Woods Family Holiday: Kalumburu

When we left Kununurra we were not sure about going to Kalumburu as the reports on the road varied from great to abysmal. Anyway we finally decided to turn left and head to the coast. The 103kms took just over 2 hours, quite a nice drive (after 2 hours to travel 76km from Mitchell Falls to the turnoff). The first 50km of the road was ok, the remainder was rocks, creeks and more corrugations. There are not many options for camping here just the two sites, McGowans Island and Honeymoon Bay. Now I know they might sound like something out of Fantasy Island, surprisingly though they are nothing like it. We chose McGowans 20km NE of town on a rough track and arrived at about 4.00pm after topping up fuel $2.99/L and some supplies from the community store. We actually found a nice grassy site under a mango tree with a view through pandanus to the beach. Susan made sure the camper was positioned such that she had a view of the beach from the bedroom window. While the facilities where very basic, (cold showers, thongs a must) we found we really enjoyed it here. The beach was beautiful, some rockpools, and rocks to fish from. The boys landed a couple in the first 30min. Unfortunately no matter how idyllic it was we could not swim (spotted a croc cruising around on the first evening)…..this was a downer. Never mind. We spent the first day doing the sites in town, which you could cover in a couple of hours but as nothing was sign posted we spent a while getting our bearings. Had a nice tour of the Mission Museum also. The weather was still very hot but cooled off nice in the evening. That night we went up the beach at low tide and collected about 2 doz very large oysters off the rocks which Susan cooked up later that night. Even though we were unable to land a decent fish we did have some nice blokes next door who dropped us in a nice sized grunter they caught that day. Susan returned the favour by baking them a brilliant orange and carrot cake which went down well! The last day we spent at the beach or camp relaxing, a bit more fishing with little luck. One thing I should say is in the mornings we all hopped out bed just after 6.00 am and would go down the beach with a coffee and see everyone else down there! The mornings where amazing there and not to be missed.

While the mission officially closed in 1981 there are still some volunteer workers and a Mission store. Supplies arrive every 2 weeks by barge, unlike the in the 60’s when they only saw a barge twice a year.