Kimberly Coastal Camp (KCC)

Posted by efloow on August 12, 2015 in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

This was to be another glamping treat along the way that most certainly lived up to our expectations. The camp is north of the Mitchell Plateau on the eastern side of Port Warrender in the Admiralty Gulf. It is a remote bush camp surrounded by a vast untouched wilderness. The only access to the camp is by air. To get there we helicoptered in from Mitchell Falls Camp over the Mitchell Plateau and the the mangrove lined rivers and estuaries.

Here we again caught up with the Goldrick’s having missed all our previous rendezvous.  They made a real James Bond style arrival to the camp by small plane from Drysdale and then helicopter.  We discovered that they had a bit of nightmare journey.   Their trailer suspension had collapsed on the GRR and after transferring as much as possible to the car and shuttling every one to Ellenbrae, Paul had to spend a day by the road waiting for the truck to take the trailer back to Kununarra for repairs. An expensive exercise and a massive satellite phone bill. They where relieved to have made it at all, let alone on time!

KCC is idyllic. It is built on a little peninsula, with the permanent bush cabins nestled between the sand stone rocks and a central living area on the end of the peninsula. There are so many small details that make the place so special; the raked crushed shell paths, the toilets and showers that are open to the sky under a sandstone escarpment, the aqua blue freshwater plunge pool (that the kids managed to turn green!), the open fire place overlooking the bay with the easy chair suspended from the ceiling, the cabin doors cantilevered with wine bottles on string, the paraphernalia scattered around the place that included shells, drift wood, old signs, camping equipment and fishing gear.

The wilderness experience is very real. The tides are so massive that all the daytime activities are planned around them. It is incredible to watch the water rise and fall 7 meters every six hours. Even more amazing is what the tide reveals; 3.5m croc’s wallowing in the mud and 2.5m tawny sharks feeding off the jetty, schools of bait fish drifting by with all and sundry attacking them from the sea and the air! Not to mention the 3.5m olive Python, “Olly”, that revealed itself from its warm hiding spot under the stove.

Our days there were full. We relaxed on boat trips, fished for queen fish, salmon, and even barracuda (another notch on Alex’s belt ). We caught mud crabs, collected oysters the size of plates and lunched on deserted beaches with the fish we just caught. We spent one day wandering around art sites behind the camp, and lunched in a cave surrounded by 10,000 year old art. It all was a little surreal! The kids spent every afternoon in the pool while we sat around with the mandatory sundowners, and the sea eagles got fed scrapes.

We were spoilt by the generosity of our hosts, Tubbs and Jules. Jules has an award winning cafe in Port Headland and managed to make every meal special, even when it was freshly caught salmon on the beach or fish cakes in the cave! I have never eaten so much seafood without some sort of rebellion. She spoilt the kids rotten with their own tailored meals including fish and chips served al fresco by the pool, and home cooked muffins on demand… they have been advised that this is not an ongoing occurrence!

  

Tubb’s energy was remarkable. He managed the kids with aplomb, remained calm when the kids zig zagged the 190hp boat around the rocks, taught us fishing and oyster ‘craft’, showed and explained art, and regailed us with ‘yarns’ from dawn to late in the night.  It was practically the first time that we stayed up beyond 9pm since leaving Sydney!

  

Once again, it is going to be hard to pick up again and move on from this.