13 June 2024
After briefly visiting the Ardyaloon Indigenous Community and Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm at the tip of Cape Leveque, we drove one third of the way back down the Cape to our resting point for the next two nights — Banana Well Getaway. It was pitched as a very serene, peaceful place to stay, relax, and be close to nature.
On arrival, while talking to one of the managers, we were confronted by a stinking cloud of smoke engulfing everything and everyone. When we asked what this was all about, we were told, “Oh that’s our mosquito control measures. It’s our own special mix of diesel and citronella.”
Well, hmmm, not sure about the process here. There was no warning, and no subtlety — just a surprise smoke bombing of the whole place when they got around to it each afternoon. An interesting approach.
We had to wait for Shane to show us which ‘site’ we’d be staying on, as Shane was undertaking his Chief Smoke Bomber duties. When he’d finished, he came over and asked if we had paid for a powered site, to which we replied in the affirmative. “Oh, we’ve never had this many people staying who need power. We’ve only got solar here.”
My thoughts were, well, if you want to charge $70 per night for powered sites, then you really should be able to back it up. We were told we could just plug into the back of a corrugated iron cabin, and for water we could just disconnect their sprinkler and use that tap. OK then …
After Shane left, we went to connect and found that there was no 15-amp plug (as caravans and motorhomes are all designed for), just a 10-amp plug. Luckily, we had a converter to use. Once again, $70 being charged per night.
In terms of the sounds of nature, all we heard (quite a lot actually) were various pairs of the many wild donkeys roaming the area getting particularly amorous. It sounds pretty much like you’d imagine it would, and not a sound you can un-hear.
The next day was quite relaxing. We had been told they had locally baked banana bread and coffee, so mid-morning we fronted up to partake. “Hang on, I’ll just get our barista!”, the manager said as she wandered off towards a caravan. Then, our ‘barista’ arrived, looking like she may well have just been woken up from a morning nap. The coffee was made, and banana bread served. While the banana bread was very good, I think our ‘barista’ may need some more practice.
We did enjoy a walk around their Nature Walk. Nicole got a very nice brochure from the office showing how to navigate it, however we were not allowed to keep it as the owners of the Getaway are a bit on the tight side in terms of expenditure. Nevertheless, we did the walk and were escorted by one of the local pet dogs, Acey; a lovely girl. She may well have helped deter some of the wild dingos roaming the Cape too.
In terms of serenity, we had machinery driving around and being operated. And in the afternoon, two grey nomad couples opposite us had to make some urgent repairs. They had left in one of their utes to do a trip to the top of the Cape but returned very quickly. They had accidentally left one of the metal side-opening doors on the ute canopy open, which collected one of the first trees they drove past. So, for the rest of the afternoon there was much banging and hammering of metal sheeting to try to get this thing back in shape. So much for the serenity.
So, while it was a nice stay, it did have a little of a Fawlty Towers feel about it. As Manuel would say, “I know nothing.”
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