Today was a much-anticipated day as we had a special permit to gain access to Wanuwuy (Cape Arnhem), a place we have not stop hearing about since arriving in Nhulumbuy, special permits were done through DHIMURRU. We think it’s great they monitor the population with a limit of 10 vehicles per day out to these areas, it gives a real remote feel and to know the land is being preserved for future generations is fantastic. This is a long drive in and out that will take the whole day to experience, so we packed a lunch and lots of snacks and hit the road in the early morning.
The track in was a gravel road that leads down a steep hill, before you go to far you must stop and check the view. The decline is intense, we felt like we were going to slide down. Once down the track brings you to a tight windy track, you will see a tree with thongs hanging and you think its artwork, until you realise why they are there. At this stage you need to let your tyres down as per the sign, so you don’t destroy the tracks and the beaches. Once you hit the beach there is another long drive if you choose to go right up to the point as far as you can go, like we choose too.
The first thing that hits you is the amount of rubbish that has floated in from other countries, littering this pristine beach. This ranges from a million thongs, gas bottles, fishing nets and millions of lighters, we even found a syringe on the beach. It’s so sad to see, what other countries are doing to our beautiful land.
Everyone is welcomed to help pick rubbish up, as we did. It is so bad the locals all got together and helped the rangers do a huge clean up last year (2018) and managed to collect 2 and half tone of debris. Could you imagine what this is doing to the sea life in our waters, it was such an eye opener, even the kids felt concerned.
We zig zagged through the tracks that lead us on and off beaches, we came across these two islands that blow your mind away, they sit just off the shore and have greenery all over them with rocky out crop at the bottom they sore up to about 30-40m high and are just stunning. This area is a sacred aboriginal area and they do ask you to respect it.
At the tip of the cape, are some camp areas that had a few people camping, you are not permitted to bring any trailer into these areas. We got out and had a wonder around the reef, the kids where dying to try some oysters off the rocks so out came the screwdriver and hammer and we had a nice feed of fresh salty sandy oysters. Our son found some flat bits of wood and we all raced them down a channel of racing water, it was so much fun with everyone cheering their little rafts on.
We continued to walk up and found some cool blow holes that would throw your hat a good 10-15m in the air in the right conditions. We got talking to some people camped up there and they had no luck with fishing as it had been so windy.
This place is truly beautiful and if you go there you too should take a bag or two out there to help pick up some of the rubbish in the designated areas to help this beautiful beach stay beautiful. If this beach was in in a capital city and had this much rubbish washing up on the shores, it would get a lot more attention and would probably be on every front-page newspaper across the country. Apart from the rubbish this place would have to be heaven on earth, real god’s country as the locals like to call it.
Such a stunning place so sad about the rubbish washing up on the beautiful beach.