Everyone awoke to the sounds of birds heralding the dawn after a night in the tents….Rose and Dave were much warmer than the night before after using their towels as blankets and putting on the fly of their tent.

Packing up went smoothly as everyone was getting in the groove …except for Gordie who again had a fight with his self inflating mattress…Branch decided at that moment to hop in for a mattress test much to Gordie’s frustration!

We left Drysdale Station and travelled further along the Kalumburu road towards McGowan’s Sunset Beach…the landscape was full of variety… and at some points looked quite lush. Brumbies grazed at the side of the road and there was water in some of the rivers – we crossed the Drysdale River and arrived at Kalumburu just in time to buy our visitor’s permits before the office closed for lunch.

Kalumburu Mission and the town looked well cared for and definitely worth a visit when the shop, museum and gallery are open.

Driving on to McGowan’s Sunset Beach the road changed to a sandy track then finally we saw the ocean – the Timor Sea…beautiful turquoise water, white sand and gorgeous coastline!!

We were greeted by Matt the caretaker who gave us the rundown including the croc instructions. Apparently there is a resident 5m male saltie here with 2 slightly smaller female crocodiles so there is no swimming on the main beach. There are 2 rockpool areas for a quick swim if you use a croc spotter as well as a shallow beach further up from the main beach again where you swim at your own risk and use a spotter.

Our campsite was fantastic – great view of the beach under a large mango tree. We set up the tents in a circle with relative ease although there was trouble in the Hackfath camp when Glen decided to put his groceries through the compactus (aka left rear wheel)…Branch felt it best to let that one ride!!

After setup and lunch we went for a walk to find the rockpools for a swim.

We walked for quite a while but did not find the pools so returned even hotter. The sun was over the water by this time and so the reflection meant you could not see into the water so we did not swim that afternoon.

The sunset over the beach was beautiful – spectacular colours of oranges and reds mixed with purples and blues.