Kalumburu Resupply
After leaving the gang at Freshwater Bay, we made the most of a nice fresh 15knot north westerly breeze to sail across the top of Vanistaart Bay to a tight point between Middle Rock and Eclipse Island. Like many spots in the Kimberley here the water is compressed between two shallow areas and so we had a ripping tide – in our favour of course – and we were soon shot out the other side, although we got to watch ‘On the Double’ getting a bit of sideways action with the currents!
Our plan was to turn eastwards at Geranium Harbour before turning south and tucking into Anjo Cove for the night, which would see us having travelled about 28nm for the day. This passage had quite a few twists and turns and a lot of shallow reef areas to avoid, which we successfully managed.
We met a nice couple from Queensland in Anjo Cove, who had come across from McGowans Camp, which is one of two campgrounds located to the north of Kalumburu. They were on a small, converted oyster barge, which they towed behind their truck and were camping out for a few days. We gave them some Spanish mackerel to enjoy and settled to a quiet night in a nice tranquil anchorage.
The next morning was the typical Kimberley morning, hot and still and so we motored the 11 or so nm to Honeymoon Cove, from where we had organised a pickup to go into the Community for a resupply at the local store on the following day.
All Kalumburu’s food and other supplies come via barge from Darwin, arriving every two weeks (weather dependent) and so we had timed our run to arrive the day after the barge, hopefully assuring ourselves a good pick of fresh fruit and vegies. We had also spoken to the store to make sure they were ok with us coming in as we didn’t want to take stores from the local community, but they assured us that they had plenty of stock and campers were always coming and going throughout the dry season.
On arrival at Honeymoon Cove, we dropped anchor just off the beach and after settling we walked up to the campsite to introduce ourselves to Joy, who runs the place with her partner Lacho. We had a good old chat, ate a couple of mango ice creams and then headed back to the boats.
Early the next morning the cavalry arrived in the form of two police 4wd’s, driven by Brian, the local Officer in Charge and his offsider Michael. We loaded up with shopping bags, rubbish and jerry cans and headed off for the 40min dusty ride into town.
Upon arrival the girls hit the store, and we headed for the fuel depot. They only sell fuel on Wednesday and Saturday mornings so there was a bit of a queue, but we got out supplies (60 litres diesel / 60 litres unleaded) done and then headed back to the store.
Kalumburu store is well provisioned with everything you might need and fortunately the fruit and vegetables are subsidised, to encourage healthy eating so the prices for those were excellent. All the other stuff was expensive, but it is one of the most remote stores in Australia so you kind of expect that. By way of example a 200gram block of cheese = $12. If you want it, you buy it!
After a quick stopover at the local art centre, we headed back out to Honeymoon Cove, our shopping enjoying the air-conditioned comfort of the back of the police vehicle. Brian and Micheal were great, and we were grateful for their assistance in getting our resupply done.
The fun part of course is transferring everything from the car to the dinghy, from the dinghy onto the boat and then storing it in all the right places, which includes removing packaging etc.
We wanted to head off as soon as we could as the anchorage is quite exposed so it was all hands-on deck to quickly stow what we could and do a tidy up on our way to the Governor Islands.