Day 15 - Cape Leveque

A sick feeling in our stomachs this morning as we take Glen to the airport.  Glen gives me a run down on the two spare tyres, the winch bar, the snatch strap and the X jack to be attached to the exhaust, for when we get a flat.  We have heard many stories and warnings about the road to Cape Leveque. We put Glen on the plane and I head north with the kids wondering if I am doing the right thing or not.

So, as expected it is a slow bumpy ride. After the first 20km I am thinking about turning back, but nowhere else to stay, so we keep going.  We average about 60-70km an hour and I stop and re-tighten everything on the roof rack about 4 times, as everything just shakes loose after a while.  After about 100km, we see in the distance a bitumen road......is it a mirage?????? we thought we had 200km of this.....no it is not............I just about get out and kiss the ground!!!!.... there is a god!!!  So the last 100km is just beautiful, Tori, my co pilot, and I chat away happily, until we hit the last 5km to Cape Leveque, which is just sand and sand and more sand, thank goodness for 4 wheel drive.  We have a laugh at the "speed bumps" in the last 100m, who could possibly be going that fast in this sand!!!

So in Cape Leveque you have the option of bringing your off-road camper trailer, tent or booking into the up market "Safari Tents" or the "Log cabins", they are all very basic but very expensive, designed for the overseas tourist to enjoy Australia in the "wild".  We check into our "open air" log cabin, no fly screen just fly nets over the beds and, not a good sign, three over-sized tins of fly spray.  We share a toilet and shower with the people in the cabin next door, and later in the evening we also learn we are sharing it with 20 beautiful green tree frogs!!!!!  They only come out at night, so needless to say, I didn't drink a drop after 4pm, as there was no way I was heading up there with them all!!!

Washing dishes with the frogs looking over the top.

We walk down to the beach, which is just lovely but, I am also very conscious of the fact that there is a thriving salt water croc habitat 5 km around the corner at Hunter Creek.  The reception staff assure us that it is safe to swim at the "swimming beach", I wonder if they have notified the crocs about that, however, I have heard a lot lately that the crocs have had a huge breeding season after the big wet and are spreading further afield in search of new territory, so the kids just wade in the shallows, much to their disgust at their over protective mother. 

We cook tea on our barbi and listen to the various creatures skittering past in the bushes and the geckos making their way into the cabin.  With our nets over our beds and my torch under my pillow, I think I manage about 3 hours sleep, hearing every noise that everyone and everything makes, within a 20m radius of the cabin!!  The kids just love it, especially Tori.