Now, have I mentioned how much I hate generators????

I thought I would spend this post describing the wonders of the Dampier Peninsula and all it has to offer – the pristine white beaches, the clear water.  Well, to a certain extent, probably the most part, that’s so true.  But I just have to get a moan off my chest, and then I can get to all the wonderful stuff.

To set the scene…….. we left Broome on the morning of my birthday.  We hit the road early and fuelled up at the servo and filled the water tanks, and before we left, we spent some time wandering round the weekly market at the Courthouse Gardens.  Very arty-crafty, but fun. 

The journey to Middle Lagoon on the Dampier Peninsula was on a rough, unsealed, corrugated road that was the worst we have travelled on so far.  You spend the time trying to move from side to side on the road, trying to find a place that the corrugations weren’t too bad, but without success, because there just wasn’t anywhere where the corrugations weren’t too bad!!!

Corrugations on the Cape Leveque Road

We travelled the 2 ½ hours to Middle Lagoon without incident and arrived at the small campsite run by a local Aboriginal family.  It is a wonderful experience to be able to share their backyard and camp on the exceptional coastline that makes up this area.  When we arrived we were speaking to Ernie, one of the family, and we mentioned that someone who we’d been speaking to in Broome suggested we ask for a campsite on the ridge.  Although he had ear-marked us for another site, he said we could go and check out the available a space on the ridge, and let him know what we thought.  His parting words were – “I know what you’ll choose”.  And he was right.  Although the camping on the ridge had wonderful views out over the bay, you were very exposed to the elements – no shade from the hot sun, and wind right off the ocean.  We went with what Ernie thought, and found out perfect campsite under a tree, just a bit off the ridge, sheltered and still with wonderful views (albeit with a few enormous caravans in the way).

Our campsite at Middle Lagoon

Now comes to my moan.

What is it with grey nomads in caravans with enormous power requirements that necessitate them having to immediately hook up generators as soon as waking, until well past most of us have gone to sleep?

Doug says I’m dwelling…… and perhaps I am, but humour me.  Imagine the scene – perfect day spent enjoying the pristine environment, walking on beaches, swimming in the clear water – you know the thing.  After a swim, we’d have a lovely cool shower, and all clean and refreshed, we’d sit down with a wine to enjoy the sun going down over the ocean.  At this point, “Graham” the Grey Nomad feels the need to start his generator, to charge the batteries in his enormous “off-road” caravan.  Now rather than disturb his perfect sunset, he takes his generator about 50 metres of so behind his caravan (50 metres towards us!!!) and starts it up.  Peace is shattered!!!!  He didn’t seem to understand what I was going on about as I loudly protested about how it was so good of him to share his “toy” with the rest of us.   As I said over and over again (as Doug pointed out), we spent the time and money setting ourselves up to be able to power what we need by solar or when we’re driving – if we can’t power it, we don’t have it!  Why you need a TV, satellite dish, microwave, electric kettle etc out here I don’t know!

Ok – on to the more important details of what a wonderful place the Dampier Peninsula is.

We spent two wonderful days at Middle Lagoon.  There’s nothing there.  Just the coastline.  We walked far down to the creek one afternoon, and when it got too hot on the return walk, we’d just have a swim in the crocodile-safe bay.  I had another experience swimming with the fishes – as we took a break and headed for the water while walking back.  As we waded through the low-tide water Doug spotted a dolphin fin about 10 metres from where we were swimming, and as I moved further into the water, what I thought was a rock, about 2 metres from me began to swim away.  I’m still not sure what it was, as I was only able to see the shadow, but my guess is a ray – and the large school of small fish that were disturbed by it thought so too.  A bit unnerving to say the least as they all swam towards me to get away from it.

Sunrise walk

 

Arty-farty shot

Our time at Middle Lagoon came to an end, and we thought it couldn’t get any better.  But we were to discover that there is so many lovely little places on the Dampier Peninsula that you could spend a couple of weeks just meandering up and exploring.  One of these places was Whalesong.  Not far from Middle Lagoon, just a bit further round Pender Bay, we discovered a tiny community where they offer very limited camping, and the best little café you would never expect to find.  This place is 35km off the Cape Leveque Road (which itself is not busy) so I’m not sure how much passing trade they get, but they grow all their own vegetables, and the food they offer is all homemade and wonderful, as well as the best organic coffee served on a deck overlooking the bay.  It was a delight to spend a morning there.

From there we travelled further up the Cape Leveque Road until we reached Kooljaman.  Above everything else, Cape Leveque is famous for its beaches, and justifiably so.  Kilometres and kilometres of powdery white sand, interspersed with rocky sections and dotted with treasures the tide left behind.  We watched the sun rise out of the ocean from our bed, and on the other side of the tip, we watched it melt back into the ocean at the end of the day.

We rented a beach shelter, camped right on the beach, with a fire pit and a fresh-water shower.  What more did we need?  We spent three glorious days in this wonderful place.

Our beach shelter at Kooljaman

 

Sunrise at low tide on our beach

 

Ahhhh

Time was spent swimming, walking, fishing and exploring the rest of the tip of the Cape.  One afternoon I was determined that the fishing rod I had specifically bought for the trip (thanks again David Wood) was not going to go to waste, so I jumped on a fishing charter boat leaving from the next beach.  What great fun!!!  I spent the afternoon learning all sorts of tricks and tips from an old master, and had the buzz of catching three fish!!!  Honestly… they were “this big”!!! (Holds hands far apart).  But really, they were too small to land, so had to be released.  Fortunately, one successful man on the boat took pity on me, and rather than us have another night of spaghetti bolognaise, he donated a nice Golden Trevally to me to take home for dinner.  Yum!! (sorry, no photos, I was busy at the business end of the rod!!!)

 

We spent a day out and about on the Peninsula, travelling first to the Aboriginal community of Lombadina, where Trapist Monks set up a mission in 1934 and a thriving community now is a model for other indigenous groups in the area.  They have a bakery there and we were able to buy a loaf of their wonderful bread before setting off for Ardyaloon, another lovely little Aboriginal village.  They have established their own hatchery there for trochus shells and other marine life and we were able to look around and learn about how these proud salt-water people live at one with the land and sea.  I got some really good tips for cooking the next fish I catch!!!

The church at Lombadina

 

Architectural wonder made of mangrove wood and paperbark

 

A fabulous mangrove tree at Lombadina

We called into the Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm on the way back, and learned about the Brown family and how they have been farming in the area since the 40’s.  From the days of wooden pearl luggers and huge, heavy diving gear, to the slick operation they now have, where they harvest 20,000 farmed pearls a year.  In the gallery I was drawn to one or two of their beautiful creations, but with price tags of over $20,000, I’m afraid they had to be left for the next time.  Their farm also includes a wicked restaurant, where we enjoyed a great lunch, before rolling back to the beach shelter for an afternoon nap.

The beautiful but croc infested Cygnet Bay

Our time at our beach shelter all too soon came to an end, and we left Kooljaman yesterday morning.  We called in to another lovely Aboriginal community, Beagle Bay, on the way down south again.  Here they have the most beautiful church, built by the local Aboriginals and the Catholic brothers at the time.  The entire interior is decorated in mother of pearl, from locally harvested shells.  The work and the time must have been amazing.  The church is not a museum piece, but still a lively and essential part of this vibrant community.  We really enjoyed being able to look around it.

Beagle Bay church

 

The pearl encrusted alter

 

 

After leaving Beagle Bay, we took a side track, heading down a “short cut” which would bring us out on the highway on the way to Derby.  Although this short cut probably saved us about 90km, it didn’t save us much time.  The road at the start was narrow and overgrown, and in a lot of parts, the track was deep, soft sand.  But it was so much fun, and so great to avoid the corrugated main road back down to the highway.  We had a ball.

Our short cut track

 

The sign posting was hard to miss!!

We arrived in Derby and have set ourselves up at the caravan park in town and have spent today shopping, washing, catching up on chores and seeing the odd sight.  The restrictions on the sale of alcohol in the region meant that we had to make several trips to the bottle shop to stock up for the next part of our journey – I’m sure the guy behind the counter thought we must have a problem!!

The prison boab tree at Derby - thought to be about 1200 years old

Tomorrow we head out to start our journey across the Gibb River Road.  Although this road is only about 650km, we plan to spend about 4 weeks travelling along it (and its various side tracks).  There’s so much to see and we’re really looking forward to it.

Mobile reception will be patchy over the next few weeks so my next entry might not be for a while.  But I’ll catch you all up eventually.