Vikings in Australia - Víkingar í Ástralíu

4^th September

After breakfast, we went to the mission office to pay an extra night, plus pick up the GPS co-ordinates for some of the rock art. We also bought some books with information on the mission and also a book about the aborigines of the Kimberleys, written by a European, who came and spent many years among them in the early 1900’s. Then we took a few photos around the Mission. Sibba was fascinated by the old bakery and kitchen, so I had to take several photos of that place.

Then we went back to camp to enter some of the co-ordinates into the Memory map program on the tablet so we could drive to them. After that we headed out to Pago in Mission Cove, which is about 26km further than Kalumburu. This is where the original mission was located back in 1908, when it was established. The last 9km of the track are a bit rough, sandy and eroded, but we got there late morning. We walked around the ruins and also went to the Mission Cove to see the ocean, plus the boab tree where they had their first mass after landing there. It was hard to find a break in the mangroves to see the ocean, but we did manage!

During the walk we saw a large group of Brolgas. They quickly took flight, but because they are a very large bird, it was a like a bunch of 747s taking off! We also came across a couple of Australian Pied Oystercatchers that took flight and circled us. Just to show off I’m sure!

The location of the original mission is alongside the Pago creek, so they would have running water, but during the dry season they had to dig out a couple of wells to keep up the flow. It was one reason that led to them to relocating the whole mission to Kalumburu in the late 30s. This is almost as far north as one can get in WA. There is a private track, which is about 20k into the next bay that takes you further north, but getting permission is pretty hard.

We headed back from Pago and decided to visit McGowans Island and have lunch there. Apart from the mission campgrounds in Kalumburu, the other two are McGowans and Honeymoon beach. We had heard mixed stories about how friendly these other camping place owners were, so with some trepidation we drove to McGowans Island and asked if we could have our lunch at the beach there and look around. The guy at the office told us that would be no problem, so we had our lunch on the beach with a great view across the bay and up/down the beach. A very nice place to camp, with the sea breeze coming in to keep you cool.

We had originally planned to go the Honeymoon beach, but other travellers, both in Drysdale and here in Kalumburu told us that they had gone there to look around. Once they indicated that they were not planning to camp, they were asked to leave and were not allowed to go down to the beach and/or look around. So we didn’t feel like driving 14km return for that!

On the way back to Kalumburu we stopped at some of the rock art sites and looked at more rock art. They were easier to find, with the GPS co-ordinates. After that we headed to the art centre in Kalumburu to look at some of the paintings they offer for sale. Although we liked a few, especially one we didn’t buy any. The one we liked hadn’t been signed and lacked the story behind it, so we left empty handed! We stopped by the Mission shop and bought some OJ in small handy packs and then headed back to camp.

While in camp another aboriginal came around to sell us a painting. This time a young woman. She had a small framed canvas picture and after some discussions we decided to buy it. That made her happy, so in the end we did get another piece of the local art.