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| Corrugations on the road from Mitchell Falls |
The road from Mitchell falls to Honeymoon Bay is more like a farm track and it took all day to cover the 200 odd km. There's lots of little creek crossings as well as the significant Carson River crossing. You've also got to get 2 permits to pass through Kalumburu. We were able to arrange the first permit with the help of our trusty sat phone, and the second permit we picked up upon arrival at Kalumburu (with only 15 mins before closing time!)
We drove about another 20 minutes to Honeymoon Bay and we arrived just as the sun was setting. I really don't have the words for Honeymoon Bay. It is by far my favorite place on the trip to date. The facilities are really basic - you can can forget your 5 star ensuite, but if you're williing to help keep the fire pig running you can get a hot shower and there are 2 flushing toilets. Toilet paper, power, lights in the amenities and fresh water there is not....so you need to be pretty self sufficient.
What makes this place great is the blue ocean, white sand, oysters on the rocks, mud crabs, good fishing, isolation and some bloody nice people.
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| Honeymoon Bay |
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| Honeymoon Bay |
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| Black Lip Oysters off the rocks |
It's funny how places that are harder to get to seem to filter out the comfort-addicted grey nomads and you find yourself among people who have more interesting things to talk about than the size of their Air Con units. One such couple we met at Honeymoon were Ken and Shirley who usually spend 3 months or so each year at Honeymoon Bay with their boat. On the first morning there was Ken cleaning a decent haul of Saddle Tail Snapper (STS) and we went over to have a chat. We hit it off immediately with a common love of travel and fishing and Ken and Shrley were kind enough to take is for a fishing trip next morning.
Oh boy that was Soooo much fun! In the space of 2 hours we'd all pulled in a few STS's each including Jess on her trusty hand line. Then the sharks moved in and we were getting snapped off left-right-and-centre as well as hauling in severed fish heads! It was Jessie with her 150lb handreel that was able to best the sharks (with a bit of muscle from Nat to assist) and she landed 2 sharks before releasing them. But really the ones who were hooked was us - on Honeymoon Bay!
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| Daz and Ken get the boat ready to go fishing as the sun rises |
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| Jess pulls in a decent Saddle Tail Snapper - Wooooo Hoooo |
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| Shirley's STS gets chomped off on the way to the boat |
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| Nat lands a black tipped reef shark on Jess's hand line. |
A 15 min walk down the beach at low tide brings you to some rocks. You gotta tread carefully and keep an eye out for crocs and muddies but with a hammer and screw driver you can get a dozen black lipped oysters to go with you grilled STS for dinner. When I die I want heaven to be Honeymoon Bay!
Kalumburu is an interesting place too. It's a dry aboriginal community based around a mission. In WW2 the airstrip was used by the Aussies & US to launch bombing runs over Japanese forces to the north until the Japanese bombed the airfield and the town. Near the airstrip there is wreckage of some Mitchell bombers, and mission has set up a museum in the town which has some very surprising treasures including aboriginal artifacts and art, ancient Egyption and Roman items as well as local relics from WW2.
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| Wreckage of WW2 Mitchell Bombers |
Supplies come into Kalumburu via barge and depending on when the barge comes in you may or may not get much from the community store. In our case there wasn't much but it didn't matter anyway. You can get good water from the mission and there is fuel avalable also if you can afford it at $3.70 per litre!
After 3 nights at Honeymoon Bay it was time to say farewell to Ken and Shirley. With a mental note to plan a trip back here in 2014 we hit the road once more, heading south for Drysdale Station.
