Not that I would actually call what I did “camping” and not that those of you who do this frequently would either, but Easter Sunday I went on a camping trip.
Dutchie (I’ll give you one guess where he’s from), Team Canada (two guesses here but only because there are two of them), and I (if you have to know, they call me ‘Jersey’) all hopped in a massive SUV and drove up to Cape Leveque. I think this was Dutchie’s brainchild of an idea and he was quite prepared. He managed to secure the truck, tent, air mattress, eksy (read cooler) and food for the trip- oh and he got us a great price on the truck without having to “take one for the team”. LUCKY! Anyway, Dutchie also managed to secure his Alpha Dog status by somehow ensuring that there were only girls on this little excursion, as it happens Team Canada is all female. VERY LUCKY!
Cape Leveque is about a two and a half hour drive from Broome, but if there is a Dutchman behind the wheel you can make it in two hours, however; if there is a girl from the States in the co-pilot seat who doesn’t pay attention to road signs then you are going to pass the 2 signs on the side of the road and you will end up at the point and part of Team Canada will have to take over, clock the kilos back and find the turn off… thanks Gita! After our “I don’t want to have to roll this truck back over” experience and of course, passing the turn off, we made it in just enough time to set-up camp and go watch the sunset.
Cape Leveque has a spectacular beach just for viewing the sunset. It is white sand, red rock backdrop and nothing but blue sea straight to the horizon. Oh, and rocks, there are rocks on this beach and in this part of the ocean- remember that for later. So, here we are, three girls and one dude sitting on the beach, enjoying delightful beverages (read alcoholic) and digging through our esky for our food. Now, had we thought things through better back at the bottle shop, we would have remembered to take the bag of food out of the eksy before dumping the bag of ice in. Unfortunately, those thoughts never made it though anyone’s consciousness, so we are down to one sandwich, one wrap, and two containers of mystery, but delicious mystery. Sunset is wonderful, dinner is wonderful, delightful beverages are wonderful… it’s time to swim. With the sun set there is only the light from the stars (which by the way, are incredible when there are no city lights to obscure them) to guide us into the great, black, rock filled ocean. I don’t know if you can, but try to image a pool with boulders, big sharp ones littering its bottom. Now imagine that pool with waves. It’s painful, very painful. Imagine with me one more time that you took a cheese grater to the bottom of your feet, that’s what they look like after you go swimming here, I don’t recommend it. But we laugh and continue to swim and laugh even more when someone loses his swim trunks (I won’t mention names but I’m sure you can figure it out by the pronoun choice) and eventually decide it’s a good idea stop being beaten by the ocean and make our way back to camp. In the mean time, Dutchie is wearing my “Panthers Swimming” shorts (good thing they were originally guy’s sweats) and the esky becomes a casualty (not giving details there, sorry).
We make our way back to camp to get the air mattress sorted out (it’s only about 10pm by now) and can’t do it, mind you there is no air pump So, we lay it down on the ground in the tent because “it’ll give us some padding” and get situated for sleep. Team Canada and I would have been cozy in that tent but when you add in a 6ft 4in guy it gets really cozy. And we sleep, not well, but we sleep. It is hot and sticky, and every time you move you end up touching someone. It is gross and uncomfortable. The air mattress, as you could imagine, is no padding at all and only a tease to the comfort that we could have had. Team Canada was wise enough to bring pillows (even though I mocked them for it before we left) and as I was on the end did not get to share in the comforts of a pillow.
Sunrise rolls around, the tent turns into even more of a hot box than it already was. As we all manage our way to our feet we take the time to read the map provided by the campsite people. “Sunset Beach- not recommended for swimming”. UNLUCKY! That would have been great to know last night before the bottoms of our feet looked like something unholy happened to them. But, there are swimming beaches, so we pack up and make our way there.
With no food left and no way to get more we started what felt like a never-ending trek for the “swimming beach”. Slowly the four of us made our way to more suitable swimming areas and by the time we decided to stop the collective appreciation for a rock-free ocean was overwhelming.
Ah, the calm waters of the Indian Ocean. Perfection. We spend our afternoon sunning and swimming. With three hours left to get the rental back we get into the truck. With Dutchie back behind the wheel and the knowledge of slowing down around turns on a dirt road we make it back to Broome in one piece, the esky on the other hand never had a chance!
Dutchie (I’ll give you one guess where he’s from), Team Canada (two guesses here but only because there are two of them), and I (if you have to know, they call me ‘Jersey’) all hopped in a massive SUV and drove up to Cape Leveque. I think this was Dutchie’s brainchild of an idea and he was quite prepared. He managed to secure the truck, tent, air mattress, eksy (read cooler) and food for the trip- oh and he got us a great price on the truck without having to “take one for the team”. LUCKY! Anyway, Dutchie also managed to secure his Alpha Dog status by somehow ensuring that there were only girls on this little excursion, as it happens Team Canada is all female. VERY LUCKY!
Cape Leveque is about a two and a half hour drive from Broome, but if there is a Dutchman behind the wheel you can make it in two hours, however; if there is a girl from the States in the co-pilot seat who doesn’t pay attention to road signs then you are going to pass the 2 signs on the side of the road and you will end up at the point and part of Team Canada will have to take over, clock the kilos back and find the turn off… thanks Gita! After our “I don’t want to have to roll this truck back over” experience and of course, passing the turn off, we made it in just enough time to set-up camp and go watch the sunset.
Cape Leveque has a spectacular beach just for viewing the sunset. It is white sand, red rock backdrop and nothing but blue sea straight to the horizon. Oh, and rocks, there are rocks on this beach and in this part of the ocean- remember that for later. So, here we are, three girls and one dude sitting on the beach, enjoying delightful beverages (read alcoholic) and digging through our esky for our food. Now, had we thought things through better back at the bottle shop, we would have remembered to take the bag of food out of the eksy before dumping the bag of ice in. Unfortunately, those thoughts never made it though anyone’s consciousness, so we are down to one sandwich, one wrap, and two containers of mystery, but delicious mystery. Sunset is wonderful, dinner is wonderful, delightful beverages are wonderful… it’s time to swim. With the sun set there is only the light from the stars (which by the way, are incredible when there are no city lights to obscure them) to guide us into the great, black, rock filled ocean. I don’t know if you can, but try to image a pool with boulders, big sharp ones littering its bottom. Now imagine that pool with waves. It’s painful, very painful. Imagine with me one more time that you took a cheese grater to the bottom of your feet, that’s what they look like after you go swimming here, I don’t recommend it. But we laugh and continue to swim and laugh even more when someone loses his swim trunks (I won’t mention names but I’m sure you can figure it out by the pronoun choice) and eventually decide it’s a good idea stop being beaten by the ocean and make our way back to camp. In the mean time, Dutchie is wearing my “Panthers Swimming” shorts (good thing they were originally guy’s sweats) and the esky becomes a casualty (not giving details there, sorry).
We make our way back to camp to get the air mattress sorted out (it’s only about 10pm by now) and can’t do it, mind you there is no air pump So, we lay it down on the ground in the tent because “it’ll give us some padding” and get situated for sleep. Team Canada and I would have been cozy in that tent but when you add in a 6ft 4in guy it gets really cozy. And we sleep, not well, but we sleep. It is hot and sticky, and every time you move you end up touching someone. It is gross and uncomfortable. The air mattress, as you could imagine, is no padding at all and only a tease to the comfort that we could have had. Team Canada was wise enough to bring pillows (even though I mocked them for it before we left) and as I was on the end did not get to share in the comforts of a pillow.
Sunrise rolls around, the tent turns into even more of a hot box than it already was. As we all manage our way to our feet we take the time to read the map provided by the campsite people. “Sunset Beach- not recommended for swimming”. UNLUCKY! That would have been great to know last night before the bottoms of our feet looked like something unholy happened to them. But, there are swimming beaches, so we pack up and make our way there.
With no food left and no way to get more we started what felt like a never-ending trek for the “swimming beach”. Slowly the four of us made our way to more suitable swimming areas and by the time we decided to stop the collective appreciation for a rock-free ocean was overwhelming.
Ah, the calm waters of the Indian Ocean. Perfection. We spend our afternoon sunning and swimming. With three hours left to get the rental back we get into the truck. With Dutchie back behind the wheel and the knowledge of slowing down around turns on a dirt road we make it back to Broome in one piece, the esky on the other hand never had a chance!
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