Broome Cape Leveque Road
Ask a local about driving on the Broome Cape Leveque Rd and you get mixed responses.
“Yeah. It’s fine. I’ve driven it heaps. A few rough patches in sections. You’ll be fine.”
“It’s rough. Really bad corrugations the last 30 Ks. Deep ruts, deep sandy sections. The road has not been graded since the cyclone came through.”
“Gee, Ok! Thanks for that.” Twenty minutes later we took the turnoff towards Cape Leveque, knowing the first fourteen kilometres are sealed and the next eighty-six kilometres are anyone’s guess.
Once off the black, …drop the tyre pressure. It does make for a less bumpy ride and traction is improved. 28- 30 psi to begin with. Here’s a great little vid of Steve on the Cape Leveque Rd, dropping the tyre pressure. Check out the colour of the road. Pindan as far as the eye can see and al you can hear is the chhhhhhhhhhhh sound.
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The red dirt road opens up into a super hwy, only to then narrow down to a single back street of Richmond. This continues pretty much until you hit the bitumen 86 Ks later. On one occasion, we held our breath when we noticed not one but two road trains coming towards us in the other direction. Fortunately we were on the wider stretch of road as we took the bend the road narrowed to a single lane and we asking ourselves what would we have done had we met them on this stretch of the road.
It had rained the previous day and a section of the road was pretty churned up. We drove through the most frequently used tracks and at times we were driving on the right hand side, (we were the only vehicle in sight for miles). The last section 20 – 30 KS had deep and wide corrugations. They are the worst! My neck got a work out on this section. Again a slow and steady pace led us back onto the black top! Oh the serenity!
The 45 km track in, is sandy. Fortunately, within the mound of deep sand lay compacted tyre tracks, evidence of those who had journeyed before us. We glided along on these and hoped that we were not going to encounter another vehicle coming towards us. Arriving late afternoon, meant that all the campers who checked out earlier that day were well and truly back on the tar, greatly reducing the risk of encountering them.
But not for long! We turned down this narrow track to Gnylmarung Resort. Gnylmarung is actually a bush camp with resort views.
Here’s a snapshot of our drive into Gnylmarung.
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Seriously the beach here is breathtakingly beautiful. Sandy beach, turquoise water surrounded by coastal cliffs that enclose the bay. The tides up here are incredible. Check out the beach at high tide and six hours later. The difference is amazing.
I have to say that whilst we opted to tent it in, ’cause we just didn’t know what the road would be like and we had heard all these reports about how bad the road is and that it was not recommended for caravans we soon realised our van would have made it up here no problems. Next time no tent!
