Day 19: Learning from Leveque, 5th. Lieutentant’s Log

The team awoke at Leveque after having been told that meals were not available from the restaurant on arrival, as we were once again, misinformed, under informed and just late getting to a destination.

This was something we were accustomed to and were able to, instead, digest the information that we had a fifteen minute walk in the dark to make it to the takeaway provider that closed in 10 minutes .Frodo somehow managed to turn this into 30 mins. arriving sweaty and disorientated to the amusement of Wedge who had removed the maps from his grasp and then sped off. The Fisherman’s basket, sans basket, resplendent in non biodegradable bleached wrapping paper proved popular.


Thus began the dawn, and our joy at our location. Somehow we were perched on the point with stunning views in a direction that the darkness of the previous night had concealed. The great sun god Ra arose and beckoned…..


The Robinson Crusoe like dwellings had prompted unparalleled camaraderie from the members and fishing was the order of the day. A local inhabitant had hired us his boat and after a 2 kilometer trek through the dunes we arrived at the launch site. No rods, bait or tackle.

The unparalleled camaraderie was about to evolve into something unforeseen, as a bait gathering mission from the rocks was about to become a burly collection exercise, as the unsuspecting Wedge was stalked from behind by the long suffering, knife wielding, Frodo.

Just as well we had booked in to the restaurant as the bait was apparently as attractive to the fish as it was to us.


Gal, Teflon and Squeaky hung out at the café, wondering if a general all points alert should be activated, as the small vessel which had disappeared around the point , some hours ago had not be resighted.


Finally the weary, sunburnt hunters returned and rudely disturbed Teflon, who had finally reached the one interesting point in a long volume. Page 102. Marble counter tops and love fulfilled. Teflon’s retelling of the storey attracted the attention of the entire group.


Cape Leveque’s rocky forms reminded us of the gorgeous Gorges we had seen earlier, only in miniature.


Satisfied in having crossed a continent, three time zones, at least two deserts, traveled 6000 kms. from Bass Strait to the Indian Ocean and arrived in the tropics, we were somehow transported in mind and spirit to a Bruce Brown moment - an endless summer


Thus concludes the voyage of the 0-to-B and the log of it’s crew. We have endured the slings AND arrows of outrageous fortune and in the process are now nobler in mind.

Friendships forged in the cauldron of the interior will endure like the Tanami sands, like grit in your eyes and the indelible layer of red film.

We have overcome the difficulties of serious mechanical failures through innovation and resourcefulness and yet never managed to quite grasp that an early start would mean an early arrival.

Our journey has inspired us to seek solutions, answers and new sights, the physical having been previously traversed and mapped leaves the former as the realm of the new brave and inventive.

The journey then continues.