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Published: October 19th 2009
We couldn't really believe our eyes
but totally understood why they weren't letting people drive out to the highwayDay 171 - North of Broome and South of the Dampier Peninsula
Couple of birthday messages this morning, firstly to young Jake Lewis. Happy Birthday Jake, we hope you have a lovely day and that Mummy and Daddy make you a nice big cake!!
And then there’s Harley Coulsell who was also born on a “55 plate”! Happy Birthday Harley, we hope you have a lovely day and enjoy all your special ‘train’ things! We wake up to a bright morning at Quandong and can hear the ocean waves crashing beyond the sand dunes but we can also immediately smell smoke in the air, the bush fire is obviously still going. Hmmmm, bit of a worry but we’re still confident that it won’t reach us.
There are no facilities here so we need to dig our own dunny this morning when the necessary time comes! It’s certainly a new experience for me but I trot happily into the bush, spade in one hand and biodegradable loo roll in the other! Ok, now we can officially say we’ve ‘been bush’!
Dar re-lights the fire ready for the dough boy extravaganza that we’re about to cook up! I
made the dough yesterday and this morning moulded it into little balls and added some cranberries to a few of them! Nige had been out gathering long sticks so when everyone had finished their cereal we started on the dough boys!
First of all you need to select your dough boy and then select your stick. Next you need to mould the dough boy over the cleanest end of the stick until it’s nice and tight and unlikely to fall off! Then, hold the stick over the fire and cook the dough boy until golden brown on the outside. Lastly add butter and / or golden syrup then eat! Beautiful! All the dough boys worked out pretty well, nice and tasty with the cranberry and the golden syrup, yum!
With full tummies we head straight for the ocean, Belinda did the washing up in the salt water while Nige and Darryl caught some surf. Nige is good on the board and Darryl does his best with the Scooby Doo kids boogie board but it’s just a teeny bit too small for him really so he keeps sinking! It was all excellent fun though and definitely a good start
to the day.
We came up with a plan of attack for the afternoon, rather than just sit here or swim in the beautiful ocean on our doorstep we decided to go and explore! We’re not far from the Willie Creek Pearl Farm so thought that we’d go have a look at that. With a bit of readjustment we all fitted in good old PIE and headed off down the sandy track towards the smoke.
Not far from the Willie Creek turnoff we get flagged down by a lady who has been turned back before the highway because of the bush fire. It’s out of control and despite her having no food or water left she’s been told by the police she and her kids can’t leave. She was camped at Quandong last night on the opposite side of the dunes to us so she’s heading back there. We tell her to help herself to water as we have plenty and that we’ll hopefully see her later.
By the time we got to the turning for Willie Creek the view up the track was filled with smoke and it was obvious the bush fire was heading this
way. However we figured the worst that could happen was we’d be stranded in a pearl farm, such a shame! We stood on the red dirt track for a while just watching the sky and the colours that it turned with the smoke blending in. It was pretty weird and the sky was getting darker by the minute.
The track down to Willie Creek was a laugh. You have to follow the red markers but then blue ones appeared too which prompted an outcry of joking confusion from Darryl!
Willie Creek is beautiful, very pastel in colour compared to Quandong and we immediately see we made the right decision about where to camp as we’re greeted with a warning sign about crocodiles! We have a wander around checking out the different signs explaining more about the pearling industry. This isn’t a working pearl farm, it’s purely for the tourists. The only working pearl farm we know of that is readily accessible to everyone is up at Cygnet Bay on the top of the peninsula. Funnily enough Belinda and Nige had a message from the owners saying that they are looking for WWOOFers but without a 4WD they don’t
and the fire still burns north of Broome
we think this was the point when it was close to the Coconut Wells caravan park. People were evacuated onto the beach from there. think they can do it unless someone will pick them up. Fingers crossed.
There are plenty of people here and we start to realise it’s the tour group who have travelled in by mini bus this morning from Broome. The road must have been passable then but with the fire moving direction and taking a stronger hold late morning they’re not being allowed to leave so are stuck here until it’s brought under control which probably won’t be until much later this afternoon.
We continue our wander around and settle under the picnic shelter to eat our lunch. Belinda over hears that the staff are intending to get the boat out again to take the tour group for another cruise around to fill in time. We wonder if they’ve got any spare seats so Darryl and Belinda go off to see what they can organise! Bingo, Belinda scores us a free boat ride, awesome! We’d pretty much finished our lunch so chucked everything back in the car and rushed to the jetty.
It was great being out on the water and the tour group leader Terry plus Sean who was skippering the boat were very welcoming to
everyone. There’s a tired looking boat moored in the middle of the creek, the owner got caught in the lines and was drowned so nobody wants it as it’s concerned an omen to take over a boat with a history like that plus it wouldn’t pass it’s registration checks now so probably not worth the effort to get it sea worthy again. Still it gave the team something else to talk about! Sean tries catching some fish with a catch net while Terry skippers for a short while, the first attempt gets nothing but the second attempt gets a couple of Gar fish which Lachie got to throw back in to the water after giving one of them a pretend kiss for the cameras!
We see fish jumping and there are plenty of small wader birds about plus a couple of sea eagles and a brahminy kite which are always beautiful to see. Sean takes the boat as close as he dares to the local detention centre where illegal fisherman are detained and their boats confiscated off the WA coast. These fishermen often drag their nets over the reef looking for specific shell fish which are an aphrodisiac in
their local country. It’s serious business and the Australian authorities come down very hard on those they manage to catch but it’s not easy.
It was a short but lovely trip and we thoroughly enjoyed see the extra views from the boat. Back on dry land we heard that the road was still closed so the tour bus and accompanying it on the self drive were still unable to leave. We caught wind of a conversation involving helicopters, could it be that the tour group would be flown out? Awesome! Sure enough the word spread that those on the mini-bus would indeed be flown back to Broome via helicopter. What a result, a free helicopter trip! What a shame we hadn’t booked to be on the coach today!
There were a few grumbles from the group mind you, one guy from Victoria was complaining about the police over egging everything and that he’d driven through fires twice the size with no problem. A bit insensitive considering what happened in February when 173 people lost their lives in the Black Saturday fires. It’s probably also true to say that the recent inquest into the deaths of three truckers who
were let through a bush fire blockade two years ago has had an influence on the decision to be cautious, nobody wants to see anyone injured or worse if it can be avoided. Airing on the side of caution is surely the best way.
Another couple we spoke too had also been stranded yesterday when they went out to visit the 12 Mile organic farm café. They didn’t manage to reach it as they were turned back by the police but then they weren’t able to return to Broome either and in the end were holed up at the Roebuck Roadhouse for 9 hours or more. At least today will end with an exciting chopper ride.
We went to purchase some drinks from the café and again the Willie Creek staff were just beautiful and didn’t charge us for the coffee but instead brought round free jugs for everyone. We made it clear that we weren’t in the coach trip but they weren’t bothered and we were told to help ourselves.
The first of the helicopters arrived, Darryl was of course in the front row barging the kids out of the way to get a good view!
I’m joking, but you know what I mean! The gift shop was calling me so I went in for a look around to see if there was anything under about $30000 worth buying! I did find a couple of girlie things and got the assistant to put them in two separate bags for two rather special young ladies, unfortunately they’re not actual pearls, just mother of pearl but they’re beautiful nevertheless. The two rather exquisite looking bags got Darryl’s attention when I walked back outside to a cry of “What the heck have you been buying now?”! Sigh!
With one last use of the facilities and a fill up of our water bottles we left Willie Creek to head back to Quandong. We thank the team for their hospitality and wish everyone good luck with their return journies. Just as we got to the end of the track we met the lady traveller from this morning. She’d been back to Quandong but then tried again to get out to the highway only to be turned around and told to come to Willie Creek. We guess they’ll either be escorted out or will have to stay here until the fire
passes. Either way at least they have water and food here, just no ocean to swim in.
We can’t see the fire anymore to the same extent we could this morning so figure it must be nearly passed by now. Back at camp Belinda and I head off for a walk further round the coast line. There are a lot of hermit crabs around and we’re laughing so much at them stopping as soon as they sense us, if they don’t move they must think we’ll just assume they’re an empty shell. The funniest is a crab who has clearly outgrown his shell and seems to panic when he gets caught out by our presence. He’s running in all different directions scampering away from us. The little tracks they leave are like motorways, it’s just so fascinating.
When we get back the boys head down to the ocean for Darryl’s first try at sea fishing but with little or no bait it’s going to be a tough catch! They’ve started dinner and so myself and Zali make Tim Tam Bananas for desert, her chops are a familiar brown colour by the end of it and there’s not much
chocolate left in the biscuit wrapping!! After that we all head straight for the ocean and stay there watching the sunset. It was stunning again and all the colours in the sky were just awesome.
We make it back to camp before dark and Zali has us in hysterics because she’s excitedly following Nige who is carrying the spade and leading the way into the bush. Zali needs to go to the loo and returns with the proud exclamation of “I did a poo in the bush”! Good on you Zali!
Dinner was great, it couldn’t fail to be really! Desert was awesome and the kids loved it but it didn’t have the same effect as marshmallows so that was good!
We sat around playing the guitar for a while and had a quick log on to the internet; we’re quite shocked we’ve got coverage all the way out here! How funny is that but we’re grateful as it meant we could send a birthday message to young Harley Coulsell, we didn’t want to miss that!
So it’s goodnight from us and the hermit crabs North of Broome but South of the Dampier Peninsula!
Sweet
dreams
Dar and Sar
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Jan Kettle
non-member comment
Mystery Bird
Fab photos as usual! If that mystery bird isn't a whimbrel or a curlew I'll eat my hat! xxx Mum K