Honeymoon Bay and Kalumburu

 We arrived at Honeymoon Bay yesterday afternoon after a very rough passage in 30 knot winds through the two narrow passages between Vansittart Bay and Napier Broome Bay.  The very short and steep waves made it an uncomfortable passage with True North being continuously completely covered in salt water spray.  As we made our way south in Napier Broome Bay, the wind moderated slightly we came more into the lea of the shore making the passage more comfortable.

Honeymoon Bay has a very remote caravan park which is reached by a 250km very rough track from the nearest larger town Kununurra. On arrival, we took the dinghy ashore to the caravan park to see if we could get a ride into Kalamburu, a small village about 35km up the track where a small general store could be found.  The owners of the caravan park said they would drive us in the next day for a cost of $100 per person.  We needed groceries so we decided to just send Glenn into town to do the shopping.  As we walked back to the beach I asked several of the campers if they knew anyone headed into town the next day and we quickly found a couple who said they would take Paul and I with them when they went for groceries the next day.

Around sundown Glen and I visited the only other sailboat in the anchorage where we had been invited for a sundowner get together.  We had a nice couple hours chatting with the crew of the catamaran.  They are also circumnavigating Australia but in the opposite direction to us.

This morning Glenn set off with the camp owner Joy and 4 school kids at 07:00.  Glenn would get a jerry can of gasoline and go to the local medical clinic to have a swollen very sore foot diagnosed (doctor said it is gout) and then meet us at the store.  Paul and I met the campers Daryl and his wife at 08:30 and we headed out on the rough dirt track to Kalamburu.

The village is very small with one Main Street and a mission.

The Main Street of Kalamburu. The store is behind the group of trees on the left and the mission is at the end of the road.

The mission entrance

The store was surprisingly well stocked so we will now be well fed until we reach Darwin.  The prices were strange because “healthy” foods are subsidised and “bad” foods are taxed highly.  For example vegetables are similar prices as in the major city supermarkets but a normal sized bag of potato chips costs $10.50.  Needless to say, we only bought “healthy” items.

After the store, we took a trip to the Toyota graveyard, a junkyard of old vehicles where people can pull off anything they may be able to use.  Daryl had been told there was a vehicle which had some parts he could use but we were unable to find it.  We then went to the locals aboriginal art centre where we looked at paintings and carvings on Boab tree seed pods and Emu eggs.  I really liked the Boab seed carvings but I think the prices were very high.  Our next stop was to see a World War II airplane wreck.  We were told it was a bomber but I think it was actually a transport plane.  It was in several pieces and the whole are had just been burned with quite a few spots still on fire.

Daryl and Paul checking out the WW II airplane wreck.

We finally returned to the caravan park and had a quiet remainder of the afternoon on True North.