Day 73 – 31st July – Kalumburu – Mitchell Plateau

All is right with the world again… I got my morning coffee… A girl could get used to these views when drinking her morning coffee… 

All too soon it is pack up day again.  Our mate emu got curious about our activity… he hung around our camp all morning watching what we were doing.  When I bent over to pick up a mat the bloody thing pecked me on the head… and it was none-too-gentle…

We left McGowan Island and headed back into the Kalumburu town.  On our way we stopped by the old airport in search of some WWII Bomber wrecks.  We had to hunt around a bit to find the right track but once we were in the vicinity they were pretty easy to spot. There is no information to be found about the wrecks, which is frustrating.  So we don’t know their origins nor how they ended up here. 

Check out how enthused the kids look about Dave’s explanation… 

Back in town it was time to stock up on food.  Our concern about our lack of gas is growing, so we checked out the store for a portable gas stove.  Hallelujah!  They had one, and yes, we were willing to pay the $100 price tag for it.  All we needed was the gas butane canister to go with it… Guess what?? They didn’t have any… grrrr.  There goes that idea.  So we are back to crossing our fingers that our meagre supply will last us the next week…

Next on the shopping list – fuel.  We have a new record… $2.47/litre for diesel.

Our curiosity had been tweaked by the bomber wrecks so we decided to visit the Kalumburu Mission as they have a museum.  We were hoping they had the story of the bombers.  No such luck, but the museum was pretty impressive with information about the early mission days and events of the second world war.

The mission was originally located up at Pago (north of Kalumburu), after some Benedictine monk walked all the way from Wyndham.  A lack of water and farmable land forced them to move back into Kalumburu.  The mission here was established in the early 1900s.  This is the original building.  In 1942 the war reached them as Japanese bombers attacked from above.  The back part of the building closest to the road was bombed, destroying part of the building and sadly, killing one of the brothers and several aborigines.  Unfortunately, there was no mention of the bomber wrecks we had been looking at earlier. 

This photo shows the church.  See the round garden bed?  They used to be crocodile ponds.  They used to steal the crocodile eggs from a nest, hatch the baby crocs then raise them inside the crocodile ponds.  When they were big enough they would kill them off and sell the skins. 

Here’s the old bakery where the sisters would bake bread.  Apparently they were baking in here right up until 2008.  

Another one for my Dad… check out the size of this mango tree!

It was pretty late by the time we finally left Kalumburu.  Once again Dave had to battle the 100km of corrugations to get us to the King Edward River campground.  It’s been a while but we are bush camping again… pit toilets and no showers.  After this trip I will be happy to not see a pit toilet for a very long time…

The campground is nestled along the river, so after setting up we found the first track heading down to the water.  After wandering for a bit we found a couple of spots that had ladders for getting in and out of the water.  This was the nicest spot for a swim… the lack of showers here was enough to entice me in for a swim too… 

About 400m further along the river are some small falls 

As we headed back to camp I was looking out over the water when I spotted a familiar lump… yep, we just discovered there are freshwater crocs in here…

Look at how still the water is… makes for an awesome reflection