Pormpuraaw



Pormpuraaw 'town centre'



We turned off the Penninsula Development Road at Musgrave Roadhouse and travelled 216km west to the remote coastal Aboriginal Community of Pormpuraaw. As we drove into the community the first thing we saw was the rubbish tip which featured a massive mound of VB and Carlton beer cans, wondering why they were there as Pormpuraaw is a dry community, but alas found out later during our stay that they do have a pub, so maybe not so dry afterall??? First stop was the 'town centre' to purchase our permit. There was only one sign with directions in this community and that was 'camping permits' so lucky for this we could tell were the 'town centre' was. Imagine parking and surrounded by metal sheds with glass doors and no advertising whatsoever. We hoped out of the car watching aboriginals going into buildings and by looking at what they carried out we could figure out which building was the supermarket, another a takeaway shop, and of course there was centrelink (we saw a centrelink employee come out of that door) and the council I assume was the building with the flags out the front?? We spotted a ranger and asked him where the camping permit office was, but we had to wait for them to arrive at the office, so we stood around and spoke to the friendly aboriginals while we waited.  The head ranger was non-aboriginal and the girls enjoyed looking at all the photos on the office wall and asking a million questions, he was so good at answering their questions and we all learnt a lot about the area, and the aboriginals.



Chapman River mouth



We set up camp on the Chapman River mouth, our first impressions were not so good but as time went on it turned out to be a fantastic spot. Aboriginals are well known for poor hygiene and we got to see this first hand with the amenities block not fit for our standards hence we chose not to use them. I would love to know how they spend the $50 per night camping permit you need to purchase to stay there.



Emma's shell collection



We really enjoyed our few days camping there. We used the boat in the Chapman River and got to see some massive crocodiles, but unfortunately no luck with the fishing (apparently full moon, little tides and cooler weather had a lot to do with this). The sunsets were just magnificent and with the full moon rising over the river as the sun set over the ocean the colours were spectacular, in the sunset photo Kate was drawing the sunset and Emma was collecting shells. There were millions of shells on the beach which the girls enjoyed collecting and playing with.

Sunset

We drove to the Mungkan River mouth just a few km's north for a look, the sand was so white and soft, we enjoyed playing in the sand and collecting shells while Darrin did some fishing.







 


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Mungkan River mouth

 

Just one of the smaller crocs



Our camp at Chapman river mouth