Reverse Camber Reddish Brown Road

by Brian Richards
(Queensland)

The Author of the site has said how the road to Cape Leveque used to be one of the worst about, and it's true you could probably find worse but it still has one very interesting feature that is somewhat memorable - the reverse camber and in a huge way!

For those unable to appreciate that if you ever drive it in its current state you'll find that you'll kind of feel as if you're in a river bed in some sections with either side of the road sloping upwards to surrounding scrub, an interesting feeling while sitting in the back of a mail van (Landcruiser Troopie we call them in some parts of Oz.) and a little disconcerting when approaching an oncoming vehicle where one or both partially get onto slope and so are leaning towards one another - fortunately not too much vehicular traffic about.

I had flown in doing a scenic route from Broome up over King George Sound and then some remarkable country and on to what is known as Horizontal Falls (tide not doing its thing for us) which is part of the Buccaneer Archipelago, a wonderful panoramic sight in any direction from a light aircraft and a great way to get to Cape Leveque.

Staying in a Safari tent was quite comfortable as they are set on a timber deck and you have a good mattress/pillow and only really need a sleeping sheet.
An outdoor kitchen with refrigerators for use was nearby and toilets/showers just a little further and a beach front restaurant when not self catering and range of food and pricing was quite reasonable.

Some great shorter and longer walks about and terrific sunsets with great photographic opportunities of rock faces down on the beach, in all a most relaxing few days to be had.

The rock is not all of such a solid granite type of rock and thus a lot of erosion that has allowed some interesting shapes to be developed and in hindsight is also probably part of the reason for that reverse camber for with a still graded road and breaking of the crust if you like, traffic may be grinding the surface into finer particles that get removed by re-grading, hence the road (riverbed) getting as deep as it has.

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