Gnylmarung

Well we are still here at Gnylmarung, this is our 9th day here. We originally planned to go further up this part of the coast and stay at a few more places and have a look around Kooljaman right at the top of Cape Leveque, but after a bit more research and chatting to other people that have done day trips from here, we changed our minds. No dogs are allowed up at Kooljaman, and they charge $5 per person to walk, on the beach and if you want to drive around, or down on the beach that'll cost another $25.
Kooljaman at Cape Leveque is a wilderness camp which is owned by the two surrounding indigenous communities of Djarindjin and Ardyaloon (One Arm Point) making it 100% Indigenous owned. It has won many tourism awards and is therefore a magnet for tourists which also means it can get quite crowded. It is definitely on many people's bucket list, however we've been told by people doing day trips from here that it is not that special, and this place is as good, though without restaurants, and fancy ablutions.

On our 2nd day here Dave and I paddled the kayaks up the bay for a few kilometres. At one point Dave caught a fish big enough to get a couple of fillets off. We pulled up on a sandy beach and lit a small fire to heat up the left over curry that we had brought with us. It was a nice way to spend half a day. The fish was eaten later that night for dinner.

Dave has spent everyday doing some kayak fishing. He hasn't had a lot of success but one day pulled in a Bluebone of good size. There has been many bites and fights with various small to medium fish but they mostly seem to unhook themselves or break the line and take the rig. One day he had a fish on the line that had ducked under a ledge, it stayed holed up there for a while before it suddenly took off and the kayak flipped over tipping the intrepid fisherman and all his gear into the drink.
He returned to camp and asked me to paddle back there with him to try and retrieve his gear, which included two fishing rods, a knife, a pair of pliers, a towel and his prescription sun glasses. So off we went with the snorkelling gear. The wind had become quite strong by then so we beached the kayaks and walked across rocks and reef to get as close as possible to where he thought he might find his stuff. I stood on the rocks while Dave went in with flippers, goggles and snorkel, it was rough with the waves crashing onto the rocks. He eventually found everything, and we returned to the camp for a bit of mud slinging from a few of the people we've befriended. It was brilliant that he got all his gear back.Read more