Nissan Patrol - Recovery Vehicle for Volvo’s

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DAY 204


Another cool start to the morning, it would not surprise me if it rained again today, and as we are moving up to Middle Lagoon at Cape Leveque for a few days we need to get the tent packed down before it does rain.

As soon as we are up, we set about getting all our stuff together, and packing it away, fortunately Andy had packed the awning away last night whilst I had gone down to the beach to photograph yet another sunset, what a dull life eh?

The Truman’s all went off to the Saturday morning market, whilst we stayed back at camp to finish packing, and have our showers.

With all the stuff in the trailer, and the top cover on, I decide that we need a few provisions from Woolworths, so I jump in the truck and drive into town to leave Andy scrubbing the top cover that is ingrained with the red dust, although it will probably get dirty again today when we hit the dirt track for Cape Leveque, but from Andy’s point of view if we keep it clean then it is easier to maintain. So I leave Andy’s shower kit and his clean clothes in a tree.

We were hoping that Andrew and Kirsty were going to join us, but they decided not to as Kirsty’s brother is not working over the long weekend so they will see him for the weekend and we hope to catch up with them when we get back to Broome on Monday or Tuesday.

When I get back I see that everything is just about there and see Andy walking back, all shiny and new from the shower block.

The Truman’s return and soon their van is hooked up and so is our trailer, while waiting for the finishing touches I go to the office and return the cable gate key for the return of my $20 deposit. Just as I return the Truman’s pull off their site, followed by us.

Ken and Jodie have friends in Broome who have allowed them to leave their van on their drive as Caravans are not suitable to be taken up to Cape Leveque, our camper trailer is fine as it has off road capability, and has high clearance.

We pull out of Broome and take the turn off for Cape Leveque, the first 14 Kilometres is Bitumen then it changes to a fairly well graded track for 50K’s then it again changes to a sandy track with lots of burms, for 42K’s, at about distance maker 110K’s we take a left turn to Middle Lagoon, which is about 45 kilometres south of the Cape Leveque. We are going to camp at Middle Lagoon and do a day trip up to Cape Leveque as camping is limited up there and we are told that booking is essential.

The track now was really good, very sandy and fairly deep, we look down the road and see a truck in the distance, a Nissan Patrol over took us 5 minutes a go in a flurry of spitting sand and gravel and we see the Patrol turning in the track, as we get up to it, we pull up and see the truck, a Volvo FL7 and large digger trailer, is well and truly stuck in deep mud.

The Nissan Patrol owner has got a 4lb lump hammer and is hammering on his tow bar trying to remove the ball tongue from the socket, but could not remove it, so decided to drop the strop hitch over the ball and through the towing eye of the Volvo. Don’t try this at home folds as this is a dangerous practice, the threaded ball hitch does not have a certified rating and could snap off under tension, so we obviously stand around to get some pictures.

The Patrol driver has his foot on the gas, for a second we thought it was not going to move but very slowly the Patrol starts to slide and with the driver at the wheel of his truck steers the truck out of the deep mud, in no time at all the Patrol has yanked the truck out and once again is mobile and driving back down the road. It was a sight to see as the truck must weigh around 5 tonnes, and the Patrol just tucked it out.

The Patrol turns around, the passengers get back in so we stand and watch as it now has to tackle the muddy waters itself. No problem, revs up one big splash and it is through. We all jump back in and then it is Ken’s turn to drive through. Andy holds back while Ken manoeuvres through, again with ease another Nissan Patrol glides through the dirt.

Its our turn to start crossing the muddy bogs which have been caused by the rain the night before, it interesting to see how quickly things can change, following a bit of rain. This road was bone dry yesterday. Andy gives a quick burst on the accelerator keeps the revs up and we are through, following a slightly different path to Ken.

Out on the other side we see a disappointed Jodie, I could tell by the look on her face that she wanted us to get stuck in the mud for that great photo opportunity. Never mind Jodie better luck next time!

We go through several of these muddy pools, but each time negotiated with both Patrols to perfection and the trailer is pulled through with ease.

We arrive at Middle Lagoon at around 2.00pm, and the sun was scorching, I go and check in with Jodie and Ken, we pay $15 per person per night for this site, a very laid back aborigine called Hayden checked us in and took our monies, he kept calling Ken “bro”. He explains were we will set up camp, we wanted to get a shady spot under a tree and of course put the awning up, much to my annoyance, but you must have shade, otherwise you would dehydrate very quickly, not to mention heat stroke or sun stroke.

It no time at all our camp was set up, Jodie suggested that Ken should help with the awning as we are all going to use it and get the benefit, but Andy suggested that I should still do it. The Trumans tent is up, they have connected their flysheet to our awning creating some valuable extra shade.

We sat down for a rest in the much needed cool shade, Hayden dropped by and said that we could block the lane off if we needed more space but we pretty much are ok. We all had a cup of tea or coffee, while we were drinking it Jodie sees someone she recognises from Inverloch who were also on our campsite in Broome.

It was late afternoon and a trip down to the beach was calling, so we all changed into our swimming togs and away we went, no more than a 2 minute walk and we were on the sand. Paddling into the water there was no familiar cold feeling; yes it was cool but not cold which meant that I stood a better chance of getting in the water fairly quickly. I was last to submerge but at least I was in. The water was lovely but swimming was not that easy, there is a really high content of salt, which makes you very buoyant so you are trying to fight against it. Hayden has advised us, that there are no crocodiles, no stingers and no sharks in this water so we should be ok, though it does not stop you thinking about it.

There is a campsite on the other side of this peninsula which shows the possibility of crocodiles in attendance, but rumour has it they don’t actually like sand, so tend to stay away from the beaches, not sure how true that is mind, but we all pretty much feel that swimming in the sea any further North now may not be possible, so we are making the most of it now.

The sun is starting to go down, so Jodie and I race out of the water, back to camp and stand on the edge of the beach watching the sun go down, not as spectacular as Cable Beach last Wednesday night, nonetheless it is still beautiful.

The luxury of having a shower and a flushing toilet on site is great, but the fact that we are paying $30 per night should mean that loo paper is included. At least there is a bar of soap to wash your hands. It has become a pet hate of mine, especially worse in WA that caravan sites do not always put soap in the loo’s but the problem is that you do not always take your wash bag just to go to the loo, so I think that there is a danger of spreading some nasty viruses simply due to lack of cleanliness. We pay enough for these caravan parks sometimes so a bit of soap to wash you hands would not go amiss.

So after a quick cold shower, even though there is a hot water tap, we move onto dinner. Jodie had made a quiche last night in Broome, that was ear marked for tea tonight, but we had some sausages that needed eating as the before date had expired on the 21st May we thought we should use them, so asked Jodie if we could have the quiche on Sunday night and we would cook tonight, actually not just because of the sausages it was also the fact that Andy was keen to use our new camp oven cooking utilizing heat beads.

Pooling some ingredients Andy chucked the fresh vegetables in to the camp oven along with the sausages; mince, onions, carrots and we peeled boiled and mashed potatoes separately.

Within an hour the camp oven was bubbling away nicely and it was time to serve up, I thought the dinner had turned out really well, Andy did a great job, especially with the mash potato, most of us had seconds.

Andy took his chair outside away from the light to gaze at the stars, the night sky was just millions of tiny pinpricks of silver against the blackness.

The kids were toasting marshmallows on the remnants of the fire, and Andy got the didge out and we all had a go at making a reasonable sound.

Eventually the events of the day caught up with us and we all went to bed, I needed to finish the blog from yesterday (Day 203 Simply Red) Andy was already fast asleep by the time I got into bed, so in the now silent night (actually it is only about 9.30) I sat tippy tapping away until the blog was done.

It was a lovely warm night, so I lay on top of the sleeping bag

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Photos

Sand Track
This sand road was about 80 K's lomg and kept you on your toes, it was quite a handfull

Sand track
Towards Cape Leveque

Dust
Talk about eating someones dust

Nissan Patrol
Recovery vehicle for Volvo's

Nissan Patrol
Recovery vehicle for Volvo's

After the rains
we can know see how easily roads could get closed, this was after a heavy shower

Convoy
Us following the Trumans

Water Splsh
Ken runs in to a pot hole