The Hemo's Big Adventure: Head north to Cape Leveque?????

Here is the Dilemma After being stuck on the Gibb for more than we had planned we were not to keen on doing the same and be stranded care of the dirt road that leads up to Cape Leveque. After all the recommendations from locals & one of my now retired Telstra workmates "Neville the nudist" I just had to go & check it out for my self.

We had a HUGE night at the Roey the night before & got home at 3am. We had to pack up camp & be on the road by 8am to make the 9am tour of the Willey creek pearl farm. I stopped drinking early in the night so that wasn't a problem but the 4hrs sleep didn't help at all!

Here we have a resident crab who helps clean parasites from inside the oyster shell

The tour at Willy Creek was worth the early morning wake up. Rachelle ran us through the cultured pearl industry from start to finish. All of the staff from the Pearl lugger tour the day before & todays tour at Willy creek were hilarious. The gave a very informative & entertaining run down of the industry.

Not quite a cruise on a pearl lugger out in the ocean but still good value

The buoys that suspend the nets that hold the pearl shells. We saw a decent size croc just near the buoy that we were pulling up. hhmm that swim the day before at cable beach... hhhmmmm

At the end of the tour Troy chose to do the optional chopper ride around Willy creek. It was Troys first time in a chopper and he loved it

After a 3 hr drive up the track we arrived at Cape Leveque. The visitors centre was pretty flash. Hopefully an indication of how special this place is.

Can it get any better than this! I can spit onto the beach.. look mum!

There was a small swell running & the point almost looked surfable on high tide

Just for a contrast this photo was taken a few days later showing the exposed rocks. Maybe not such a good spot...

aahhh Beer o'clock... The shelters have running water with a shower in one corner and a table & bench seats. Fireplace with swing away BBQ hot plates. Firewood supplied.
Basic but awesome

The colours would change minute to minute.

Dinner was a roast in the camp oven. Absolutely magic..

When I had the facility's available I would take a night time shower just before bed. Tonight I had some guests join me on the shower base. The place was littered with crabs of different sizes . Some small & some a little to big for my liking. Good news for me they didn't like my torch or the fresh water splashing down on them. I didn't have the heart to tell the Irish lady's camped in the shack next to us. They had another night to go and with only swags on the ground I didn't figure it would make the nights sleep very pleasant knowing what they were sharing the ground with.What they didn't know wouldn't hurt them..

Sunrise. Troy up at 5am to catch this

Low tide at the point. No good for snorkeling. Time to go for a fish..

While I was setting up my gear the local ranger drove past & told us something big & dead was floating in the water with some large predators having a bite. He suspected it was a dolphin or a piece of whale. He advised we should go for a flick with a lure down that end of the beach as we could hook something worth while . We rigged up as quick as we could & made a bolt down the beach. It turned out it was a turtle that had been attacked by sharks. Not much left by the time we got to it.

A couple had been snorkling & saw the turtle flapping about only a few minutes earlier. At that point it was still looking intact .

I couldn't help myself & still threw about the lure for a few minutes and nothing was interested. We could only see sharks swimming about a few meters off shore and nothing worth while.

We decided to go for a walk around the point on the low tide and go for a fish later on the incoming tide

Some of the views from the point

what the? Man made or natural?? looks good

We went for a fish that arvo but all we would hook apart from Garfish for live bait was sharks. Troy was on fire and hooked a 6ft hammer head that menaced the shore line. It ended up almost beaching itself. At this point we were shocked at how close it came into the beach.. Not even little pinkie deep is safe.

The hammer head threw the hooks after a 5 minute fight. We then baited the hook and casted it out for another go. This time Troy hooked a bigger one that just kept on running. With only a few feet of line left on the reel it bit off thankfully. I didn't feel like winding 300mtrs of new line back on the reel.

Next day we went for our daily swim & snorkle. No sharks or turtles to report.

This wasn't my cast but I did catch it. Troy had just got this cast snagged a few minutes earlier & was going to swim out to the reef & unhook it. Nature called & he decided to do it later after he took care of business. After 5 minutes his rod went mental & I noticed something jumping out of the water from the corner of my eye. A Long Tom had taken his bait & set free his line from the snag. This one jumped with more energy than any of the other Long Toms we had hooked in the past.

What a beast!. 70cm of muscle... with a mean set of teeth

Troy got stuck into the Queenie's yet again.

This Sea Eagle got excited every time we dragged in a fish.

I filleted the fish & hung the carcases on this stick. After a few minutes the Eagle got up enough courage to come & take it for lunch.

Sequence #2

Some of the upmarket shacks have fridges and ceiling fans. No generators out here just one hell of a solar farm.

Word got around that we would put out.........
food...
Another smaller eagle comes by for a feed

We would fish on the beach to the other side of this reef

We had only intended on staying 2 nights but loved the place so much we had to stay for a 3rd. Next morning more snorkling,swimming, fishing , all the usual.

Our other neighbours Peter & Jo would take their inflatable canoe out a few hundred meters off shore. They would then open up an umbrella to use as a sale. Clever or what!