Finally, the day has come to tackle our long planned adventure! We’re off to Wyndham in Western Australia, to launch our boat Malu to cruise through the Cambridge Gulf and around Cape Dussejour all the way to the Berkley River. Well, that’s the plan, let’s see what happens.
The first day we made it to Victoria River Roadhouse which has a big caravan park. The site fees are good, the food is overpriced and pretty low standard. The location is fantastic, as you have a boat ramp to get on the Victoria River 5min drive from there and lots of 4WD bushtracks in the vicinity.
We instantly felt free and back alive leaving Darwin that far behind and stayed for two nights, just to sort all our gear a bit better and enjoy being on the road again.
The cliffs on the way to the boat ramp 
the track to the old river crossing was a bit too boggy 
some work on straps for the boat battery 
more rain 
beautyful flowers of the wild pea 
a stroll across victoria river 
hard to see, but just past them rocks is the boat ramp 
a freshie 
a shy feasant 
the gentleman clears the way for me
After we got a bit sorted we left Victoria River and drove to Kununurra, where we checked into our usual Caravan Park, Hidden Valley, which is a bit out of town but borders onto Mirima National Park. You can literally walk from the caravan park into the national park. We did that for sunset, we climbed up to the platform where you overlook the town standing on the high cliffs of Mirima. I really love this spot.
Again we spent two nights there. This time it was more about doing all the shopping for fuel, groceries and camping equipment we forgot in our caravan.
In the morning we climbed Kelly’s Knob Lookout before we tackled the shopping.
Then we were off to Wyndham. We got to the caravan park where we were to store our Ute safely. If you stay at Wyndham Caravan Park you can store your car and trailer for free, if you don’t you pay a little fee. They also dropped us off at the boat ramp after dropping the car off. Amazing service!!
And off we went on our adventure to explore the Cambridge Gulf and Berkley River.
Dave is untying the boat, ready to go 
Leaving Wyndham boat ramp behind 
all excited, we finally doing it! 
Teddy joined us on this trip 
despite the brown water 
the scenery is amazing 
closer to the mouth of the gulf the water gets rough 
there is a barge on the same trip but it took a different route 
Lacrosse Island 
The water gets wild and we decide 
we should stay in the creek for today 
Never seen a tideline like that. Some days there are trees floating amongst the smaller pieces 
Unfortunately the weather was against us. We made it all the way to Helby River, which is the last creek before you go around Cape Dussejour opposite Lacrosse Island.
In the channel between the cape and the island the strong winds caused whitewater, it was like a washing machine and not safe to go around.
We stayed in Helby River Creek for the night in hope the weather would allow us to go around the cape in the morning.
In the Helby River 
exploring the river 
encountering beautiful jelly fish which become scary at sunset 
a goblin shark? 
No good fishing today, even a double header of baby sharks. Of course we let them live 
we head out of the river to see if the conditions are any better 
its still rough 
we definitely stay in the river tonight 
sunsets never disappoint
After the failed attempt to get around Cape Dussejour, we spent the night in the creek. We had an out worldly experience seeing the jelly fish at sunset. At nightfall they look spikey and seem to mimick a crocodiles back!!
We did have our satellite phone with us, and my dad agreed on sending us the weather forecast. Something didn’t work with the texts, so we called him in the evening for the next forecast which didn’t look any better.
A casual spotlight sweep showed us a crocodile sitting right behind our boat. With the tides dropping and us getting shallower we didn’t feel like spending the night with our stalker and moved on. Now with our new spotlight, not as scary and blind as we were on South Alligator.
At crack of dawn we went to have a look at the passage between the cape and Lacrosse Island. Still no good, so we spent another day on hold in the creek. We explored the whole river, stopped for a fish here and there and got rewarded with a double header of Fingermark, our target fish at the moment. Unfortunately they were a bit small and we had to let them go.
In the evening we called dad again and the forecast was as bad. At least there was a window to head back towards Wyndham in the early morning.
In the morning we decided to explore the Cambridge Gulf as the weather forecast didn’t seem to allow us to get around the cape anytime soon. We were sort of tied to the East side of the Gulf because of the wind direction.
We left the Helby Creek at crack of dawn. On the way out we met some other boats caught out by the weather. Due to Anzac Day the next day, which is a public holiday in Australia, no one was in a rush. We were keen to explore more than Helby and bolted.
We made it through the choppy waters to a sheltered sidearm, where we discovered a yacht. She seemed to be abandoned, and we spent some time wondering what the reason for her being anchored up in that spot could be. While the stories got wilder and scarier, we tried to catch a fish, had something to eat and then decided to explore a creek nearby.
We found a nice creek, the Overlander Waterhole, for the night, we parked next to Sharp Peak for wind shelter, unfortunately it also took away the view of the sunset and we had to fly the drone to see it.
Exploring the Overlander Waterhole 
always funny when we, according to the sounder, drive on main land, haha 
definitely no land, and still deep enough to have a look 
Sharp Peak, our camp for the night 
and a yummy pre-cooked dinner, that’s definitely the easiest on the boat 
our shade that usually extends the shade above us, today it helped staying out of the sun in the late arvo 
the riversystem is much bigger than we expected 
we look so tiny in the scheme of things 
The next day we headed further south towards Wyndham. Near Adolphus Island we considered doing the lower Ord. Fuel wise that was not really an option, so we decided to head back to Kununurra and do the Ord River instead.
Doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it is very sad to not accomplish what we headed out for. We will be back to conquer the Berkley, for sure!
When we got back we got picked up by the caravan park to get the Ute and trailer. It really is exceptionally great service they provide. We decided to stay a night, just so we could get sorted again.
Being in an extremely remote town on a Sunday didn’t help our preparations. All the shops, including the fuel station were closed. We did what we could to get sorted for our next trip – exploring the Ord River from Kununurra.
More about that trip and others we did along the way will follow.
Explored in April 2026, written in June 2026