Goodbye to the Kimberley

Today was a driving day. If I had consulted my notes I probably would have realised, but I hadn’t, so it sort of caught me by surprise.

Three weeks after we entered the Kimberley around Argyle, today we technically left it, although for nearly a week around Derby and Broome, it probably didn’t feel like the remote Kimberley.

We started the morning at Gambanan looking out on the Buccaneer Archipelago and there was little left to do after a brief explore of the campsite than to head back down the Dampier Peninsula. The corrugations were no more fun on the way out as they were on the way in, but at least we knew there was only 90km unsealed, and most of that was pretty good. We completed the 250km back to the roadhouse at the junction of the Great Northern Highway and the Broome road in time for an early lunch.

Just south of the junction, the country changed sharply, becoming a vast flat plain. This has been pretty much with us all afternoon, and in nearly 200km, we have never been more than 50m above sea level, and have crossed no creeks or rivers even though we have never been more than about 30km from the ocean, usually closer.

In search of a vantage point for a view of either the land or the beach, we took a diversion to Ecobeach Wilderness Lodge. This turned out to be a bit of a surprise, as it was not on any of our maps. It is a very upmarket collection of 60 villas, mostly of lightweight construction, but some are just tin-roofed tents selling for hundreds of dollars a night. There is a bar, restaurant, pool and beach hire gear, as well as whale watching tours, turtle observation, fishing charters and other attractions. All of this about 90 minutes drive from Broome. They grow their own vegies and while the front row of villas are on the dune top, they are not too garish. Quite nicely done.

We spent time exploring the beach and rocks out the front as we turned up right on low tide. Quite a few things to see once you started looking.

Since we spent so much time at ecobeach, we were looking at getting to the next available major campground after dark, which is never much fun. However, we stumbled upon one of these free roadside overnight camping places around 4:30, and decided to stop. This is our first one of these for the trip really, and it is quite good. There is a basic pit toilet, but other than that you get a vast dusty carpark, some trees, picnic tables in shelters, fire pits and barbecues, and probably fewer than 10 neighbours over 20000m2. It’s 7:45, its quiet, we have a vast open sky and a clear milky way, and superb value for money!