2016 Tour – Part 8 – Broome, Cape Leveque, Broome again, Derby, Horizontal Falls

On Sunday the 24^th July we set off for Broome. Broome at this time of the year is extremely busy and expensive. We did not have a booking in a caravan park so we headed for Broome Gateway park 25 km out of Broome, a non powered park that we had used before in 2014 when all of the town parks were full to overflowing. We had a few things to organise in Broome, one being a new rear window for my Land Cruiser that had been shattered by an errant rock bouncing off the camper.

As it was only about 100km from Barn Hill to Broome we arrived late morning, dropped off our campers and headed to Broome for lunch and to do some much needed shopping.

I organised with Novus Windscreens for a new window which was going to take a few days to source from Perth, but that did not matter as we were headed for the Dampier Peninsula for a few days the next morning. I had secured the back window with cardboard and tape and was confident that it would survive the terrible roads on the Dampier Peninsula.

Heading up the Dampier Peninsula, we had booked ourselves a camp site on the cliff top at Whale Song (fabulous place that we had first discovered in 2014). Whale Song only has 6 camp sites (8 in emergency) and is a wonderful place to walk the beach and rocks at low tide and generally chill out. We stayed for 2 nights and then headed for Kooljamon at Cape Leveque where we had fluke ourselves 2 camp sites for one night afterwhich we would head back to Whale Song. After one night camping at Kooljamon we inquired about extending and we were offered a Log Cabin on the beach for 2 nights which we duly grabbed without hesitation.

Our Beach Hut at Cape Leveque

Cape Leveque

Cape Leveque Main Swimming Beach

On the second day while Harold and Di went to the top of the lighthouse hill (the only place there is telephone reception) to make some calls, Chris and I headed off to drive along one of the beaches. As soon as we hit the soft sand our car suspension started making a terrible din. On inspection we discovered that the front bush on the left hand rear leaf spring had completely come adrift. We weren’t going anywhere. While it was obviously not a difficult fix, there was no way I was going to get it fixed at Cape Leveque. So a call to RACV, relying on my “Total Cover” to get us out of trouble resulted in a realisation that “Total Cover” does not really mean “Total Cover”. Apparently in the fine print it does not cover “4WD only” roads. So our cost was going to be $1,300 to get the car trucked back to Broome (about 250km) with the Camper in tow.

The tray top (2WD Truck!!!!) arrived at 9:30 the following morning. We bought the driver a Coffee then loaded up the Cruiser onto the truck, hitched up the camper and headed for Broome, Chris and I passengers in the truck cab.

Never thought i would see the mighty Cruiser in this situation

Car and Camper ready for the 250km trek on terrible road to Broome

Harold and Di in the meantime went to a local Pearl Farm and then were headed back to Whale Song where we had organised a couple of more nights. We were to meet up with them in Broom in a couple of days time.

With RACV’s help (and their cost) we were able to get a site in the Cable Beach caravan park.

The trip back to Broome was interesting to say the least. The driver was a fabulous guy who had been traipsing around the top of Autralia for some years and new of many of the people that I had had dealings with during our 15 years in Darwin.

My main concern was the van was swaying all over the place being towed by the truck.

Back in Broome we borrowed a car from the Tow Truck Driver and set ourselves up in the Caravan Park, and then went and picked up a hire car (also organised and paid for be RACV).

It so happened that the Towing Company were also the ARB agents and a very large 4WD repair and maintenance company. The next morining (Monday) we contacted them and organised them to repair the suspension.

It turns out that the ARB Old Man Emu suspension had been installed with an incorrect part which was the cause of the failure. They had the parts requied in stock and the repair was finished that afternoon including a repacking of the from and rear wheel bearing the I asked them to do for good measure considering the roads that we had been on.

With Harold and Di’s return to Broome we set about taking in some of the sights of Broome inluding the Dinosaur footprints at low tide and also spending some time on the mighty Cable Beach. I also took my car in for the back window to be replaced only to be rung an hour later to tell me that the supplier had send the wrong window. A quick call to a panel beater in Derby, where we were headed next, and organised for the window repair while in Derby.

Cable Beach at Dusk

A quick trip up to Quondong Point for a couple of days for some free camping before moving on.

Sunset at Quondong Point

On the following Sunday we headed for Derby in readiness for our Horizontal Falls adventure on Monday morning the 8^th August. We were all very eccited.

We were booked in for the one day tour but had heard reports that the overnight trip was fabulous and well worth the money. We tried to upgrade our booking to no avail as all over night spots were full.

We were picked up by mini bus from our caravan park and taken to the Broome aerodrome where we all piled into 3, 14 seat Cessna Caravans (sea plane version).

The trip across the Buccaneer Archipelago was stunning and coming into land at the floating Horizontal Falls pontoons fabulous as the pilot circled the horizontal falls. There are in fact 2 Horizontal falls, one narrower that the other. The falls are created when the huge tides of the area (9m) try and get through a narrow gap into or out of land trapped bodies of water. The large tide difference causes a drop of more that 2m from one side of the gap to the other. The water through the the gaps is very deep and the result can be treacherous for navigation. Recent accidents have caused a rethink and the tour boats will not navigate the narrower of the gaps when the difference is around 2m.

Our transport waiting for us at Derby Airport

Dianne steals the Co Pilots Seat

Arriving at the Floating Base Station

Fabulous Weather for our day at Talbot Bay

Horizontal Falls Floating Base Camp

The infrastructure the company has floating on Talbot Bay (no land connection at all) is very impressive with facilities for handling 3 Seaplanes and 3 Helis at any one time plus full time accommodation for staff and accommodation for overnight tourists. We were supplied with morning tea, Barramundi Lunch, a trip up Cyclone River and two separate trips to the falls that shows the difference at different tide levels.

All in all it was a fabulous day and the rides through the falls was exhilarating to say the least.

The following day the window in the Cruiser was fixed without a hitch and after a day in Derby we were soon on our way to cross the Gibb River Road, first stop Mount Hart.

Dinner Tree – Derby

Dinner Tree – Derby

Till the next post.