brackish shallow creek turned into a massive tidal river within 20 minutes.

Brian launched his tinnie (small boat) and took people out for a look at the river and to try their hand at traditional spear fishing. The first group came back with one of the boys on the tour grinning from ear to ear, Brian had got him to jump off the boat and catch a turtle with his bare hands. What an experience. We were not left out we all got to hold the turtle (they are heavy) and a second one was caught and we were shown how to clean the algae off her shell with the sand. 'Sensational ' loving this

Turtle day spa

Brian was generous with his knowledge and shared stories of the traditional ways.

After a lazy afternoon swimming in the river (we did get out a couple of times for passing sharks one who took a disliking to the boat and gave it a chomp) 😟

We headed off for bit of boomerang throwing on the beach. It was explained that the boomerang could be used for hunting or fighting.

Just when we thought the day was over this not so little girl showed up on the beach and was digging a nest for her eggs.

Turtle tracks

She is a Hawksbill Turtle and are they are listed as critically endangered. So very special see her.

Thanks Brian for an unforgettable day

Millstream to Cape Leveque

So left Millstream and it was hot. About 42 degrees. It was not humid it felt like Melbourne heat hot and dry. We had to stop at Port Hedland for fuel and saw some massive machines being transported so Elmo came out to to make the truckies smile ( see photo this truck gave us a big toot)

We were going to do a free camp but decided it was to hot and headed into Pardoo Station not to be confused with Pardoo Roadhouse which is not somewhere I would recommend to stop unless you had to.

Pardoo Station is short drive off the Hwy the road is gravel and is in good condition. It was $50 per night for us with power and water ( a bit of a treat for us). It is a good idea to ring ahead as there is a code for the gate and the office is quite often unattended due to running a cattle farm.

The reason we stayed here and ended up here for 3 nights was because there was a pool. Hooray! A pool in 42 degree heat is a must when camping. The sites were mostly shaded and there is a shop with some basics. You can drive down to the beach however I believe it is more a fishing beach than for swimming. We heard from other travellers that there were flocks of Brolgas on the creek however we were to hot to do anything so we just hung out at the pool. We bumped into Hil and Nick here. Nick was doing some work for school holidays. Hill had her hands full with kids with Gastro so we caught up at arms length.

We then took off for Barn Hill Station which was a lovely stop but just one night here. We set up on the cliff top over looking the beach which was spectacular. We were treated to a fantastic sunset and some great rock pools full of coral and weird sea creatures. We had a delicious pizza for dinner. You order via a phone call and it is delivered to the camp office via quad bike. The guy who makes the pizzas and works at the station is from Sicily originally (Yum Yum) I don't have to tell you YUMMY PIZZA ! There are some pet goats at the Station that the kids enjoyed playing with. One tried to eat Nash's shorts! We left Barn hill the next morning heading North to Broome to get supplies and then on to Cape Leveque (Cant wait)

What a sunset I said fantastic right?

Adam doing a spot of ocean watching

Where to next? Back up the coast via Milstream NP

We decided that we would stay a little longer in WA as Victoria is still in a extended lockdown. My work had been giving people directives to stand down and Adams phone has gone quiet so where to next? WA is heading into school holidays and the coast down from Coral bay is choca block. So we are heading back up to Cape Leveque as we loved it so much. We set the car North and take the Road to Millstream and book the Star gazers camp for 2 nights. We had missed this park on the way down as we thought we had not enough time so it was great to able to include it in our trip. It was hot out there 42 the day we arrived but there is a great swim hole near by. We headed off in the morning for the homestead and a river crossing the camp host had told us about. The homestead was a real gem quite a stately home for this region.

We got to the crossing and found a little spa pool right on the road that was great for a dip.

The view from the look out was beautiful and we saw a couple black swans on the water which was nice as they are WA's state bird

Big Pilbara sky

The highlight was a swim spot called Deep Reach which was a large body of water that was really warm to swim in. We spent the afternoon there and ended up cooking a BBQ and staying for dinner as well. ( it was pretty hot)

The next day we packed up and headed for Python Pools on our way out. Python Pools is a deep pool of water that is usually there all year round. It has some magnificent rock walls and is in the middle of a great expanse of space in the Pilbara with lots of Dolerite mountains.