19 - 20th Oct - Cape Leveque Trip

Well a few days r n r and my Darl announces we are going to ride the Suzi to Cape Leveque, we had considered it before but decided too far and too hard and unsealed road!  We'll take the sleeping bags and camp out under the stars, how romantic!  Only if I can take my pillow...ok.   We packed up two sleeping bags, 1 pillow, 1 bag clothes, shoes, toiletries, towel, you know the essentials.  No grog!  One bag of tools and 2 litres fuel my darl carried and one bag water, sangas, sunscreen I carried.

                                                                                                                                                                  We set off at 8am, all keen and eager. Well I tried in my mind to be positive, but a little bit hesitant of what to expect on this dirt road we were about to hit. It wasn't too bad, not as bad as Cape York roads, though pretty sandy there were some narrow stretches of hard road, which were still a bit bumpy. It was okay until we had to navigate back to the left of the road, through a foot of sand, the suzi didn't make it and we fell off, Darl over the handle bars, I just went with the bike! Lucky we had a soft landing.  There was a 4WD coming towards and you know he didn't even stop to ask if we were okay......

                                                                               We knew it was going to be a journey as we only have a small fuel tank and have to fill up at the only fuel stop, halfway at Beagle Bay. This is an aboriginal community. We got there at 12 o'clock but we have to wait until 1.30pm for the store to open so we can get a fuel card to fill up. Some friends told us of this awesome bakery there and I thought it would be great for lunch, but the bakery was shut up, closed down and gone!!    We ate our squashed, soggy sangas instead. We had a look at the church, decorated with pearl shells, built in 1915-17 by the german priests and brothers.  

                                                                                                                                                                  They were at the time, running the show, and forced into house arrest during WW1, when they started building the church. We got our fuel card and after a few goes got the pump to work, filled up and continued on our way, we were on bitumen now, clear run from here to Cape Leveque. Or so we thought. The neighbours back at Broome just got back from Cape Leveque and said if we could get through the first 2 kms on the dirt (sandy) road, we would make it through. They failed to tell us that the last 5kms to Kooljaman, was gutter to gutter sand!!!
                                                                         

We took one look at this road and said nah, we not going there and beated a hasty retreat back to the tar, well we almost made it, when we hit a patch of sand and went down again, our left legs pinned under the bike, lucky my Darl was on top so he took the brunt. That's it!! I will walk to the road and darl rode the bike out. A couple of nice ladies in a 4WD come by and said we are so close, if I get a lift with them then darl can ride the bike in, so he said he would give it a go. I watched from the 4wd as he swayed and writhed his way through the sand, his little chicken legs got a real workout!

My Darl, the enduro rider!! He was a lather of sweat when he got to the camping ground. A couple of sports drinks later and he was ready for a walk to the beach. I said let's book a room, you know, with a real bed. No way we bought the sleeping bags, we gotta use them..OK!! So yep we set up camp, the bike, the sleeping bags, no chairs, no light, no food and no drinks! We really did need a drink after the day, left at 8am and got to Kooljaman at 4pm.  A couple fellow campers (Doug and Russell) are amazed at our feat, took pity on us and offered a mattress for some added comfort, but we roughed it, how tuff are we??


We had a pleasant walk along the swimming beach in our bike gear .... We found a couple chairs to sit on and a worker bought us a lamp over to use, he, another ne couldn't believe our feat, had never seen such an old bike do this trip. As we had no food, we were lucky that Wednesday was dinner night at the cafe. We enjoyed a nice meal (though expensive) and it was only BYO so we really had a dry night. Off to bed we went, a sleepness night, tossing and turning. I can't remember the last time I ever slept in a sleeping bag, but there is not much room for movement in there!

We woke at day break to birdsong, mozzies and flies! We decide to go for a walk to the Western Beach.   No swimming here as the rips are too strong. Red sandstone cliffs melt into red sand to meet the squeaky white sands of the beach. Worker Paul told us of a truck coming in that we could follow out on the bike, parting a track in the sand. Sounded good. Russell and Doug offered us a cuppa for brekky, we had a great chat and laugh. Russell works at Tom Price and on a camp trip with his dad who has a yacht moored at Russell Island near home.

The truck didn't arrive when expected and Darl decided he was going to cut for it. Russell gave me a lift through the sand to meet Mel at the other end..... It gave me the opportunity to take a few snaps of Darl negotiating the sandy track. It was much easier not having my lump of a weight on the back of the bike for this 5km section and he found it a lot easier getting through this morning then late yesterday afternoon, though he did have a few wobbly moments. I don't believe the Suzi has so far survived the trip, with 2 falls, she started first go this morning.

After a short break at the end of the 5kms sand, we loaded up and took off to One Arm Point, where we needed to fuel up. We got brekky from the community store and asked where the Hatchery was. Just follow your nose down the road........ had a look at the road and it was tar, all good. We had some time to kill as we needed to re fuel again at Beagle Bay and the shop was shut 12-1.30pm. We set off to find the hatchery (turtles and fish) only to find a turn off, off the tar onto dirt/sand - we ventured a little ways along, there were no further signs to follow.

All we found was a number of these crued shelters along the shore line, look like they are used for gatherings/picnics etc. 11am time to fuel up and get going, we estimated a couple hours to get back to Beagle Bay. At the bowsers we met Bruce, the aboriginal "hippie" artist. He showed us his port folio, references etc., and let us know that he takes in back packers and woofers. We'll keep that in mind if we ever come back to this place. Petrol here 199.0/ltr. Darl found another 4 ltr container so we filled that up too, all up 6 litres fuel in reserve for the trip home, we are not going to run out.

                                                                                                                                                                                               

All the while I was wondering how we were going to go getting back over that road. We arrived early at Beagle Bay, the Suzi was making a god awful noise, what's that?  Sounds like the clutch....oh no, but Darl assured it would get us back to Broome.  The nice shop man, served us early so we could get on our way and Darl assured me he would stop every 20 miles for a break.   Darl tackled the trip home differently, he went faster and it wasn't as bad as the trip up.   Still a long ride home.  This trip all round approx 500kms (250kms sand/dirt with the occasional big dust hole)

   Yep, I'm done!!  Are we there yet??  Only 23 miles to go.   The noise seemed to have disappeared and we headed for the Razza for a drink when we got back to Broome, well we nearly made, as the poor old Suzi was running out of puff and was missing some gears.  A quick shower, then on the treddlies off to the Razza for curry night and drinks.   A nice feed, curry, vegies and rice and 5 drinks each for a value total $60, not like night before $74 for two meals (no drinks!)   We treddled our weary bodies home and had the best night sleep ever!!!